Type 1 Upright Engines
used in all Beetles, Super Beetles, Karmann Ghias, Things, and Buses to 1971

One common place for the upright air-cooled VW engines to leak is at the oil cooler and many times this is due to the wrong seals being used. VW created this confusion by changing the oil cooler seals three times, the oil coolers twice, and revising one of the oil coolers once.

VW, on their upright engines, had two different oil coolers basically. While there were some modifications and style changes over the years, you essentially had one oil cooler that fit 25hp-1600 single port engines and one for all dual-port doghouse engines. The earlier non-doghouse oil cooler fit completely inside the shroud while the doghouse version was seated on an offset oil cooler adapter and came out through the back of the shroud (which in turn forced extra engine tin to be added to cover it). Both oil coolers are interchangeable on all years but not without tinwork modification and seal changes.

Outside of the fitting and size issues of the two different oil coolers, the real important change was the size of the oil galleries (commonly incorrectly referred to as oil galleys). On cases through 1969 the size was 8mm while on 1970 and later cases it was 10mm. Early oil coolers were 8mm on their oil gallery size while the doghouse coolers were 10mm. One addendum to this was that VW changed the early oil cooler production in later years to also having 10mm oil galleries. So, knowing what oil cooler seal you need requires you knowing what case you have and what oil cooler you're using.

The three different oil cooler seals are:
111117151 - 8mm / 8mm
These are a simple tube seal - there is no top or bottom.
113198029 - 8mm / 10mm
This is a conversion seal kit - the seals have an 8mm and a 10mm side and it comes with three washers. Depending on the application, the seal can fit either way.
021117151A - 10mm / 10mm
This seal has a 10mm end on both sides - there is no top or bottom.

On 8mm cases with 8mm oil coolers, seal 111117151 should be used.
On 8mm cases with 10mm oil coolers, seal kit 113198029 should be used.
On 10mm cases with 8mm oil coolers, seal kit 113198029 should be used.
On 10mm cases with 10mm oil coolers, seal 021117151A should be used.

The copper washers included in the 113198029 kit should only be used on 1946-1969 cases using the revised 10mm early style oil coolers.

It should be remembered that when using a doghouse oil cooler that four oil cooler seals are used, two between the case and the oil cooler adapter and two between the adapter and the oil cooler itself.

Is our info wrong? Please tell us!