What Oil

[Ron Spiker]

I'm about to do my first oil change. What brand and grade of oil do you guys find works well for you, and/or what is recommended? The engine has about 15-20 hours since being upgraded to a B2B and is currently running the mineral oil.

[N2285U]

Well,

That is a question that will get you many answers. I have owned 13 piston-powered aircraft and I have always used Aeroshell 15W-50 with good results. I use about 1 qt every 6 hours on my 500 hour engine. I use the same oil in the tail-rotor gearboxes and Mobil One synthetic gear oil in the main transmission.

[Steve Chenoweth]

Here is a link to an article that I found very interesting regarding whether to use single weight versus multi-viscosity oil. It is "Lie Number 3" in the article entitled "Ten Lies About Piston Aircraft Engines".

http://www.avweb.com/news/maint/182849-1.html

[Ron Spiker]

That was interesting reading.

Doing a little more digging, I found this Service Instruction at Lycoming's web site. Subject is "Lubricating Oil Recommendations".
http://www.lycoming.textron.com/support ... I1014M.pdf


Or you can go here for a list of all of their Maintenance Publications:
http://www.lycoming.textron.com/main.js ... nance.html


Still don't know which oil I'll use though.
Ron

[Ron Spiker]

Just talked with someone running several B2B's and putting a lot of hours on them. They also run the Aeroshell 15W50, but just in the winter. In the summer they are running Aeroshell AD 100.

That seems to make sense. However, when it's cold out I am preheating my oil & engine anyhow, so I'm not sure the 15W50 would benefit me that much in the winter.

[N2285U]

I would not switch oils back and forth due to season changes. 15-50 does not cost that much more when compared to the grand scheme of things. Remember your tail rotor oil needs to have good lubrication also and this is why I use the 15-50 in both systems.

[Ron Spiker]

Good point. Thanks for your replies.