Engine oil?

[ShawnD2112]

Folks,

Been reading a bit of marketing blurb lately on synthetic engine oils with
respect to my AEIO-360 in my Pitts. I fly it mostly on weekends and it
sometimes goes a few weeks without being flown due to weather, mostly cool
and humid here in the UK.

Is there any benefit to the synthetics like Exxon and Aeroshell or is just
bog standard W100 good enough?

Thoughts, opinions, data?

Cheers,
Shawn

[Thomas Borchert]

ShawnD2112,

> Is there any benefit to the synthetics like Exxon and Aeroshell or is just
> bog standard W100 good enough?
>
> Thoughts, opinions, data?
>

Well, Aviation Consumer has researched the subject quite extensively, see
www.aviationconsumer.com. In a nutshell, if you are not flying REALLY often,
the corrosion protection packages in both Exxon Elite and Aeroshell 15W50 are
well worth the price. Exxon and Aeroshell came out about equal in their
tests. There's an Aeroshell 100W with the same package available, but IMHO,
in the UK, you would probably want a multiweight anyway.

Be advised that debates about these things can have quasi-religious
proportions.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

[[email protected]]

On 6-Jun-2005, "ShawnD2112" > wrote:

> Is there any benefit to the synthetics like Exxon and Aeroshell or is just
> bog standard W100 good enough?


It's purely anecdotal, but we ran Aeroshell W100 exclusively in our Arrow
and the IO-360 engine went beyond TBO and even then did not present any
specific problem that drove us to do a swap. The Arrow would occasionally
go a few weeks between flights, but in a hangar. The climate around here
(Seattle area) is very similar to that of the UK.

That said, we are using Aeroshell 15W50 in the new (factory remanufactured)
engine based upon recommendations from just about everybody we asked,
including Lycoming. We figure it sure can't hurt, and the cost difference
is pretty insignificant in the scheme of things.

With the extra strain that aerobatics places on an engine, I would be even
more inclined to use the 15W50 in a Pitts.

--
-Elliott Drucker