Oil Consumption and Breather Tube

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by PerfTech

... This is backwards, rotate 180 deg. Sorry your paperwork didn't get included with your order. I will e-mail you a copy today.

Might want to email Jason Beaver through his website and let him know that his is backwards too...

[swordtail]

I have a o-360 with the anti-splat oil separator and it still want to in the 6-7 qt. range. 1200 hrs on engine and can't hold 8 qt. for an hour.

[sblack]

The air oil separator returns oil but it also returns all sorts of other **** that you don't want circulating through your engine. The Skyranch Engineering book claims that using an air oil separator and plumbing back to the sump is like taking a plastic tube and sticking one end in your rear and the other in your mouth! Sorry if any of you are eating lunch

On my little O200 I run a separator because I was fed up with cleaning the airplane. I trap the liquid in it and empty it after every flight.

[DanH]

Originally Posted by sblack

The air oil separator returns oil but it also returns all sorts of other **** that you don't want circulating through your engine.

(1) Oil analysis says otherwise, and (2) there's a simple explanation for catch can snot if you think about it.

[Gash]

Agreed Dan. My oil analysis comes back with no abnormal measurements after 280 hours using the oil separator.

[beav]

I knew I should have updated that blog entry :-). I mistakenly installed the valve backward last year and received a nice email from someone following my site about it. I fixed it long before first flight:



Sorry for any confusion this caused; I've updated the blog entry now to indicate that this was in error.

This is exactly the kind of thing that makes building in a very public way so valuable; people spot mistakes and point them out to each other. We're all safer by keeping an eye on each other's work.

[PerfTech]

... Very nice of you to post this to help others if confused. This is one of the up-sides to the forums and is very valuable to us all. I would like to add that you did a beautiful job of documenting and installing the unit both directions. Thanks, Allan....

[raytoews]

I never could understand why the general rule is to run with the oil tanks half full because these antiquated engine don't come with an oil recovery system.
Would you run your car with half the oil it calls for?

I have an antisplat oil seperator and I now run full at 8 liters and it doesn't end up on the belly.

These engines are built so loose that we accept 1 liter per 10 hrs as good consumption.

My car runs for 100 hrs between changes and it will be down half a liter,,,and that is probably due to evaporation.

Ray

[BillL]

Originally Posted by raytoews

I never could understand why the general rule is to run with the oil tanks half full because these antiquated engine don't come with an oil recovery system.
Would you run your car with half the oil it calls for?

< snip>
Ray

This is just not a valid comparison. The FAA requires the oil sump hold enough oil to use all the fuel at the highest acceptable oil consumption rate specified by the engine manufacturer (BSOC). They don't care if the high oil level actually causes a higher burn rate for a while, it is a trade off.

Easy to test this yourself. Measure/record the oil usage vs sump level. Record qt/hr for full, -1 Qt, -2 qt etc. Get three measurements for each level just to be sure. Then using this data, you can satisfy yourself as to why the general rule might have been created, and show off your data to others in the future. Half might be too low, maybe it is different for your engine and operation profile.

edit: Ref AC 23-16a see this doc for all the details.

[Raymo]

Originally Posted by swordtail

I have a o-360 with the anti-splat oil separator and it still want to in the 6-7 qt. range. 1200 hrs on engine and can't hold 8 qt. for an hour.

This is normal for Lycoming engines. My Cherokee 140 with an O-320 will keep no more than 6.5 qts. I add a quart when it gets below 5.5.