Larry and other interested parties, A few technical comments. Edward Maglott (sp?) (a man with an excellent memory added to a strong set of organizational skills) just posted from the archives some of my observations on the issue of windage and oil levels on the I-4 engines I have examined. There are several other unfortunately lengthy dissertations on my part in the archives about the importance of windage trays and static oil levels. Not to get into the current woefully unnecessary pissing contest, but I would again suggest that the key to these pragmatic oil level and heating observations is the windage based aeration of oil and effects derived therefrom. Many of my serious VW and Porsche air cooled racing friends (several are and were factory personnel) fit both their personal and competition engines with windage trays. These were available for all the VW air-cooled engines including the Type 4 and were fitted on most wet sump Porsche engines. Oil pan baffling together with windage trays is the norm for all serious circle track US iron, even though the baseline engine design has the deeper sumps and larger distances from crank lobe to static oil level than does VW. I have not studied the WBX engine, but I have always understood that it was closely based on the Type 4. Enterprising WBx longevity aficionados could look to modifying a Type 4 windage tray for WBx use. For the others, synthetic oil and a level just above the add mark with frequent checking would appear to be very sage advice. I do not know if the Subaru boxer engines incorporate a windage tray but I assume the WRX series does. Frank Grunthaner |
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