I may have missed any thread about this topic but wanted to pick brains here.
Just stopped by the shop that does most of the major work on my Passat and Van.
They told me they were getting very limited as to the brands of oil that can safely be
used in the "older" boxer motors as it is now being produced without zinc. They did
a rebuild on a 2.1 a few months ago and put "new" oil in it and it began developing
compression problems a couple months later. They put some "old" (w/zinc) oil they had in it
and the compression was normal almost immediately.
 
If the container says SM on it, it's zincless; and must say SJ (?) to be safe?
Some info here:
http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/flat_tappet_cam_tech/index.html
 
Any thoughts/information about this from anyone?
 
Bob
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