Total D80 in winter and D100 for about 3 months in the summer
Indeed; this is unrealistic because you will never start your engine at -40C. It would be preheated. And during operation the oil temperature is thermostatically controlled.
If Shell are suggesting that you could start a Lyco engine at -40C, that is an interesting proposition! What is the reason a preheat is recommended? Is it due to running out of component tolerances (differential expansion) or due to the oil getting too viscous?
Regarding buying Shell in France, see my post #5 above. It seems TOTAL aviation oil is a rebranded Shell. Philips oil is hard to get, apparently.
I use Camguard in conjunction with Shell oil, 50/50 mix of 15W50 and W80 as written above. My last engine has just been opened up in the USA and is in as perfect a condition as they have seen, so whatever I am doing is good enough for me 
Actually, you could argue that you want the opposite performance if your engine is going to sit for a couple of weeks in cold weather: the oil should stick, so it only slowly exposes the metal.
@Peter wrote:
Regarding buying Shell in France, see my post #5 above. It seems TOTAL aviation oil is a rebranded Shell. Philips oil is hard to get, apparently.
I usually find Shell at SKYFOX (Germany). Good price and cheap freight cost.
I haven’t seen Phillips anywhere except Spruce.eu. Wonder if others have managed to pick it elsewhere ?
Peter wrote:
I use Camguard in conjunction with Shell oil, 50/50 mix of 15W50 and W80 as written above
Peter, would you remind us in very few words why you went this way ?
Between visits, do you top up with 15W50 or W80 ?
Help!
I don’t understand why Shell or Total would sell “kit” oil which requires aircraft owners to be involved in the manufacturing/blending process.
Are the Camguard additives patented?
Maybe @ed2 – Camguard inventor – might know.
However I also suspect there is an element of “if we change our recommendations we will get sued because the previous ones will have been deemed wrong”.
Peter, would you remind us in very few words why you went this way ?
If you search for
15w50 AND w80
you will find various past discussions, and vigorous disagreements with my procedure
Between visits, do you top up with 15W50 or W80 ?
I sort-of alternate. It’s not critical. I also pre-mix camguard into the oil bottles, so the camguard doesn’t get diluted as you top up.
I note that Mike Busch is not a fan of AS 15W50 because it contains too much (50%) PAO because it is not effective in suspending particulates. He recommends straight mineral oils with Camguard. For that reason I have pretty much ruled out AS 10W50 although I do observe that it seems to be very popular, as well as AS W100/W80
My vote is currently for a multi-grade oil because they are supposedly better for “cold weather” operations (starts) w/o pre-heating, or cold starts in general, and I do not feel like using several different oils depending on the time of year. However, in my part of France the weather never gets really cold (define cold ). The coldest we had this winter was -6°C (and I just happened to be flying that morning). That’s pretty cold for these parts, and never lasts more than a day or two, so I do not feel it justifies installing an engine heater
I recently ordered a batch of Exxon Elite 20W50 from aircraftspruce.eu 15,30€/l. When I’ve depleted my stock, probably move to Phillips X/C which is a 100% mineral multi-grade oil (also from aircraftspruce.eu at 10,60 €/l). When I have gained a little experience I do not exclude considering W100/W80 (at ca. 10-12 €/l)
Peter wrote:
If Shell are suggesting that you could start a Lyco engine at -40C, that is an interesting proposition! What is the reason a preheat is recommended? Is it due to running out of component tolerances (differential expansion) or due to the oil getting too viscous?
I would think both. If you absolute need to do that, like in Alaska or Canada, I’ve heard that you would land, drain the oil from the engine, and before starting you would heat the oil on your bonefire before pouring it back into the engine which I suppose would (somewhat) address both issues.
Aviathor, I guess the problem is that very few start up, in cold conditions with insufficient lubrification, should be enough to damage the engine.
So, even if those conditions are not frequent, I think they must be adressed by the choice of oil.
@peter
You re right, I will search, but I must confess I like when you tell us again, and in my profession, interesting things can pop up during repetitions :-)
On a different level, would you post somewhere, the results of your engine examination AND, after this long use and satisfying service, what those results have positively confirmed in your personal way of doing ?
A kind of interpretation of actual wear observations, regarding to LOP, high altitude operations, full power climb, oil choice….. I also remind some worries about oil analysis: anything links to those result in the engine ?
Aviathor wrote:
Exxon Elite 20W50
What % of PAO does it contain ?
Why this choice ?
You re right, I will search, but I must confess I like when you tell us again, and in my profession, interesting things can pop up during repetitions :-)
I was not trying to be unhelpful – just hoping to point you to useful info
On a different level, would you post somewhere, the results of your engine examination AND, after this long use and satisfying service, what those results have positively confirmed in your personal way of doing ?
A kind of interpretation of actual wear observations, regarding to LOP, high altitude operations, full power climb, oil choice….. I also remind some worries about oil analysis: anything links to those result in the engine ?
I don’t have much but I got this from the engine shop which opened up my old engine.
I recently ordered a batch of Exxon Elite 20W50
I used that for some years and I found
I posted various oil analysis results e.g. here and they were never unusual – except when the alternate air door was mis-adjusted with a ~4mm gap, and then I got a large increase in copper and silicon (ingested dirt).
