O-200 Winter Oil Question

Eagle Laker · Post by **Eagle Laker** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 9:39 am

What oil should I be running in an O-200 for winter flying. Heard lots of rumours but figured someone here would know for sure.

Thanks

MichaelP · Post by **MichaelP** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:12 pm

I used to run mine on W80 oil in the winter.
Shell 15W-50 was good too.

I had screen filters, did oil changes at 50 hour intervals, and ran the engines beyond their TBO when I was allowed to!
One O-200 of mine went to 2,796 hours before the nervous engineer took it out. The oil pressure was still 40lbs...

Now people do 25 hour oil changes with the screen filter and I don't know why.
Does experience not count?

There are several things you should do in the winter to extend the life of your O-200.
Most important is to prime and suck... Prime it and suck it in by turning the prop over by hand. Treat it live!

I used to start my engines with the carb heat selected to hot in the very cold weather.
Make sure you haven't over primed, and provided you've sucked it in as above there's a lot less likelihood of a carb fire.

As soon as the engine has started it will provide some heat that will help vaporise the fuel.
Run it for a minute and ease the carb heat in.

It's rare for an O-200 not to start as soon as the starter is engaged if you've prepared it by hand.
Like other things, a little preparation using the hands goes a long way to getting things started.

I've never had a carburettor fire myself...

But I watch people get in, prime, and start and backfire, and burn because they do not follow the recommendations in the flight manual for cold weather starting.

And another thing, I always reach in and make sure the Delco Remy clutch engages easily if I'm using the pull starter.
If you pull the arm back and hit gear to gear just back the prop a little to make sure it slides in easily.

aero-singidunum · Post by **aero-singidunum** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:27 pm

try to preheat engine before going up on very cold days, even small heater from CrapyTire and engine cover will do good. Oil use W80 or 15W50, even Phillips 20W50 should be ok.

Hedley · Post by **Hedley** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:24 am

Another vote for aeroshell 15w50 (multigrade is a really, really good idea in the winter) and pre-heat.

Pre-heat doesn't need to be big bucks - just a 110VAC heater from crappy tire under the cowl, and extension cord, and a sleeping bag over the cowl plugging the air inlets.

But pre-heat will save you big bucks.

As far as oil change interval ... change it when it needs to be changed.

Let's say 4 months have elapsed, but it's only flown 10 hours in that time Time to change it, because of the acids that have formed.

Let's say you've flown it 15 hours in 2 days, and the OAT was over +30C and the oil temp was 220F the whole time. Time to change the oil, and I sure hope you're running straight-grade 100 or 120, because the VI's in the multi-grade would have broken down, leaving you with the thin 15W base stock.

Let's say you've flown 20 hours in 3 months, OAT +15C and oil temps below 180F the whole time. No need to change it yet.

Eagle Laker · Post by **Eagle Laker** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:03 am

Thanks for all the suggestions I really appreicate it.
Have flown the thing about 20 hours in the last 3 months. Ran W100 the entire time. Going to change over to 20W-50.
Thanks again.