Do you change your own oil?

[MARZ]

Quote: Shadrach

[Ned Gravel]

When I had the screen before the major overhaul, it was 25 hours.  Now with a filter it is every 35 hours.  Clarence taught me how to do it and I do it between annuals. Got the tools.

[tony]

I always change the oil myself.  50 hrs, Phillips XC 20/50 with camguard

[bd32322]

I am going to do my first oil change. Can anyone please tell me what diameter of hose to take and connect to the oil quick drain? I live 1 hour from my plane and I would like to get it right before i head on down there. Also is it a simple matter of connecting the hose and pushing the quick drain up to let the oil flow?

Thanks in advance

[jetdriven]

3/8 id rubber fuel or vacuum hose from the auto parts store about 3 ft will do.  Just push and turn 1/4 turn to the right to lock open. That's it !  

[jetdriven]

3/8 id rubber fuel or vacuum hose from the auto parts store about 3 ft will do.  Just push and turn 1/4 turn to the right to lock open. That's it !  

[jetdriven]

Cheap tip: torque filter to 18 ftlb and mark it.   Torque to 20, safety then back off to 18.  Safety wire is now taut.   

[jetdriven]

Cheap tip: torque filter to 18 ftlb and mark it.   Torque to 20, safety then back off to 18.  Safety wire is now taut.   

[OR75]

since we are at it ... anyone found an easy way to get to the oil suction screen. The bolt is a pain to get to (not ven talking about how to safety wire it.  Or do you leave that to the A&P at annual and does he do it ?

 

 

[jetdriven]

Try safe tying the prop governor stop screw!  

[OR75]

thanks. I thought so. I figured i could probably take it out but would spend hours trying to get it back in safetyed. I am not ven sure it gets done at all annuals. I asked the shop to do it at my last annual. I know they did (the safetying looked different) 

[Seth]

I admit, I selected sometimes but have not yet.  My plan is to start changing my own oil every other time - that way the MSC can look over the plane, or if I have squaks I can get them properly addressed while the oil is being changed.  I plan to change the oil every 30-35 hours going forward for multiple reasons.  I had let it go to between 40 and 50 hours in the former aircraft, but on a freshly overhauled engine, where I'm the only one operating it, I figure if I can change the oild myself, it'll cost less and last a lot longer. 

[lahso]

I take it to a MSC, usually every 25-30hrs. By then I have other squawks, and treat it like a mini-annual for the expert to look over. Helps me budget for the items I'll need at annual, too.

[jetdriven]

If you have a filter and change the oil every 23-30 hours its like topping the tanks and pumping an additional 5 gallons on the ground.  It may not harm anything, but that money can be better spent on things that do increase the life and safety of your airframe.

[DrBill]

I will do mine every 50 hours.. Oil and filter as I did with previous plane.  No analysis.  I would add the analysis after a top or major OH or if I had a history of analysis to compare.  I've got 25 hrs on the plane since I purchased it with an annual (and oil change).

 

[PTK]

Quote: Jeev

Hello - Any test info supporting synthetic is bad? I have seen the Mike Busch presentation on oil and remember him saying there was no benefit but nothing about harming the engine.  My IO-360 has been run on Shell 15-50 during the winter and shell 100W+ during the hot summers in TX and NV for the last 1000hrs.  The engine has 1950SMOH in 1991 and is still running great with consumption, analysis and performance all looking good.  Hardly scientific but have had good results, the aircraft has been flown 250hrs a year for the last 3 so that may have something to do with it. do you use Phillips?

I agree on 50hr intervals.

[jetdriven]

Do some more reading.  Synthetic oil blends are not optimal for an air cooled Lycoming or Continental engine.

 

from;  http://www.avweb.com/news/savvyaviator/savvy_aviator_52_thinking_about_oil_changes_196730-1.html

[Mike Busch]  My own personal experience agrees with this: I have investigated many cases of premature cam and lifter distress(generally caused by corrosion during periods of disuse) and without exception they all involved engines operating on Aeroshell 15W-50 multigrade.

 

Ed Kollin: First problem;
Polyalpha olefin (PAO), is the synthetic basestock used in AeroShell 15W-50 (at 50%) and Exxon Elite (at 26%) and the defunct Mobil AV1 (at 100%). It has excellent high and low temperature viscometric properties, high viscosity index (doesn't’t thin as much with increasing temp) and (low temp pour point) and good high temperature stability (when used with the proper antioxidant package). However, NONE OF THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR AIR-COOLED AIRCRAFT ENGINES! PAO has terrible solvency characteristics. It is so bad, that most additives will not dissolve in it. It needs to be combined with an ester (10-20%), alkylated naphthalene (5-25%) or mineral basestock (40-75% Aeroshell and Elite) just to get the additives to dissolve. This is fine for a heavily additized passenger car motor oil but NOT for a low additive treat rate oil used in a very high blow-by, leaded fuel aircraft engine. The ability to keep an engine clean by keeping combustion by-products in suspension is essential for an aircraft oil and the basestock works hand in hand with the dispersant to achieve this.

In my opinion PAO is the worst possible choice of basestock for piston aviation oils, and Exxon and Shell did not learn anything from Mobil’s AV1 spectacular failure. Mineral oils (non dispersant) by themselves, have difficulty solubizing the blow-by for long (witness the engine varnish with the use of non-dispersant oils) but it is nothing compared to the problem PAO has with it. The problem with Mobil AV1 was never the lead bromide (lead salt) particles, it has always been the partially combusted blow-by fuel in the crankcase that forms resinous varnish and captures the lead particles making a thicker deposit that is the problem. It was that way with Mobil AV1 and it remains so with the semi-synthetics.

from: http://www.beechtalk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=58932&p=605424

 

 

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-12586945/Aircraft-engine-oils-BP-vs.html

http://www.avweb.com/news/maint/answers_about_oil_195194-1.html

 

 

[Piloto]

Quote: bd32322

I am going to do my first oil change. Can anyone please tell me what diameter of hose to take and connect to the oil quick drain? I live 1 hour from my plane and I would like to get it right before i head on down there. Also is it a simple matter of connecting the hose and pushing the quick drain up to let the oil flow?

Thanks in advance

[jetdriven]

Here is a filter cut open yesterday from our plane.  50.1 hours on an oil change, Aeroshell W100, and Camguard at 5%. See any carbon or metal?  None. Zero.  Thanks for my partners running LOP, I owe them a steak dinner.   The bypass magnet was clean too.  If we are harming the engine this way, I'd love to see some evidence.

 

[Hank]

That looks good, Byron, but I thought the real value of cutting the filter open is slicing the filter paper off of the base, spreading it out in bright sunlight and looking for small metallic particles. Then test with a magnet to confirm that they are not steel. Knowing what it looks like each time will establish a trend to tell when there are more particles.

[Shadrach]

Quote: jetdriven

Here is a filter cut open yesterday from our plane.  50.1 hours on an oil change, Aeroshell W100, and Camguard at 5%. See any carbon or metal?  None. Zero.  Thanks for my partners running LOP, I owe them a steak dinner.   The bypass magnet was clean too.  If we are harming the engine this way, I'd love to see some evidence.

 

[jetdriven]

Yes I cut out the paper element with a pair of dykes and carefully inspected it.  Two small, shiny, non-magnetic flakes might be nickel from an exhaust valve guide. Other than that everything was clean. The first oil change had about a tablespoon of carbon.  Now, none.

Yes, south Texas is shorts and flip flops year round.

[Mooneymite]

I've always done my own oil changes since I've owned my Mooney.  It is a great time to do a mini-100 hr inspection on the engine.

That being said, changing the oil is simple.  Cutting open/inspecting the filter medium is a nasty, messy, rotten job.  Anyone who does an oil change on an engine with a filter, but doesn't thoroughly inspect the filter hasn't done the whole job!

You may not like what you find, but it is one of the first ways an engine has of warning you of impending failure!

[M20F]

Quote: jetdriven

 Synthetic blend oil has no business in a lycoming.   

[danb35]

Quote: M20F

 

If you lived in a colder climate your opinion would probably shift.