My 1600 D/P has a pesky oil leak. I recently had the motor out thinking it was the flywheel seal. That was part of the problem in that the seal was trashed. Replacing it didn't fix the leak. My bug is still "marking its territory" quite a bit. It doesn't lose much oil over time so its a slow leak but it annoys me and messes up the garage floor. I'm thinking it has something to do with the crankcase being vented correctly? Most of the oil appears on the right side of the motor on the top side of the engine tin (does that make sense?) Under the oil fill. I think it then oozes down underneath and gets on the floor. Any ideas on this?

Have you tried checking out the oil pressure switch? This is a common source for an oil leak on a VW engine.

Yeah the switch is in good shape. The oil seems to be concentrated on the opposite side of he motor right under the oil fill/alt stand area.

did you replace the seals on your oil cooler?

No, The area around the cooler is dry. No leaks. Didnt seem necessary.

I had a bad oil leak that I thought was coming from the pulley, but turned out to be the distributor O-ring. I'd check that also.

It's probably something simple like the O-ring on the dizzy. What you described is exactly the symptoms of a bad O-ring. Let us know how it goes.

Ok is that a pretty simple job? seems like i would just pull the dizzy and replace the o-ring? i dues the timing would have to be checked? anything else?

Yup, it's a $1 O-ring. Pull distributor and replace.

sweet. I think I have one layin around somwhere in a set. Thanks for the help. Ill let you know how it works out.