Bigdaddie

This is where I place mine.

Yea Continental engines are crazy at hiding oil. I get a reading of about 1/2 quart more after 24 hrs of a flight and about a full quart after several days.

I have two G500txis and a GTN750txi. I rarely have to reference the iPad. I did today to check the MEA on my route but 90% of the time, the info on the G500 is enough.

This is where I mount my iPad Pro. I only use it in cruise. I take it down for takeoff and landing to improve the visability.

I flew 2 hrs and the airplane sat for 3 days. Oil level: 7.5 qts. So after flying about 4 hours, just a little oil on the gear door. I think it's getting back to it's happy place. These engines REALLY don't like to be filled to capacity. I should know that because I taught students that for years, but now I'm old and stupid.

I actually listened to an episode of "Ask the A&Ps" where Paul New stated he never warmed the engine up before changing the oil because you end up retaining much of the dirty oil for reasons you stated above. I just plugged in my Tanis oil pan pre-heater in for maybe 30 minutes and the oil drained quite nicely.

This is from the TSIO360LB Type Certificate Data Sheet: Oil sump capacity, qt.8. 5 usable at 26° noseup and 5 useable at 18° nosedown So I would think that 5qts would be the absolute minimum for normal operations; not to say that less than 5qts would be okay at normal flight attitudes.

5qts is getting a bit low for me. I think they get that number from the engine type certificate data sheet which specifies the minimum amount of oil for operation. I'm flying to work tonight (airline pilot) and it should be about 1.5 hrs. I'll post an update when I get to Sydney, AU tomorrow.

Had the airplane for about 3 years. I like to change the oil about every 200hrs or 3 years. JUST KIDDING! I bought the airplane mid-annual so it was done at the first annual. Then it spent 8 months in the avionics shop where they did an annual and thus, my first time just rolled around. I went a little long @ 45hrs but 20 of that was flying to OSH and back (highway miles). I guess I screwed up the CamGuard too. I don't know why but I was thinking it required slightly more than one 16oz bottle and that I was using a little less than the recommended amount. 3.2oz extra won't hurt anything in the short term (I hope). Thanks for the support everyone! This group is awesome.

I added 8qts because I'm a dumb dumb. I know that it takes a few days of the aircraft sitting before you get an accurate dipstick reading. Just something about seeing only 6qts on the dipstick made me add the extra qt. I usually run at 7qts and add a qt when it reads 6. With that I don't notice much blow by or oil consumption (maybe a qt every 12hrs or so). And yes there is a drip or two coming out of the breather. I just wonder how it gets from the breather to the gear door as it looks like it would have to travel upwind. Mine is a LB engine.

I just did my first oil change myself on my 231. I ran the airplane pretty hard and checked for leaks and found none. After I flew it there was oil on the outside of the left nose gear door. A single paper towel cleaned it up. I added 8qts of oil plus 16oz of Cam Guard. Do you think it is just blowing the oil out the breather due to being over filled or spilled oil I didn't catch and clean up? It seems to me that breather oil would be aft of the cowling. I can't find any leaks in the engine compartment.

Maybe my O2 guage doesn't have a light???????

Yea I guess they work. There's not much lighting any more with the EFIS. Glarsheild lights work. But I just thought of something. The light in the oxygen guage does not work and is on my list of squawks. I bet it is the same circuit.

Completed an avionics upgrade on my M20K last summer. I recently flew at night and discovered the Trim and Flap position indicators were not lit. Should there be a backlight in there somewhere?

Pee bottle, 2-3 qts of oil, spark plug socket, and main tire and tube. Everything else can be obtained locally.