PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Airwolf remote oil filters
View Single Post
Old 8th Jan 2011, 19:59
  #7 (permalink)  
SNS3Guppy
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: USA
Posts: 3,218
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Adding a filter doesn't mean you should increase your oil change interval. That's false economy.

An oil filter is there to filter oil. Your oil screen filters out anything big enough for a part number. In other words, it doesn't filter much, especially particulates that can cause significant damage and wear to your engine. An oil filter does that, and filters in the order of microns.

Your oil doesn't need to be changed simply because it picks up large contaminates or wear material. Your oil collects acid. This occurs as a result of blow-by; you have lead in the oil, and you have other acids which build up and run into the sump during times of condensation. These acids accumulate. They sit in the oil, and they are distributed throughout the engine.

The best thing you can do for the engine is to run it regularly. You still need regular oil changes, however. Even if the airplane doesn't fly at all, even if you never turn that propeller, you need to perform regular oil changes.

I've always strongly recommended 25 hour oil changes, though many people do 50 hour oil changes. I prefer 50 hour changes and 3 to 4 month intervals. Four should be the longest you go. Most airplanes I've flown end up doing several oil changes a month, as they're flown very regularly. The exception is turbine engines, which have different requirements.

In a piston airplane engine, even if you don't fly, you should change the oil after three or four months. Oil change intervals need to be applied by calendar time as well as by engine operating time.

Remember with respect to engine operating time that many aircraft and many operators only count flight time when calculating engine hours; you can have quite a few more hours between intervals in taxi time, run time on the ground, warm-up, etc. All of this is contaminating the oil, even if you aren't counting it toward maintenance intervals or aircraft hours.

I've long been a strong advocate of doing spectrometric engine oil analysis with every oil change, too. It's something you might skip if you're only changing it on a calendar date, but personally I recommend taking an oil sample every time you drain the oil, and submitting it for analysis.

Don't get that filter in order to do less oil changing. Get that filter in order to improve the protection in your engine, and to make accessing the filter easy (the big advantage of a remote filter adapter, vs. a spin-on close to the firewall). They also make oil changes less messy. Consider every oil change just like doing blood work on a person; it's a chance to get good insight into the health of your engine, and that alone is worth dropping the oil and submitting the analysis.

Doing an oil change every 25 hours means that you're regularly uncowling that engine and looking it over (or you should be), and it's a good time to look everything else over, too. The oil change should always be a trigger for a general inspection, and that's a very, very good thing. Don't short change yourself, or your airplane.
SNS3Guppy is offline