Sport Pilot Talk

nbjeeptj · Joined: 23 Jun 2011 Posts: 46 Location: Gilbert SC

I have a cont 0-200 in my zodiac 601. the oil pressure is high during the run up mag test while at 1700 rpm. we ran the engine for a few min at 2000 rpm and the oil pressure started to come down. We decided to take off and stay in the pattern and see if it would come down into the green the rest of the way, and after we took of it steadly came down and stayed down for the rest of the flight. The only thing different was we made it to the run up much faster than usual so it only ran a short period of time prior to doing the run up. Would it be normal for a engine to run high oil pressure until it gets hot? I am learning to fly and I asked my CFI but he did not know, he is not very much the wrench head as all his time flying has been spent in the cabin not under the cowl.

Tad Olmsted · Joined: 28 Feb 2011 Posts: 34 Location: Sebring,FL

Yes, oil viscosity is very thick when you first start up your engine and is higher than when at normal operating temps. Without knowing any numbers in your situation it is hard to diagnose a potentiel problem.

I have seen time and time again where pilots start up their a/c and do not wait for the temps to come up. Pilots who do this are only poking a skunk... sooner or later they are going to get gassed.

One thing no one does first thing in the morning is start their car, put it in low gear and hold the accelerator to the floor. We all know what will happen, so I recommend getting those temps up where your engine is in its happy place and fly without any worries.

Depending on how high your oil psi was I would monitor it very closely. You may have a restriction in a journal. There's only a few culprits... but the most common is bearing failure.

nbjeeptj · Joined: 23 Jun 2011 Posts: 46 Location: Gilbert SC

Thanks for the info. The oil pressure was 93 to 94 it goes into the red at 90. All the temps were in green but just had made it there. So I guess it is possible that there is a slight overlap between engine temp and hot enough to thin the oil. It does seem odd that it would make a difference of 35psi or so between cool and normal operating temp it runs in the mid 50s full throttle once we are flying.

nbjeeptj · Joined: 23 Jun 2011 Posts: 46 Location: Gilbert SC

This problem still exist. Until the oil temp gets to about 160 the oil pressure will be at around 98 then just as the oil temp goes past 160 the oil pressure will rapidly go down to about 50ish. So my thought is it is most likely a problem with the sending unit. Is the sending unit specific to continental engine or my Dynon Panel?

roger lee · Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 5:56 pm Post subject: Oil Pressure

The oil pressure sender is most likely specific to your Dynon, but could be the Cont. Is it a VDO sending unit? If so they are around $36.

drseti · Joined: 28 Nov 2009 Posts: 1390 Location: Lock Haven PA

Jeep, you don't indicate what kind of oil you're using. If you're not already running multi-viscocity oil, you should give it a try.

nbjeeptj · Joined: 23 Jun 2011 Posts: 46 Location: Gilbert SC

The unit was a vdo but I got one from dynon do it would be the same as the one in the airplane. It was the problem. I flew it for about 3 hr today without a problem. Now if I could just get to the end of this license deal then I could have some real fun.