Good oil
It is true that spending money on the right stuff saves you money in the long term. Not in all cases, but that is one of the major life skills: To know when to spend and know when to save. Not to brag, but that is one of my talents. I suck terribly at making money (my career choice of comic artist might give it away, haha), but I’m quite good at smart spending and saving. I sometimes wonder where I’d be if I’d be good in both sides of the spectrum, but alas, you can’t have it all.
But I definitely have been in situations, where I had to spend money on crappy quick fixes, even though I knew it would be more expensive in the long run. It’s one of the many ways that life can be unfair and contributes to the poor staying poor and the rich staying rich. The Terry Pratchett fans among you will know this as the Sam Vimes’ “Boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness”.
Not sure how big a factor the quality of motor oil is, though, but I guess the most important is to actually change it at more or less the suggested intervals. I’m not an expert in this field, to be honest. But knowing our fan base, I’m sure there has got to be at least one of you out there, who could write an impromptu essay on the subject of oils, haha!
Stef
back in the ancient days of the mid 1990’s I sold Pennzoil Aircooled Engine oil (70W iirc, with a list of Lycoming and Continental specs it met), to one place with aircraft, the other places were split between Harley Davidson repair shops, and airboat operators or their maintenance men (independent auto, boat, and “Whatya got?” guys)
Could be worse. I changed an oil pressure indicator, and the sender that goes with it, while the plane was on visit. I made a trial starting the engine at the end to see there was no indication of pressure. So I rechecked my wiring, and even mounted the indicator in another plane to conclude the sender was faulty. I ordered another one in « aog » mode, and mounted it as soon as it arrived. So see that there was still no pressure indication when I started the engine. I had no clue about what the problem was, and re-double checked everything…Until I checked the oil. We just forgot to put new oil in the engine :-O
ouch
A week without a comic? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you! Hope all is well?
Moving on – been there, done that, got the T-shirt…coated in oil, so had to get a new one. Twice.
I’m not an expert on oil either, but I do know that any oil is usually better than no oil at all (though not always). Please don’t ask me how I know, but it also helps to close the dipstick when finished adding it!
The difference between oil life cycle in private planes vs. cars is that many private planes see so little activity that the oil has to be changed because of the minimal interval – often one year – rather than reaching the max. recommended hours or kilometres. There’s another reason for using good quality oil in a private SEP.