> A couple of Europa owners have suggested I use a straight oil for the
> first
> 25 hours of running on my R912. I have spoken to Skydrive and this is
> not
> Rotax's recommendation.
>
> A list of approved oils is available for download on the Rotax web
> site. For
> hot running semi synthetic or fully synthetic oils with gear additives
> are
> highly recommended.
>
> I opted for Castrol GPS because it was easiest to buy out of the
> highly
> recommended brands.
>
has 170,000 miles on it. I did a rough calculation and came up with
something like 5,000 operating hours. Granted it's not always at high
rpm settings like an airplane engine, but I do drive in a spirited
manner.
Anyway. I broke the engine in on mineral oil and then switched
to synthetic for the next 120,000 miles. When a chronic leak began, I
switched to Valvoline semi-synthetic since it is about half the cost of
the full synthetic.
The hot side of the turbo finally failed at 150,000 miles, but
the turbo bearing was still OK.
Just some data input for anyone wondering about synthetics and
semi-synthetics for the 912 and 914. I haven't looked at the "approved
oils" list, so I can't comment on them.
Remember that oil oxidizes and breaks down as a function of
time, so with the relatively low number of hours that most aircraft
engines see, oil changes may be more of a function of calendar time
rather than engine time.
Andrew
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