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Our Austro engines only require an oil change every 100hrs. There has been some discussion at my maint shop about whether to add 6 liters or 7 liters at the oil change, the thinking being that more than 6 liters just ends up being blown out the breather.

I've tracked my engine for the last two 100hr cycles. The first time we changed and added 7 liters, then I added another 1/2 liter. The second time we added 6 liters and I've added 1 1/2 liters. So my conclusion is that the oil consumption is not dependent on the starting oil level.

What's your experience with the Austro engines and oil consumption?

Hi Russ -

From my experience, the oil level should ideally be kept at the half way mark between min and max. Anything above that is just consumed away. At the half way mark, consumption is really minimal.

I've seen the same results as Nigel.

I keep the level at the 1/2 way point and maybe add 1/2 - 3/4 liters over 100 hours (per engine)

I think there's a stronger correlation to oil consumption and power settings. If we cruise at 85%, we'll need a quart every 10-20 hours or so. Sticking to 75% cruise power, we've gone the whole 100 hours without a quart.

For reference, we use Castrol Edge A3/B4 0W-40

I cruise at 85%. I add 6.5l at the oil change, and then 1.0 - 1.5l in between. I use the Shell oil.

I have noticed some drips from the oil breather in the hangar. My experience with MB diesel car engines was that they did not burn any oil between changes and I suspect that most of the lost oil in the Austro is being blown out the breather. The belly of my plane seems to be where much of it ends up!

Boatguy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 1:44 am I cruise at 85%. I add 6.5l at the oil change, and then 1.0 - 1.5l in between. I use the Shell oil.

I have noticed some drips from the oil breather in the hangar. My experience with MB diesel car engines was that they did not burn any oil between changes and I suspect that most of the lost oil in the Austro is being blown out the breather. The belly of my plane seems to be where much of it ends up!

The IO-360 also blows a fair amount onto the belly. I stopped mounting my camera on the rear tie-down because it gets coated with what I'm assuming are oil and unburnt combustants, resulting in a mess on my camera and blurry videos. Still I only burn about a quart every 20 hours.

dmloftus wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:12 pm

Boatguy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 1:44 am I cruise at 85%. I add 6.5l at the oil change, and then 1.0 - 1.5l in between. I use the Shell oil.

I have noticed some drips from the oil breather in the hangar. My experience with MB diesel car engines was that they did not burn any oil between changes and I suspect that most of the lost oil in the Austro is being blown out the breather. The belly of my plane seems to be where much of it ends up!

The IO-360 also blows a fair amount onto the belly. I stopped mounting my camera on the rear tie-down because it gets coated with what I'm assuming are oil and unburnt combustants, resulting in a mess on my camera and blurry videos. Still I only burn about a quart every 20 hours.

The difference is that oil changes for an Austro engine are every 100hrs and they use synthetic oil. So while you burn/blow 5qts in 100hrs, the Austro burns/blows 1.5qts. Or at least that's what my engine seems to consume.

I've always put the full 7 quarts (liters) in after each oil change (BTW, I also use Castrol Edge A3/B4 0W-40 since I can buy both 5 quart and 1 quart bottles very inexpensively off the shelf at the local WalMart).

And I usually need to add only 1 quart roughly 2/3 of the way through each 100 hour oil change interval to bring oil to the half-way point between the full and low marks. This has been consistent on both engines of our DA42-VI and DA62. We normally cruise at 75-80% power.

This is totally different from my Lycoming DA40's IO-360, where it seemed I was regularly adding oil (to the 6 quart level only). If I topped it off, I quickly blew out a couple of quarts, making a big mess on the belly until consumptions stabilized around 6 quarts.

Obviously we're digressing a bit into the IO-360. I have the M20 oil separator and typically fill it with 8 qts at oil change. When it has come down below 6 qts. I go ahead and change it again. This usually comes out to just short of 25 hours.

Rich wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 11:47 pm Obviously we're digressing a bit into the IO-360.

Yes. I didn't want to start another Lycoming vs Austro discussion. I just wanted to know what other Austro engine owners are experiencing.