That First Oil Change

Guest Discussion
1

I just spent the last hour searching the archives for posts on this subject; surprised not to find anything specific on the topic of oil changes, including types and brands of engine oil.

I picked up SR22 #62 on July 20th and, following two days at DHL, flew it to Seattle to spend an extra week with WingsAloft. I had been out of the cockpit for twenty years and needed a solid refresher (I plan to post my experience with WA in the next couple weeks). While I was there, I hit the magic 25 hours; time to replace the mineral oil with the real stuff. By the way, as predicted, consumption of mineral oil quit around the 18 hour mark. I asked WA to do the change.

The engine oil of choice at WA happens to be Exxon EE100 SAE 50, which I believe is a semi-synthetic lubricant. Prior to my departure I loaded up on a few extra quarts for my X/C home to Ohio and have been feeding my engine Exxon EE100 ever since. Now close to 70 hours on the Hobbs, I’m ready for my next change. When I talked with G Force, my nearest Cirrus authorized maintenance center (Akron), they were surprised to hear I was using Exxon; they prefer AeroShell, which is 100% non-synthetic. On top of that they told me that since I’m now on Exxon, that’s the road I’m going to have to travel from now on. A conversation with Mike Busch today basically confirmed that.

This being my first ownership, I’m learning stuff everyday. I just learned that, unlike an automobile, oil is not oil. You don’t mix them; you don’t even swap them at an oil change. I expect to hear all sorts of thoughts and opinions on this!

Bob Mihocik

N762CD

P.S. The airplane is flying great and fast!

2

I just spent the last hour searching the archives for posts on this subject; surprised not to find anything specific on the topic of oil changes, including types and brands of engine oil.

I picked up SR22 #62 on July 20th and, following two days at DHL, flew it to Seattle to spend an extra week with WingsAloft. I had been out of the cockpit for twenty years and needed a solid refresher (I plan to post my experience with WA in the next couple weeks). While I was there, I hit the magic 25 hours; time to replace the mineral oil with the real stuff. By the way, as predicted, consumption of mineral oil quit around the 18 hour mark. I asked WA to do the change.

The engine oil of choice at WA happens to be Exxon EE100 SAE 50, which I believe is a semi-synthetic lubricant. Prior to my departure I loaded up on a few extra quarts for my X/C home to Ohio and have been feeding my engine Exxon EE100 ever since. Now close to 70 hours on the Hobbs, I’m ready for my next change. When I talked with G Force, my nearest Cirrus authorized maintenance center (Akron), they were surprised to hear I was using Exxon; they prefer AeroShell, which is 100% non-synthetic. On top of that they told me that since I’m now on Exxon, that’s the road I’m going to have to travel from now on. A conversation with Mike Busch today basically confirmed that.

This being my first ownership, I’m learning stuff everyday. I just learned that, unlike an automobile, oil is not oil. You don’t mix them; you don’t even swap them at an oil change. I expect to hear all sorts of thoughts and opinions on this!

Bob Mihocik

N762CD

P.S. The airplane is flying great and fast!

This is really not an answer to the above, but one thought comes after the other. Through the years I have read (with interest), the horror stories of oil loss in flight, and some of those airplane engines have been treated with Microlon, some kind of engine treatment, that will make the engine smoother, and less dramatic in case of engine loss. There has been a TV show on this subject with car engines also, where they ran the engines WITHOUT oil way past redline without any damage to the engine. Microlon has some STCs for a lot of engines and their product is FAA approved. I have no idea if it is TCM approved, or if TCM has ANY official position on this one time additive, or treatment. Has anyone had some experience or knowledge to share on this? Microlon has a web site with some interesting info about this.

Any infor would be appreciated!

3

Call Continental. I beleive they have stated that mixing oils does not matter.

4

Bob: If you don’t subscribe to Aviation Consumer you might think about doing it now. They ran a test of aircraft engine oils originally published in it’s August 2000 issue. Thye found the product ExxonMobil Elite to have the best rust protection in the tests they ran. The others were Shell 15W-50 Aero Sheel, Shell W100 Plus, Shell W100 and Phillips XC 20W50.

There was no mention of the issue of switching to another oil in this article. All can I recall is a vague memory that the U.S. Navy did a study a long time ago regarding lubercating oils which found that the effectiveness of the oil was diminished when oils of different manufacturers were mixed. Since you are changing the filter with the engine oil, there would be only a small amount of the “old” oil remaining in the engine. If there was concern over mixing, another filter and oil change after a short flight would reduce the percentage of “old” oil even further. Anybody have anything more specific?

Also, there was no mention in this article of any test of engine wear. However, rust is apparantly the bigger problem. I am not sure whether Exxon EE100 SAE50 is the same product as ExxonMobil Elite.

One advantage to Aviation Consumer is that once you are a subscriber, you can access the web site and get reprints of any articles. For example, a search on the word “oil” brought up 161 articles. Additional search terms would of course reduce that number.

I, for one, am interested in your WA experience in training after being 20 years out of the cockpit. I have been out for about half of that, but plan to do training (either before or after delivery) with WA. A note in the Forum announcing the posting of the article would be helpful.

I just spent the last hour searching the archives for posts on this subject; surprised not to find anything specific on the topic of oil changes, including types and brands of engine oil.

I picked up SR22 #62 on July 20th and, following two days at DHL, flew it to Seattle to spend an extra week with WingsAloft. I had been out of the cockpit for twenty years and needed a solid refresher (I plan to post my experience with WA in the next couple weeks). While I was there, I hit the magic 25 hours; time to replace the mineral oil with the real stuff. By the way, as predicted, consumption of mineral oil quit around the 18 hour mark. I asked WA to do the change.

The engine oil of choice at WA happens to be Exxon EE100 SAE 50, which I believe is a semi-synthetic lubricant. Prior to my departure I loaded up on a few extra quarts for my X/C home to Ohio and have been feeding my engine Exxon EE100 ever since. Now close to 70 hours on the Hobbs, I’m ready for my next change. When I talked with G Force, my nearest Cirrus authorized maintenance center (Akron), they were surprised to hear I was using Exxon; they prefer AeroShell, which is 100% non-synthetic. On top of that they told me that since I’m now on Exxon, that’s the road I’m going to have to travel from now on. A conversation with Mike Busch today basically confirmed that.

This being my first ownership, I’m learning stuff everyday. I just learned that, unlike an automobile, oil is not oil. You don’t mix them; you don’t even swap them at an oil change. I expect to hear all sorts of thoughts and opinions on this!

Bob Mihocik

N762CD

P.S. The airplane is flying great and fast!

5

The continental engine care manual that I recieved with the SR22 says that the oils are all compatible and can be mixed at will. They didn’t specifically mention mixing synthetics with nonsynthetics, but went to length to mention that they are all compatible if approved.

6

For what is is worth…
I know a mechanic who’s been rebuliding aircraft engines for 25 years.
A year ago, he told me ‘never’ mix mutli’s with and straight (unless an emergency). Then get it out right away. Additionally, straight weights are unquestionably BEST. He commented if you like, change to multi in the winter time (he added I don’t have to since I have REIFF heater) and stay mutli but back to straight in early spring. . Finally, he stated that 80% of the engine failures he sees were using multi grades.
Just passing along his ‘10 cents’ earned the past 25 years…good enogh for me…Since then, I have been using SHELL 100 SAE 50.
Hopes this helps with your decision…it did for me.
TC,

7

if it really works…bet it lowers the oil temp too!

I just spent the last hour searching the archives for posts on this subject; surprised not to find anything specific on the topic of oil changes, including types and brands of engine oil.

I picked up SR22 #62 on July 20th and, following two days at DHL, flew it to Seattle to spend an extra week with WingsAloft. I had been out of the cockpit for twenty years and needed a solid refresher (I plan to post my experience with WA in the next couple weeks). While I was there, I hit the magic 25 hours; time to replace the mineral oil with the real stuff. By the way, as predicted, consumption of mineral oil quit around the 18 hour mark. I asked WA to do the change.

The engine oil of choice at WA happens to be Exxon EE100 SAE 50, which I believe is a semi-synthetic lubricant. Prior to my departure I loaded up on a few extra quarts for my X/C home to Ohio and have been feeding my engine Exxon EE100 ever since. Now close to 70 hours on the Hobbs, I’m ready for my next change. When I talked with G Force, my nearest Cirrus authorized maintenance center (Akron), they were surprised to hear I was using Exxon; they prefer AeroShell, which is 100% non-synthetic. On top of that they told me that since I’m now on Exxon, that’s the road I’m going to have to travel from now on. A conversation with Mike Busch today basically confirmed that.

This being my first ownership, I’m learning stuff everyday. I just learned that, unlike an automobile, oil is not oil. You don’t mix them; you don’t even swap them at an oil change. I expect to hear all sorts of thoughts and opinions on this!

Bob Mihocik

N762CD

P.S. The airplane is flying great and fast!

This is really not an answer to the above, but one thought comes after the other. Through the years I have read (with interest), the horror stories of oil loss in flight, and some of those airplane engines have been treated with Microlon, some kind of engine treatment, that will make the engine smoother, and less dramatic in case of engine loss. There has been a TV show on this subject with car engines also, where they ran the engines WITHOUT oil way past redline without any damage to the engine. Microlon has some STCs for a lot of engines and their product is FAA approved. I have no idea if it is TCM approved, or if TCM has ANY official position on this one time additive, or treatment. Has anyone had some experience or knowledge to share on this? Microlon has a web site with some interesting info about this.

Any infor would be appreciated!

8

if it really works…bet it lowers the oil temp too!

http://www.microlon.com/Treatment_Pricing/treatment_pricing.html

I just spent the last hour searching the archives for posts on this subject; surprised not to find anything specific on the topic of oil changes, including types and brands of engine oil.

I picked up SR22 #62 on July 20th and, following two days at DHL, flew it to Seattle to spend an extra week with WingsAloft. I had been out of the cockpit for twenty years and needed a solid refresher (I plan to post my experience with WA in the next couple weeks). While I was there, I hit the magic 25 hours; time to replace the mineral oil with the real stuff. By the way, as predicted, consumption of mineral oil quit around the 18 hour mark. I asked WA to do the change.

The engine oil of choice at WA happens to be Exxon EE100 SAE 50, which I believe is a semi-synthetic lubricant. Prior to my departure I loaded up on a few extra quarts for my X/C home to Ohio and have been feeding my engine Exxon EE100 ever since. Now close to 70 hours on the Hobbs, I’m ready for my next change. When I talked with G Force, my nearest Cirrus authorized maintenance center (Akron), they were surprised to hear I was using Exxon; they prefer AeroShell, which is 100% non-synthetic. On top of that they told me that since I’m now on Exxon, that’s the road I’m going to have to travel from now on. A conversation with Mike Busch today basically confirmed that.

This being my first ownership, I’m learning stuff everyday. I just learned that, unlike an automobile, oil is not oil. You don’t mix them; you don’t even swap them at an oil change. I expect to hear all sorts of thoughts and opinions on this!

Bob Mihocik

N762CD

P.S. The airplane is flying great and fast!

This is really not an answer to the above, but one thought comes after the other. Through the years I have read (with interest), the horror stories of oil loss in flight, and some of those airplane engines have been treated with Microlon, some kind of engine treatment, that will make the engine smoother, and less dramatic in case of engine loss. There has been a TV show on this subject with car engines also, where they ran the engines WITHOUT oil way past redline without any damage to the engine. Microlon has some STCs for a lot of engines and their product is FAA approved. I have no idea if it is TCM approved, or if TCM has ANY official position on this one time additive, or treatment. Has anyone had some experience or knowledge to share on this? Microlon has a web site with some interesting info about this.

Any infor would be appreciated!

9

I’m not a oil-engineer but I took in my life many experience about “oil”, startingwith in 10 years of motocross rider pro career, and later, with Mobil Oil Co which my company was sole exlusivist distributor in Italy (motorcycles line only) for four years untill 1999.

This is what I learned (more thank to delightfully conversation with Mobil engineers - Mobil untill '99 produced 80% of oil-base for ALL other oil-brand in the world, later they mix these base, selling their own product - Mobil was / or still is? the sole company with approved oil for lubricate big engine Jet, they said me).

1 - Basically, an engine is anyway an engine despite it is for aviation, marine, motorcycles or car;

2 - “do not mix different tipe of oil”: they say it is a legend. Their laboratory test many mix without found any inconvenience. Anyway they “suggest” do not do it, especially between mineral and sintetic that could create some bad chimical combination inside the engines.

3 - Mineral oil is something that exist since exist oil and from when engine run at full trottle at 800 RPM… (…like G.A. before AGAPE and Cirrus…) New latest syntetic oil, permit better engine lubrication, less friction, less rust, lower temp, protection at higher RPM, slighty better performance, for long time (less oil change - you can see that some cars who raccomended recently oil change at 10.000 miles, specify to use some syntetic oil, while some year ago, appx all cars raccomended 2/3.000 miles oil change>mineral).

These are “words”. But I checked Mobil words directly, seeing with my eyes test on dyno and effect on engine parts like piston/cylinders/valves etc.
I can say that for three years my company sell "Standars high performance sintetic Mobil oil that costed appx 15 USD x litre " to Aprilia Motorcycles racing deparment that use it in 125cc and 250cc G.P. race, winning meanwhile 5 world title, despite they have an “well-know-oil-brand” sponsor for 2 million USD that create and gave them “special oil” that costed hundred of USD x litre, but that works bad than the standard Mobil.
At the same time, Castrol, Shell and other oil brands selled their special oil at 20, 30 or 40 USD x litre, but dyno results show alwais that 15 USD x litre Mobil was better.

This mean and this is what Mobil said me at “closed doors”, that no oil brand had/have interest to reccomend you to change later you oil, or mix different kind of oil.

STC and personal thinking are different matter, but…

Hope this information is been of your interest.

10

remember mobil av1! I had it in my mooney 231 fro over 1500 hours. Then the recall on the oil. with in 25 hours my oil consumption was at 1 qt. a hour. It took me 6 months to get them to pay for a top overhaul. thanks to the class action suit filed in CA.

So stick to the old 100% oil.

ed…

if it really works…bet it lowers the oil temp too!

I just spent the last hour searching the archives for posts on this subject; surprised not to find anything specific on the topic of oil changes, including types and brands of engine oil.

I picked up SR22 #62 on July 20th and, following two days at DHL, flew it to Seattle to spend an extra week with WingsAloft. I had been out of the cockpit for twenty years and needed a solid refresher (I plan to post my experience with WA in the next couple weeks). While I was there, I hit the magic 25 hours; time to replace the mineral oil with the real stuff. By the way, as predicted, consumption of mineral oil quit around the 18 hour mark. I asked WA to do the change.

The engine oil of choice at WA happens to be Exxon EE100 SAE 50, which I believe is a semi-synthetic lubricant. Prior to my departure I loaded up on a few extra quarts for my X/C home to Ohio and have been feeding my engine Exxon EE100 ever since. Now close to 70 hours on the Hobbs, I’m ready for my next change. When I talked with G Force, my nearest Cirrus authorized maintenance center (Akron), they were surprised to hear I was using Exxon; they prefer AeroShell, which is 100% non-synthetic. On top of that they told me that since I’m now on Exxon, that’s the road I’m going to have to travel from now on. A conversation with Mike Busch today basically confirmed that.

This being my first ownership, I’m learning stuff everyday. I just learned that, unlike an automobile, oil is not oil. You don’t mix them; you don’t even swap them at an oil change. I expect to hear all sorts of thoughts and opinions on this!

Bob Mihocik

N762CD

P.S. The airplane is flying great and fast!

This is really not an answer to the above, but one thought comes after the other. Through the years I have read (with interest), the horror stories of oil loss in flight, and some of those airplane engines have been treated with Microlon, some kind of engine treatment, that will make the engine smoother, and less dramatic in case of engine loss. There has been a TV show on this subject with car engines also, where they ran the engines WITHOUT oil way past redline without any damage to the engine. Microlon has some STCs for a lot of engines and their product is FAA approved. I have no idea if it is TCM approved, or if TCM has ANY official position on this one time additive, or treatment. Has anyone had some experience or knowledge to share on this? Microlon has a web site with some interesting info about this.

Any infor would be appreciated!

11

Don’t know who this is…and I never heard of Microlon…Not my user name but it is my email…
Don’t know what can be done, if anything. Hope this isn’t a sign of bad things to come.

12

As I understand it, the restrictions on mixing oils have to do with the effectiveness of two different additive packages in the engine at the same time.

So, there is typically a restiction of adding no more than 2 quarts of another oil to a given base oil in the crankcase. For example, no more than 2 quarts of AeroShell while ExxonElite is the base oil in the crankcase. Or the other way around.

With an oil change, there is no restriction on changing from one oil to another that I know of.

Personally, I have had good experience with Exxon Elite (the stuff in the gold plastic bottles), both in my previous plane (Tobago, 2100 hrs SMOH) and now the SR22 (no real wear or corrosion history, obviously).

Bob

Call Continental. I beleive they have stated that mixing oils does not matter.

13

Bob,

Did you switch to Exxon Elite at 25 hrs. or 50 hrs.
I spoke with Continental and they said you only need mineral oil for 25 hrs. I believe Cirrus was rec. mineral oil for 50 hrs.

I have 25 hours now and I’m about to change the oil. Mineral vs. Exxon elite.

Bob

14

Just saw your post. FWIW, after discussions with service centers, own experience with engines (not much), I put a second load of mineral oil in at 25 hrs and then switched to Exxon Elite at 50 hours. Still running!
Richard

15

I’ve gone with the mineral oil to 50 hrs, then switched to Exxon Elite.

16

In reply to:

Don’t know who this is…and I never heard of Microlon…Not my user name but it is my email…
Don’t know what can be done, if anything. Hope this isn’t a sign of bad things to come.

Don,
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Those posts attributed to you are from August 2001 (i.e. a little over a year ago).

This was an old thread that just recently got a new reply…

So, maybe you DID know about Microlon last year, but forgot about it since then? :slight_smile:

Or maybe even last year it was a fake post using your username (that was prior to the COPA forums and requirement for username/password.) Clyde was good enough to let us post without having to go through the hassles of username and password to gain access! [;)]

Steve

17

When I had my Skyhawk engine rebuilt in February, Zephyr Engines told me that their preferred oil was Phillips 20-50XC.
That is the same I’d been using since 1979 & the engine went to 2200 vs an 1800 TBO, with no problems
JD

18

Obviously, there is no best oil, otherwise there would only be one opinion and all folks would be using the same methodology.
Brian