Oilamatic

Bob Noel

Bob Noel

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Bob Noel
Does anyone have any experience with oilamatic pre-oilers?
http://www.oilamatic.com/

I know I should use my aircraft more (pa-28-140) but work and
weather often conspire to keep me on the ground...
 
I am interested in the replies here. Perhaps this bump will help.

It seems that due to the typical inferequency of use of AC that there is an opportunity for a device which would "fog" an engine on shut-down.

From what I understand, a pre-oiler will help with bearing life and few other areas, but the slow an insidious rusting away of the cross-hatching in the cylinders can only be slowed with frequent use, dessicant plugs, or other long-term storage methods.
 
I'm with jhausch. If you can't fly your plane more than every 10 days or so, find a partner who will. In addition, research suggests you can help with corrosion protection on infrequently used planes by using Exxon Elite 20W50 oil.
 
Ron Levy said:
I'm with jhausch. If you can't fly your plane more than every 10 days or so, find a partner who will. In addition, research suggests you can help with corrosion protection on infrequently used planes by using Exxon Elite 20W50 oil.
Click to expand...
I have been using that oil on my plane as had the previous owner. When we did the top overhaul a coupe of years back there was not one bit of corrosion. Was that because of the oil? But their claim is that it helps.
 
Ron Levy said:
Because Exxon put several additives in the oil to make it better at corrosion protection. See http://www.exxonelite.com/Lubes/Exxon/elite/FAQ.html for more.
Click to expand...

jmaynard said:
Okkay, why?
Click to expand...

Also from Mike Busch
Blackstone Labs maintains an extensive database of wear metals produced by almost all types of piston aircraft engines. They performed an analysis that compared the wear metals generated by 571 Lycoming IO-360 engines using four types of oil: Aeroshell W100, Aeroshell 15W-50, Exxon Elite 20W-50, and Phillips 20W-50. They found no significant difference in wear metals between the four types of oil.



Another important oil-related issue is preventing corrosion (rust) when an engine is dormant for a period of weeks or months -- something that seldom happens to "working airplanes" (charter, rental, flight school, flying club, etc.), but is unfortunately common among owner-flown airplanes. Rust is the #1 reason that engines fail to make manufacturer's recommended TBO, so preventing it is extremely important.



This is where controversy abounds. Both Aeroshell and Exxon go to great lengths in their advertisements to proclaim the superior corrosion-preventive capabilities of their flagship multigrade oils (Aeroshell 15W-50 and Exxon Elite 20W-50) and offer all sorts of laboratory test results to substantiate their claims. Similarly, an independent study performed by and published in The Aviation Consumer confirmed that these two oils were superior at preventing rust on steel plates in a salt-water-cabinet test.
Click to expand...
http://www.avweb.com/news/savvyaviator/savvy_aviator_52_thinking_about_oil_changes_196730-1.html
 
> find a partner who will...

well, there are good and bad with partnerships. For me, the downsides of
not flying the airplane enough is preferrable to dealing with the downsides
of a partnership.
 
jhausch said:
I am interested in the replies here. Perhaps this bump will help.

It seems that due to the typical inferequency of use of AC that there is an opportunity for a device which would "fog" an engine on shut-down.

From what I understand, a pre-oiler will help with bearing life and few other areas, but the slow an insidious rusting away of the cross-hatching in the cylinders can only be slowed with frequent use, dessicant plugs, or other long-term storage methods.
Click to expand...

A pre-oiler forces oil into all the galleries, and feeds the bearings, valve train, and so on. Bearings starting dry wear very rapidly, while cylinders starting dry can afford to wait a couple of seconds for the oil. If the bearings are pre-oiled, the cylinders will get oil as soon as things start firing.
Fogging the case on shutdown won't do anything. The inside of the case is already absolutely soaking wet with oil from the engine's running.
I built a small manual pre-oiler for my homebuilt after I had to do major crank and bearing rework. The oil pump in small Continentals often leaks past the gear cover when it sits for a few days, and so there's little or no prime on startup. This leads to delayed oiling of the farthest reaches of the system, which happens to be the front rod journals, and the bearings wear out. Preoiling the thing makes the pressure come up instantly after start.
Ground running of the engine and then putting it away is about the worst thing one can do. Considerable combustion gases get past the rings, especially when the engine is cool, and those gases include water vapor which condenses in the cool case and mixes with the oil. Leave that sit for awhile and the oil and water will react in the presence of metals and form sulfuric and hydrochloric and maybe nitric acids. Those acids accelerate corrosion big time. Such engines have very short lives in terms of hours before overhaul. So if you aren't going to fly it so that it gets hot enough for long enough to boil that water out of the case, don't start it.
Many years ago I read of an old guy who would occasionally mix a little baking soda with some oil and put it in his car's engine. The engine ran for nearly a million miles before it was worn out, and this was in a day when 100,000 miles was considered to be a little long in the tooth. He said that crankcase acids were the biggest hassle for cars that made short trips, and the soda neutralized them. Makes sense, but I think he's be monitoring the pH of the oil so that he didn't get it too alkaline.
We have an O-235 in a Citrabria that runs far too cold due to the overefficient cooling system, and there's little we can legally do about it. This engine suffers cylinder wall corrosion so that the rings wear the walls faster and form ridges that then shave the aluminum piston pin plugs and leave metal in the oil screen. It's been apart once and will be apart agiain, twice in its 2400-hour life. Sad. but that's what water in the case will do for you.
Dan
 
bump


My situation at home has changed (unfortunately) so now I have enough time to allow me to resume flying. But I'm still curious...

Does anyone have any experience with oilamatic pre-oilers?
http://www.oilamatic.com/
 
Ron Levy said:
I'm with jhausch. If you can't fly your plane more than every 10 days or so, find a partner who will. In addition, research suggests you can help with corrosion protection on infrequently used planes by using Exxon Elite 20W50 oil.
Click to expand...
I drain the old oil change the filter add preservation oil and run until warm, shut down and they set for 6-7 months, take them out in the spring warm them up drain the pres oil and add the owners favorite oil and they are good to go all summer, been doing it 15 years on 10 different super cubs, and have had no problems.
 
My aircraft has one. It is used at every start up, and has yet to leak. The airplane works great, but other than that I really can't tell how well it is preserving the engine. Seems like an awfully good idea, I still remember the commercials saying "starting your engine is the worst thing you can do". But I have no data to offer.
 
Can't speak to Oilamatics but all big (1000 hp+) engines I've been around have pre-oilers. They won't help with corrosion at all but they do reduce wear when the engine is started since bearings aren't loaded until there is an oil film.
 
The most fascinating part of this thread to me was resurrecting Busch's comments from 2008 on Aeroshell and Exxon. Recent articles in the Cessna Pilot's Assn he's written are now touting Phillips X-C 20W50 and Camguard.

Anyone's allowed to change their mind, of course, but reading the recent articles, they read like this was always the best solution and no reference to previous articles like the one referenced above. Interesting.
 
Okay, never mind.

Scott quoted Busch's paragraph without noting that Mike goes straight into the next sentence with the word "However", and proceeds to tout a single weight oil just as he says in the recent CPA articles that he still recommends for climates that can do it.

Then he talks about why Phillips X-C is his preferred multi-viscosity oil now (he doesn't use a multi-viscosity oil) for those who need one.

So his story hasnt changed when it's not snipped out of context of the entire article. In fact in the same article he says that every case of cam wear he'd investigated at the time (2007) the aircraft was usually operated infrequently and on Aeroshell 15W50.
 
I have one in my Cardinal - it was installed long before I bought the plane.

Basically, it's an electric oil pump that is plumbed into the system. You run it before starting the engine and it usually takes a few seconds to pressurize the oil system (indicated by the oil pressure needled moving into the green, and the Hobbs meter starting to tick).

I run it before every cold start. I can't really tell you how much of a difference it makes, as I've never owned a plane without one.
 
The cost is about three times what it should be...right in line with everything else avation...

$1 for me
$1 for the attorney
$1 for the insurance company.
 
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