Transcript
Speaker 1:
One of my questions is, and I just started using this – I have 25 hours, and he was saying, let’s say that I don’t fly 25 hours in two or three years. When would be the best time to go back in and change this again? Because this stuff does tend to break down over time so everything that is caustic in your engine that starts to break down, it will re-release back over time because the mineral oils, unlike the synthetic oils, they do break down over time. The mineral oils are better at suspending and sealing but they also do break down. So when would you recommend is a good time?
Speaker 2:
The biggest thing is, the more time that you’re going to generate, so if you pull it out, go find the pattern, put two or three hours on it – all those combustion byproducts go into that oil. So if you go do that a time or two and you’re building all that up in there, then I would probably look at going ahead and making that oil change happen because again things are acidic so it’s going to build up over time you want to get that out, especially for long-term storage because there comes a point, just like in everything, nothing’s going to be permanent there.
So, to your point around when to potentially change it, would be, you can go the full 25 hours if you want to but in reality you probably want to change it before that. I can’t give you a hard time.
Speaker 1:
Depending on how many months or years it takes you to reach that 25 hours.
Speaker 2:
The key there too is that there’s not one hard and fast rule so depending upon where you are in the country and how you operate your aircraft. You’re going to operate it differently than I might operate or Chelsea’s going to operate it as well.
So we can give you some great general guidelines in there but each case is a little bit different. That’s where a technical hotline also comes in, so you can call and talk to them, they’ll get you hooked up with the right folks. We have Steven Stroller who gave a presentation earlier this week talking about aircraft maintenance and specifically about engine oils so we can also get you hooked up with him as well.
Summary
Determining how often you should change your oil in your aircraft can be a tough timeline to figure out. Although it is recommended to have it changed every 25 hours, that is merely a guideline due to the fact that the conditions and frequency with which you operate your aircraft in differ from person to person.
Ensuring there is minimal acidity building up in your aviation engine is key to guaranteeing safety and efficiency of your aircraft. A hotline is available where you can acquire more definite answers for your personal solution, otherwise the general guideline sits at 25 hours before an engine oil change.
