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Is there any point in multigrade oil IF the engine starts ok?

Bathman, the biggest piston engine fleet in the UK runs on Aeroshell W15/W50 burns avgas And has no problems. The oil is 50% mineral oil and this holds the combustion products from the Avgas in suspension as long the oil is changed at 50 hour intervals.

Last Edited by A_and_C at 18 Oct 18:17

Shell 15W50 is used in our Inverness LAA O200s. The hoped for life is about 3,000 hours.
Our Jodel one is about mid 2###.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

Is there any point in multigrade oil IF the engine starts ok?

It seems that W80 is fine down to pretty low temperatures – as low as you want to be starting in anyway. I recall reading -10C as being the lowest recommended, and that is really rare in Europe.

Camguard takes care of the anticorrosion coating of the engine parts.

So is there any point in using 15W50 at all? It will be very runny at cruise engine temperature. You also get a lot more oil leaking though any weak points in the seals.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

There are several articles on the subject by Savvy Aviation, why you should not start an engine without preheat below 35 F. Mostly due to dissimilar metals and clearances. That includes the Cyl not just the bottom end.

In the US it is common to find an electrical outlet where one can plug in. I find that in Europe one has to make a special effort to find a connection close enough to the plane where an extension cord can reach it.

KHTO, LHTL

Unfortunately these kinds of questions would be better in the “religion and belief” forum.

The simple truth is: Aircraft engines are run under conditions that make hard facts very difficult to generate. If e.g. any choice of (certified) oil can have more or less impact on the engine health than not running the engine (w/o conservation) for 3 moths (or even longer) is hard to say. As most if not all GA planes have at least in some point of their history periods of low utilization and they are used under very different conditions, it’s safe to say that usage conditions have a higher impact than oil choice.

Even the most experienced mechanics (like Mike) do not have real data on the impact of oil, additives, etc.

It would require several 2-mot owners doing the real life test of running one engine on one oil and another engine on another oil for many years to get something close to reliable data – or a big training organization like Embry Riddle could run a long term test with their fleet. But I’m not aware of this happening.

Therefore for the time being: If the engine runs fine it is fine. If one is a camguard believer it seems that adding that does not hurt. If one is a 15W50 believer one can use it – if one is a 15W15 Atheist, single grade oil is also not bad…

Germany

C210_Flyer wrote:

I find that in Europe one has to make a special effort

This is also what limits my travels in winter. I have never experienced any easy access to electrical outlet from the parking area in most airports in Europe.
It is almost impossible to get even a single night hangar parking anywhere. At least that’s what my experience has been so far. I wonder if everyone else thinks the same.

But anyway, I tend to agree with Peter. W80 seems to fit the purpose. I might give it a try next time I change oil in February though I am very happy with the Phillips XC 20W50+ Camguard. My 200hp Lycoming IO-360 uses about 1 quart every 17-18 hours and the belly remains clean as long as I keep the oil level at around 6 quarts. The oil analysis has been great too so if I try W80 it will be probably just be out of curiosity.

Just a note on Camguard. I religiously run oil analysis at every oil change and I have data from about 12 oil changes. The data showed a clear improvement on wear metals the moment I started using camguard. I don’t believe any particular oil has advantage over the other but at least in my case, camguard as additive, definitely proved to provide benefit.

Last Edited by By9468840 at 13 Jan 11:40
Switzerland

Yes; I reported the wear reduction due to camguard, years ago. The soft metals benefit especially.

The reason for my original post was to ask whether there is anything wrong with using W80 provided the engine starts up ok.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

What about running a multigrade over the winter months then W80 over summer?

One oil fill may span a big temperature range.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Reducing strain/wear on the starter motor and battery?

ESMK, Sweden
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