Oil amounts

[Mk1Macca]

Morning all,

I rather foolishly asked this same question in the MK1 group as that's what the engine is in, but then have just realised that of course, it being a MK2 engine, you lot are probably going to be more in the know!

Can anyone tell me how much oil a MK2 1.8 16V GTi engine will need to fill it from empty? (obviously, not fill, fill it, just the amount to make it work!)

Thanks

Macca 

[hobbiniho]

i think iirc it is 3 litres 

[Organisys]

check a Haynes, but I think it is more than that.

[hobbiniho]

well the haynes says 3.5 litres with a new oil filter and 3 without a new oil filter

[takethefifth]

My bentley manual says 3.5 without filter and 4 with filter change! 

[Agreeable Slick]

3.8-4.3 iirc.

either way the filter holds between half to a whole litre of oil.

[VeeDubGTI16v]

ive always put in 4l with a new filter

[jeff_hooper]

I've never measured accurately how much oil i've put in any car... I've found all engines seem to have a long metal rod called a dip stick.. I usually just fill to the max mark (might take 2 or 3 lots to bring the oil up the dip stick and avoid overfilling) run the engine for a short period, leave to settle for 5 minutes or so and then recheck..

Apart from having a rough idea how much I need to buy when getting stuff together for a service the book figure doesn't mean much at all..
On a new build a small amount of oil will get taken up in galleries and bearings and lower the sump level but you won't do any harm just running the engine with no load for a short period as long as there's enough oil for the oil pump to pick up and you maintain oil pressure.

Not relevant to Golfs but some mid engined supercars with oil coolers at the front take 8 litres or more on a completely fresh build on say a 4lt V8. A lot of which is used up inside long pipe runs to the oil cooling radiators at the front of the car. On a normal service you might put say 5 litres in as you can't drain all the old oil out. Care is needed after full rebuilds to ensure your engine oil doesn't all dissapear! Also you need to flush all the old oil out if you have had a serious engine failure to ensure contanimated oil from the previous failure doesn't wreck your nice new built engine....


Jeff H

[Leon R]

I've always put in 4ltrs for and oil/filter change and then checked the dipstick after running it for a minute or two so a good amount of oil can get to the top of the head.

And from what the previous owner did, if you overfill with oil, it manages to chuck itself on to the airfilter leaving your vac pipes oily too.

[rubjonny]

it also depends on the year, earlier engines have a shallower sump, hence wildy differing claims to capacity
Either way, buy 2 bottles of oil and fill it to the max line on dipstick, run it for a few minutes then leave it for half an hour & recheck as the filter would have been empty when you filled it up the 1st time

Edit: levels are:
pre-85, 3.0 without filter, 3.5 with
post 85, 3.5 without filter, 4.0 with