Oil film on belly of aircraft

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Tooch

Just a thought but why do breather tubes have to terminate in the front of the plane. Why can't a tube run through the fuselage and exit oil out the tail? Is it a fire hazard? Just thinking out loud.

If you don't mind the extra weight of the tube, and the nuisance of routing it through the structure internally in a straight path to the tail (no kinks or bumps to trap oil) then it can. Exit just in front of your tailwheel and it'll never need lubing again...

[Guy Prevost]

My 10's oil consumption goes way down between 6 and 7 quarts too.

[Paddy]

I've stopped adding any more than 7qt to mine.

[rag]

Be vary careful venting the engine breather tube down the gear leg or through the fuselage to the tail. When temperatures fall below freezing it will freeze shut. The result is oil on the windshield and rapid loss of engine oil out the crankshaft seal.

[ReidVaitor]

I struggled with the oil being run under 8qt for the first few dozen hours, once the engine broke in I called my engine builder and he told me to fly the plane and see where the oil stopped. It stopped right under 6qts, I now run 6 qts of oil for over 500 hours and the temps have stayed normal and the engine has worked great.
Good to see Im not the only one running it that low.
My suggestion- fly until the oil stabilizes for over 2-3 hours if it stays around X level, fly it at the level, adding up to that point as needed.
Pascal

[flysrv10]

Mine is at 6 qtrs also. Anything over that amount will be on the belly.

[ppilotmike]

Originally Posted by Dragon Master

The first question I have for those who commented is "are you using an oil separator"? Having built numerous oil separators over the years I have many happy customers using my designs. There are commercial ones out there that are not that effective. Successful oil separators change the direction of the breather air numerous times. I build models that turn the air 360, 450 and 540 degrees, naturally the more turns the better. So what do you do with the oil it collects? I recommend putting it back into the sump below the sump's oil level. Others collect it in a bottle or dump it into the exhaust (the exhaust does not save oil consumption). Regarding my method, you'll get the argument that your putting contaminants back into the oil and that's true; however, frequent oil changes presents no problem. I have been sending my oil in for analysis for 20 years and I have yet to receive any comments on the sample other than "normal". Personally, on my 8 quart sump I wouldn't run my engine that lower than 6 qts.

As a side note, one of the reasons manufacturers have more oil than the minimum is to lengthen the oil change interval since your engine is constantly putting contaminants in the oil.

Remember, one thing an oil separator can't fix is an engine with mechanical issues.

I too want to hear more about your separator...