Minimum oil level?

[Ian Hoolahan]

We operate a 180 Lycoming in our RV, normally we keep the oil up at 6L we are just comming up to the 50 hr check and obviously do not want to put oil in unnecessarily, the book says minimum 2! I would not really want to go THAT low, but what would be a sensible minimum?

[Brian Hope]

I reckon six litres! £50K approx aeroplane value, £15K plus for an engine rebuild. £6 for a litre of oil? I'd have thought it was a no brainer.

[mike newall]

6 Litres is the right amount and you should be doing oil every 25 hours really.

[Ian Hoolahan]

So if you go down to 5.9 you top up?!

[Mark A]

There's no hard and fast rule. The CC340 Titan engine that CubCrafters use only has a 4 qt sump to save weight.
If you're burning half a litre per hour or doing lots of zero/negative G manoeuvres, then you might want to err on the side of a bigger margin.

Filling to 6 and topping up when it reaches 5 is a pretty safe strategy in most cases. That's what I do.

[mike newall]

Ditto

[Ian Hoolahan]

OK thanks, thats what we do ATM anyway, just wondered if letting it go lower than that as it approaches oil change would be ok, sound like not really.