A Question About Oil Qty After SP1

BIG, double-deck, four-engine, medium to long range, high altitude, high speed, commercial transport airplane
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Roadburner426
Technical Sergeant
Posts: 871
Joined: 29 Jul 2008, 20:20
Location: Hampton, VA

A Question About Oil Qty After SP1

Post by Roadburner426 »

I first want to thank you for the amount of time that was spent crafting this aircraft.Today was the first time that I have flown it since installing SP1 and I took her up for about a 5 hour functional test flight of sorts to make sure everything that worked before SP1 worked and that everything SP1 added works as well. Everything works great as far as I can tell, but I did notice something regarding oil quantity and adding new oil to the central tank. In the beginning of the checklist when I originally checked the oil quantities they were only at 24GL on all 4 engines with 56GL in the central tank. I topped all 4 engines off to 32GL, and then went to refill the central tank and when the central tank got refilled it took the oil out of the engines and they were back at the 24GL level.. I tried it a few times all to the same result and shrugged it off and pressed on with the checklist. Did the flight, and added the oil to the engines as I flew. When I landed I tried topping off all the engines again. I had about 20GL in each engine, and 10GL in the central tank, when I pressed OIL on the control panel it brought all 4 engine oil levels back up to 24GL, and the central tank to 56GL. Tried reloading the aircraft a few times and is all the same, so I do not think it is a bug. It does not look like the aircraft is in any danger of running completely out of oil before running out of gas. I just wanted to see if this was normal or if it should be filling to the full 32GL instead of 24GL in each engine when I press the fill oil button on the mini-control panel. For my system spec's I am running FSX with Acceleration on a Toshiba X205-9359 with a 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo, 3GB DDR2 Ram, Windows Vista Ultimate SP1. Thanks in advance for any help.
S. Jordan
AM; United States Navy
FSX/P3Dc4 Hours: 3100 and counting! All A2A birds in the hangar except the 172.

davidv
Airman
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Joined: 08 Nov 2008, 14:39

Re: A Question About Oil Qty After SP1

Post by davidv »

I believe you should only fill them up to 24 gallons and that the extra 10 gallon capacity is to leave room for expansion as the engines warm up. Could be wrong.

Roadburner426
Technical Sergeant
Posts: 871
Joined: 29 Jul 2008, 20:20
Location: Hampton, VA

Re: A Question About Oil Qty After SP1

Post by Roadburner426 »

Looks like they just refill to 24GL. Was looking at the picture in the SP1 Addendum and it looks the same as what I am seeing so I think it was just over scruttiny of the aircraft on my part. :oops:
S. Jordan
AM; United States Navy
FSX/P3Dc4 Hours: 3100 and counting! All A2A birds in the hangar except the 172.

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Scott - A2A
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Re: A Question About Oil Qty After SP1

Post by Scott - A2A »

davidD is correct. You need room for expansion, foaming, and movement.

Scott.
A2A Simulations Inc.

Fodda
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Joined: 31 Jul 2008, 03:27
Location: Bristol, England

Re: A Question About Oil Qty After SP1

Post by Fodda »

OK. What was the real life practise with oil quantity at the engines? During my last flight, I let the tanks get down to 20 gallons, then topped each one up to 25 again... Twice as it was a long journey. I had no warnings etc, and I read that the low end was 13 gallons in the manual.

Roadburner426
Technical Sergeant
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Joined: 29 Jul 2008, 20:20
Location: Hampton, VA

Re: A Question About Oil Qty After SP1

Post by Roadburner426 »

Thank you for the answers Scott and David. I'm not sure about the real life practices since it is such an old aircraft and I've never even heard of it before A2A modeled her for FSX. I usually let them get down to between 15-18GL and then I top them back off to just over 25. I only had to fill them once on my 5 hour flight and I was messing around with some numbers and it won't run out of oil before fuel or it would be pretty close. I'd just use the add oil button anyway and refill the tanks.
S. Jordan
AM; United States Navy
FSX/P3Dc4 Hours: 3100 and counting! All A2A birds in the hangar except the 172.

ROB - A2A
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Re: A Question About Oil Qty After SP1

Post by ROB - A2A »

Guys, we've left some stuff to be doable anytime you want, no matter if this is ground or air but the oil refill button is meant as the ground crew service. You are suppose to use the contents of the central oil tank to replenish the engine oil tanks.

regards
ROB
A2A Simulations Inc.

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Scott - A2A
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Re: A Question About Oil Qty After SP1

Post by Scott - A2A »

10 gal is the critical point where the engine will actually begin to starve of oil. If there is any oil starvation and there is oil in the central tank, the emergency system will automatically inject 1 gallon of oil to keep oil in that engine above min.

However, in the rare situation where the central oil tank is dry and oil gets below 10 gal in an engine, you will start to see momentary loss of oil pressure. Think of an oil pump pumping oil up and through the engine. At any given point, 10 gallons of oil is in motion keeping all it's moving parts lubricated. Once you fall below 10 gallons, the oil pump sump (area where oil is sucked in) will have no oil to pump since all 10 gallons are up and circulating through the parts. For this moment, the oil pump sump becomes uncovered, engine oil pressure drops, oil falls back down, fills the sump, and oil starts pumping again and the cycle of momentary loss of oil pressure continues.

Oil pressure will drop move frequently as oil level gets even lower. Eventually, all of these moments of the engine running without oil pressure where the moving metal parts make contact accelerate wear and increase heat. I ran these engines to failure in testing and I cannot remember how long it took, but my guess is you have less than 30 minutes until you have completely destroyed your engine if oil level gets this low.

Also, as engines age, they consume more oil. It is possible an aging engine can start to limit your travel times.

Scott.
A2A Simulations Inc.

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