Oil weight question and cold weather

[A Lieberman]

I run aeroshell 15W50 in my lycoming 360 AK4 engine.

I am planning a trip to Ohio the second week of November where the weather
forecast is for upper 40s low 50's during the day and 30's at night. I
plan to say a week.

Do I need to adjust my oil accordingly, like get an oil change with a
different viscosity b4 departing?

Thanx in advance.

Allen

[Jon Kraus]

Allen,

We are right next door in Indiana and run Areoshell 15W50 all year long.
If it's working for ya why change!! The 40's and 50's ain't ****... You
California boys can't handle a little cool weather huh? :-) See ya!!

Jon Kraus
'79 Mooney 201
4443H @ TYQ

A Lieberman wrote:

> I run aeroshell 15W50 in my lycoming 360 AK4 engine.
>
> I am planning a trip to Ohio the second week of November where the weather
> forecast is for upper 40s low 50's during the day and 30's at night. I
> plan to say a week.
>
> Do I need to adjust my oil accordingly, like get an oil change with a
> different viscosity b4 departing?
>
> Thanx in advance.
>
> Allen

[A Lieberman]

On Sat, 05 Nov 2005 02:45:47 GMT, Jon Kraus wrote:

> Allen,
>
> We are right next door in Indiana and run Areoshell 15W50 all year long.
> If it's working for ya why change!! The 40's and 50's ain't ****... You
> California boys can't handle a little cool weather huh? :-) See ya!!

Yo Jon,

Gotten soft since moving down to MS. Anything below 60, and I am now
breaking out a jacket! Hell, in Ohio where I used to live, used to sweat
like a stuck pig.

Thanks for your tip, won't change what works. Just was a lil worried my
engine would be wimpy at 34F without a warmup.

Allen

[Jay Honeck]

> Thanks for your tip, won't change what works. Just was a lil worried my
> engine would be wimpy at 34F without a warmup.

Your oil won't matter at 34 -- but you might want to pre-heat your engine
before starting it.

We plug 'er in when it gets consistently below 40 F.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[George Patterson]

A Lieberman wrote:

> Do I need to adjust my oil accordingly, like get an oil change with a
> different viscosity b4 departing?

No.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

[Kyle Boatright]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:poWaf.513037$x96.142214@attbi_s72...
>> Thanks for your tip, won't change what works. Just was a lil worried my
>> engine would be wimpy at 34F without a warmup.
>
> Your oil won't matter at 34 -- but you might want to pre-heat your engine
> before starting it.
>
> We plug 'er in when it gets consistently below 40 F.
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"

Do you leave it plugged in 24/7? The preheat system I have (Reiff hotpad)
recommends against leaving my airplane plugged in 24/7 because of rust
concerns...

KB

[Jay Honeck]

> Do you leave it plugged in 24/7? The preheat system I have (Reiff hotpad)
> recommends against leaving my airplane plugged in 24/7 because of rust
> concerns...

It depends.

If we are on our normal flying schedule (every couple of days), yeah, we
just leave it plugged in.

If it looks like we might not fly for a few weeks, we don't.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[[email protected]]

Here in South Central Alberta, Canada, we fly our training
airplanes until the temp gets to -25 degrees C (-7 F). We use Aeroshell
15W50 exclusively. If the airplane is away on a cross country, and ends
up outside overnight, we'll probably preheat it if the temp was below
-10C (14F). Starting must be done carefully, as it's easy to kill the
battery, flood the engine, or get the initial revs too high. That oil
is a little stiff and doesn't pump readily when too cold, so keep the
RPM to 1000 or less until things warm up. We find it's best to have an
insulated cowl cover, and a car warmer stuck up into the cooling oulet;
it warms the engine, battery, everything.
40 and 50 F is NOT cold. Some of us, especially the younger
guys, don't even put a jacket on for that.

Dan

[Peter R.]

Jay Honeck > wrote:

>> Do you leave it plugged in 24/7? The preheat system I have (Reiff hotpad)
>> recommends against leaving my airplane plugged in 24/7 because of rust
>> concerns...
>
> It depends.
>
> If we are on our normal flying schedule (every couple of days), yeah, we
> just leave it plugged in.
>
> If it looks like we might not fly for a few weeks, we don't.

I also leave my Tanis heater plugged in since I fly every two to three
days.

Additionally, after shutdown I also pull the dipstick of my IO-520 out a
few inches and wrap a cotton cloth around it, covering the oil hole with
the cloth. The cloth catches the condensation that rises up through as the
engine cools.

If the outside temperature drops below 25 degrees F or so, I also wrap the
cowling and prop with an insulated cover.

--
Peter
























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[Newps]

Peter R. wrote:


>
> Additionally, after shutdown I also pull the dipstick of my IO-520 out a
> few inches and wrap a cotton cloth around it, covering the oil hole with
> the cloth. The cloth catches the condensation that rises up through as the
> engine cools.

Why would you want to catch the condensation and then keep it trapped at
the top of your engine? How about don't open the dipstick and let the
air circulate out of the engine normally thru the breather? This way
any water will drip on the floor.

[Peter R.]

Newps > wrote:

> Why would you want to catch the condensation and then keep it trapped at
> the top of your engine? How about don't open the dipstick and let the
> air circulate out of the engine normally thru the breather? This way
> any water will drip on the floor.

The cloth absorbs the condensation, where it then evaporates into the air,
rather than drips back into the oil.

I suppose pulling the cap without the cloth would work, too, but there's
something about leaving the engine exposed and vulnerable to creepy
crawlies and such that suggests (to me, anyhow) keeping the oil spout
covered.

--
Peter
























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[nrp]

Peter R - A very interesting idea - does the rag actually get wet? I
wouldn't think there would be enough natural draft to flush the
crankcase of a hot engine with only the breather to supply air.

Idea - Maybe a small 12V cooling fan from a dead cpu etc powered from a
wallwart, set on the oil fill to help exhaust the moisture from the
crankcase? or is there enough natural draft from the heat of the
engine to do this?

[Peter R.]

nrp > wrote:

> Peter R - A very interesting idea - does the rag actually get wet? I
> wouldn't think there would be enough natural draft to flush the
> crankcase of a hot engine with only the breather to supply air.

Perhaps not (I am not an A&P), but I suspect that even this little bit is
better than leaving the oil cap tightly secured on cold days. Yes, the rag
is noticeably damp after a 1/2 day or so the aircraft sitting on a ramp
where temps are below about 30 degrees F. After a couple of days, the rag
is discolored slightly brown, but dry.

To put it another way, I am only about 150 hours into a newly rebuilt
engine, so I will hang charm bracelets off the cowling if the action will
result in a few more hours of useful engine life.

--
Peter
























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[Jay Honeck]

> To put it another way, I am only about 150 hours into a newly rebuilt
> engine, so I will hang charm bracelets off the cowling if the action will
> result in a few more hours of useful engine life.

Say no more. We now understand everything...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[nrp]

I'm not an A&P either - just a mechanical engineer. Opening the oil
cap immediately after shutdown & giving the breather pipe a shot of
compressed air should also clear out any crankcase airborne bad stuff.
I'm gonna try that next time I go & see what comes out. Tanis raised
this intriguing point in an earlier post some months back. It can't
hurt.

Around here (MN) we don't usually get that much engine corrosion damage
but I have seen what I now recognize as cold start damage as being more
common. I think one does have to be religious about starting only on
adequate preheat - especially if an engine has been sitting for
several days, and again especially if it is a Lycoming with the
camshaft on top.

[Jay Honeck]

> Around here (MN) we don't usually get that much engine corrosion damage
> but I have seen what I now recognize as cold start damage as being more
> common.

Bingo. Those who say it's bad to leave your pre-heater plugged in often
ignore the fact that the alternative is to fly without pre-heat.

We've all done it. You get to the airport, and discover that you forgot to
plug the danged thing in last night. It's freezing in the hangar, and
you've got passengers who want to go *now*. Do you plug in your Tanis
heater and tell them to wait an hour? Nope -- you just cringe and go.

I suspect the damage done in a cold start (and I mean COLD, not 40 degrees)
is substantial. To avoid this, I leave it plugged in from (roughly)
December 15 to March 15, and fly every few days.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[[email protected]]

Jay Honeck > wrote:
: We've all done it. You get to the airport, and discover that you forgot to
: plug the danged thing in last night. It's freezing in the hangar, and
: you've got passengers who want to go *now*. Do you plug in your Tanis
: heater and tell them to wait an hour? Nope -- you just cringe and go.

I tried once... was going to go for a quick flight with family friends while
in Milwaukee for Christmas. It was about 30 degrees in the morning but I hadn't
planned on flying so didn't ask the FBO to plug it in. As you said... "cringe and
go"... except for the go part. Rolled it over and over but REFUSED to start. Came
back 1/2 hour later with Tanis plugged in (and 35 degrees outside) and started fine.
I figure it was iced-up plugs and that it was trying to tell me something... :)

-Cory


--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

[N93332]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:qm1cf.554413$xm3.401986@attbi_s21...
>> Around here (MN) we don't usually get that much engine corrosion damage
>> but I have seen what I now recognize as cold start damage as being more
>> common.
>
> Bingo. Those who say it's bad to leave your pre-heater plugged in often
> ignore the fact that the alternative is to fly without pre-heat.

Question: Can a dipstick heater be used safely on an aircraft engine? Does
it help much? See eBay item 8006970279.

-Greg B.

[Peter R.]

N93332 > wrote:

> Question: Can a dipstick heater be used safely on an aircraft engine? Does
> it help much? See eBay item 8006970279.

I cannot imagine how a dipstick heater alone could adequately heat all the
oil that settled at the bottom or that in the cylinders, especially if the
air is very, very cold (0 degrees F or lower).

--
Peter
























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[Jack Allison]

Jon Kraus wrote:

> You
> California boys can't handle a little cool weather huh? :-) See ya!!

>
Yo, Jon...it's "Kal-i-for-nya" boys. :-)



--
Jack Allison, Kalifornya boy
PP-ASEL-IA Student
Arrow N2104T

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

[Jay Honeck]

>> Question: Can a dipstick heater be used safely on an aircraft engine?
>> Does
>> it help much? See eBay item 8006970279.
>
> I cannot imagine how a dipstick heater alone could adequately heat all the
> oil that settled at the bottom or that in the cylinders, especially if the
> air is very, very cold (0 degrees F or lower).

I agree with Peter. When it gets cold in our neck of the woods (more so in
Minnesota, where you are), a dipstick heater would heat the oil for maybe a
couple of inches around the dipstick.

The rest of the oil would still be like jello.

Get a Tanis heater. They're really cheap -- compared to a new engine.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"