J160 oil comsumption

[Guest Robw]

Our 2.5 year old J160 has got nearly 500 hours on the engine and is using around 50ml of oil per hour. It seems high to me. Can any one else report on their oil consumption? Some of the oil ends up in the overflow bottle, but not 50 ml per hour as it only needs to be emptied at the 25 hour oil change interval.

 

Cheers,

 

Rob

 

 

[RKW]

Hi Rob,

 

Our J160 has about 350 hrs on the engine and would use about the same as yours. Some of the folks who use it, tend to top the oil up to the top mark and some of that finds it way into the overflow bottle and along the underside of the plane. I think that halfway between the upper and lower marks is about right. The problem is that the sump capacity is pretty small to start with, so many folks like to fill her up to the top mark to be sure!

 

Regards,

 

Bob

 

 

[Vev]

Hi Rob,

 

My 160 has a little over 300 hrs and I use about 50ml per hr as well. However I keep my oil level below the bottom mark when cold, which is recommended by Jab.

 

I suggest you take a look at the "Service Bulletins" on the Jabiru web under "Dip Stick & Comaprisons"... this gives you details re oil levels.

 

Cheers

 

Jack

 

 

[BigPete]

Yep - mine's the same. :thumb_up: 453 hours and running like a clock (a well oiled one).

 

regards

 

 

[facthunter]

Oil Consumption.

 

Air cooled aero engines can be expected to use a bit of oil as the clearances have to be quite large. Older ones more so. Radials use so much that their range was sometimes limited by the amount of oil rather than the fuel carried. 50 mls/ hour is still very little per revolution, and you have got to stop it from squeeking. Nev.

 

 

[Guest Robw]

Well going flying for a 4 hour flight starting with the oil at the bottom mark sounds a bit scary to me. At my last long flight the oil pressure was getting close to the yellow at the end of the flight with the oil at or maybe a little below the bottom mark.

 

So the 50ml/h seems to be a normal figure. Then there is no need to worry. Just need to top up the oil regularly at longer flights.

 

Cheers,

 

Rob

 

 

[Vev]

Rob,

 

I would be worried too if your oil pres is dropping during flt towards the yellow.... clearly you need to top up before this happens.

 

When I say I keep my oil level below the bottom mark, this is when the oil/engine is cold,..the level tends to go up a little when hot... so please be careful not to under fill either.

 

If I was intending to fly for 4 hrs I would keep the level a little higher (at the bottom mark) and throttle back a tad and fly more in a cruise mode in climb etc .. the higher throttle settings tend to blow oil into the bottle a little more quickly.

 

However I got to tell you, 4 hrs is a lot of flying for me these days and other needs (pit stops) often take the priority.

 

Cheers

 

Jack

 

 

[facthunter]

Oil Matters.

 

There has been quite a few instances of aircraft on long distance ferry flights running out of lube oil. To be aware of your engines oil consumption patterns should be as important as being aware of the ACTUAL fuel rate of usage. Larger engines have in flight oil transfer capability. Unfortunately, overfilling the Jabiru will result in venting overboard (as it will with the dry sump Rotax's) as well. Sometimes overfilling will cause overheating in 'wet sump' motors.

 

Oil pressure will only drop, (assuming the engine is OK) when either the oil temp rises and/or there is some air introduced into the system just prior to oil supply exhaustion. There might be a case to have the capacity to transfer oil in flight. You would need some way of preventing overfilling. Nev

 

 

[frank marriott]

For comparison :

 

My J230 115hrs total time. On flights of 4.1 to 4.5 hrs uses about 100mls. I start the flight with the oil level about 1/8 inch over the bottom mark on the dip stick. Have done about 8 four hour plus tips without stopping and the result has always been the same. The 100mls is not all burnt as each time there ends up between 1 to 1 1/2inches of oil in the overflow bottle.

 

Frank

 

 

[jetjr]

Jabs will use heaps of oil if you keep topping it up too high on the dipstick. For mine the lower mark is "too high"

 

If rings are a bit worn - yes also in low hr engines - the leaking pressure inside sump can cause oil to go into cylinders and burn off, A fresh engine probably shouldnt do this, but plenty do. Aside from this it will dump into oil bottle, then all down the underside of fuse.

 

The lower level where it sits has to be determined carefully and oil added to suit. Then as someone said work on this ml/hr as a base for adding more, of course checking on stick.

 

As an example my 680hr 6 cyl will use up 150ml per hr if I keep putting it in, maybe more, and thats with very little in overflow bottle, If I stop putting it in it drops to very tip of dipstick and stays there, to keep it there takes maybe 50ml/hr.

 

If I fill to upper mark (did it once) oil goes everywhere and engine overheats badly.

 

I do 3 hr flights regularly, with oil just on the tip of the stick before start, add 150ml, its on the tip again by next start with just maybe 50ml in bottle every 25hrs. To me this says Im slightly over adding oil but not much.

 

First thing you will notice with low oil level is high oil temps for no reason, this will happen long before oil pressure drops.

 

JR

 

 

[Guest Robw]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for sharing your oil consumption. Good to know that our aircraft is in the same ballbark as yours with oil consumption.

 

Cheers,

 

Rob

 

 

[Lowflyer]

re oil useage

 

Just adding my penny's worth. I have heard that if the oil breather at the top of the dipstick is ground off and a breather tube ally welded on in its place that is the diameter of the dipstick tube that this cures the ever annoying pulsing of the oil into the overflow bottle.

 

Has anyone heard of this remedy?

 

I also have to keep a regular check on my overflow bottle, otherwise I get the oil all along the underside of the plane.

 

I keep my oil just above the lower mark and am told that my engine number 1158 has a dipstick that suits this oil level.

 

Roly (pom flyer) Tecnam P92 Jabiru.

 

 

[dewie]

Was reading with interest the oil consumpsion in some Jabs. Mine was using 50ml per hour untill I changed from Aero Shell W100 to Aero Shell W15W50 multi grade.

 

Have since clocked up 9 hours without topping up and with no oil in catch bottle

 

 

 

[Guest Robw]

Hi Dewie, that is an interesting observation.

 

Cheers,

 

Rob

 

 

[Yenn]

I chamged to Aeroshell W100 Plus at the last change and I notice there is negligible oil consumption and also the oil seems to be cleaner on the dipstick. It is not long enough yet to tell about consumption, but the cleaner look of the oil makes me wonder if sludge is being left in the engine.

 

 

[Thx1137]

There ya go Rob, I didn't need to send that email out yesterday after all :-) The 50ml per hour gels with the 200ml I needed to top up yesterday after the 4.3 hour flight. Even after the 200ml it was still reporting low but decided to not put more in.

 

I checked it again today and it is almost full so I guess it takes awhile before it settles!

 

Steven.

 

 

[Lowflyer]

My Tecnam P92 always runs on Aeroshell 15/50 but still spews out quite a lot per hour into the breather collector bottle.

 

Very annoying. I just put it back into the engine as long as there is no mayonnaise in it.

 

Roly pom flyer

 

 

[Guest Qwerty]

Here is some harmless hangar roumor on oil consumption.

 

This is unsubstantiated roumor

 

Ensure that the breather line runs up hill from its connection to the dip stick tube. Vented oil will then condense in the up hill section of the breather tube and run back into the engine thus reducing oil consumption and reducing the fill rate of oil into the overflow bottle.

 

This is unsubstantiated roumor

 

I have not bothered to test this theory, my breather tube was installed running up hill for about 350 mm, back to and over the engine mount.

 

Perhaps there is someone who can change their oil line from level or down hill to up hill and report on any change in oil consumption. This would have to be done with out changing anything else at the same time of course. I would be interested in the results of such an experiment.

 

 

[facthunter]

Overflow Oil.

 

Low flyer. I wouldn't do that. Oil is not that dear (yet). There must be some weeds around that you could tidy up. That oil would be quite contaminated compared to what is in the motor. Nev

 

 

[slartibartfast]

Perhaps there is someone who can change their oil line from level or down hill to up hill and report on any change in oil consumption. This would have to be done with out changing anything else at the same time of course. I would be interested in the results of such an experiment.

I can confirm that routing the breather higher definitely reduced the amount of oil reaching my catch bottle on my Jab 2200. I further reduced the oil blowing through the catch bottle and under the plane by filling the catch bottle with steel wool. This encourages the oil to settle rather than blow through with any air.

 

I suspect something like steel wool near and above the crankcase breather would prevent even more oil reaching the collector, but haven't tried it. It would need to be particle free so nothing else flowed back but oil (obviously).

 

 

[Thx1137]

....

This is unsubstantiated roumor

 

....

hehehe. As subtle as a brick :-) But sometimes it does seem we need to go that far eh!

 

 

[Guest Qwerty]

Slarty, I have seen an installation where a second "catch bottle" was installed in the breather line, on top of the engine, the bottle was oriented with the inlet lower than the outlet. The bottle was filled with loose Stainless steel wool. The idea was that the oil condenses on the wool and drains back into the engine. It was reported to me by the owner that this stopped any oil from reaching the standard bottle which was still in place. The owner seemed to me to know what he was talking about, he also seemed to me not to be an idiot.

 

You have this information secondhand (or is that third hand, he got the information directly, I got it from him????). I spoke directly to the owner, operator, mechanic about this.

 

Yes Thx, I want to be crystal clear about the source of such information. You are then in a position to decide what, if any, value to place on the information.:thumb_up:

 

Qwerty

 

 

[Lowflyer]

re uphill routing of oil vent.

 

Thanks Qwerty, will give it a go.

 

The idea of a mesh inline also sounds a good one, just finding something stable with no loose particles etc.

 

Great engine just an annoying problem with the oil breather.

 

Roly (pom flyer)

 

 

[Yenn]

Wire wool makes a good mesh.It is used in agricultural air cleaners, where there is plenty of dust to be extracted from the incoming engine air.

 

 

[Guest Qwerty]

Lowflyer, The guy used stainless steel wool in his. I know that you can get a course variety from the stupidmarket, they sell to use as as pot cleaners.