My first flight was in a Rapide at Aldergrove during Empire Air Day. The last York I saw was a Dan Air York that arrived in Honington in 1963 to take Victor spares for the detachment in Singapore.
According to the reports I heard they had a 45 Gallon drum of engine oil inside but it got there in the end.
As an example of how old pistons were used in the civilian world I looked over a Constellation in Belize. The mainwheels were soaked in oil and I was invited inside by the flight engineer who proceeded to run No 4 so I asked him if he was worried about the engine.
His reply was that No 3 was the dodgy one and after takeoff they would feather it immediately so as to make sure they had five minutes out of it on the approach.
No 4 only had a 300 rpm mag drop----not a big problem.