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Does oil have a shelf life?

Ex Bonanza Bucko

Well Known Member
I bought six liters of Aeroshell Sport Four + oil for my Rotax 912ULS and RV12. I note that the bottles have two dates on them which are two years apart. There is no descriptor of the dates.....nothing to indicate what they mean. In my case the latest dates are two years ago.

Does this cause you any concern? If so why?

Thanks,
EBB
 
It sat in the ground a couple million years. Can't imagine it would last any less in a clean, dry container.
 
I bought six liters of Aeroshell Sport Four + oil for my Rotax 912ULS and RV12. I note that the bottles have two dates on them which are two years apart. There is no descriptor of the dates.....nothing to indicate what they mean. In my case the latest dates are two years ago.

Does this cause you any concern? If so why?

Thanks,
EBB

No cause for concern. Oils with wide viscosity range had some issues decades ago with the VI (viscosity improvers) settling out, but you just drained the containers dry and all was good. I still drain every drop from my containers.

uhhhh, welllll , ahhhh- - - - That is . . . unless you have Aeroshell 50W mineral oil and you can send that old stuff to me for disposal :D
 
I suspect that the oil does in fact have a shelf life, but I doubt you will live long enough to reach it.

Probably not your grandkids either;)
 
WARNING- my stored Aeroshell will expire in 3843. April 15th to be precise.
On a serious note though.... I am amazed (for over 30 years) at how much our flying engines cost to fix up when sick.
Then I look at the oil change habits of owners. If they spent a little now, with frequent clean oil.... I think that expenditure might pale against the overhaul shop invoice. 25? 30 hours ?
 
good till

If it had a shelf life there would be a expiration date.
Feds would mandate it.
Are you just trying to be silly? Do you have a warehouse full of oil?
 
Apparently the AeroShell Sport 40 does have a expiration date. A couple years ago I got a great deal on some because it was expiring according to the date printed on the container.
 
Apparently the AeroShell Sport 40 does have a expiration date. A couple years ago I got a great deal on some because it was expiring according to the date printed on the container.

I bet the date is just a lawyer thing to maybe wiggle out of some sort of long term liability. Either that or marketing hoping a few will pitch it and buy new thus selling more oil.
 
retest

Actually Shell documentation states that oil should be tested after4 years.
 
We had a Shell Oil Rep present at an EAA meeting once.

He said that they put a date for retesting, but it was primarily a liability issue. He said that when people have it retested, it never fails.
 
Bottom line:
Nobody knows and a few like to make jokes. But the semi synthetic oil has dates on the bottles which imply at least an expiration date. I would think that the adults on this Blog would be interested in finding out what that is and why it is.

Only half of this oil was in the ground for a million years as one wise guy observed. The other half was distilled/manufactured by Shell. With our engines at risk I think we should find out if these dates mean anything to us. If they don't then we should discover why they are on the bottles.

I intend to do that.

EBB
 
Shell Sport4 shelf life

A friend picked up 3L of Shell Sport4 for me and i see it is dated May 2016. With the above I'm questioning if i should return it. Thoughts?
 
This thread reminded me (my age is showing) I had a case of Aeroshell left over from the 70's. Oil "can" was actually paper back then. I was cleaning out the garage last summer and found the case of old oil like an archeology dig. Every "can" was leaking at the spiral wind and some cans were half empty. I gave the case of oil to a guy and he used it in his Cub...

nearest bp filling station
 
One of the reasons that oil manufactures loosely talk about an expiration date is the additives. The additives in the oil can and will settle out. Oil that has been sitting for a couple of years will need to be shaken thoroughly to evenly disperse them in the solution.
 
and from the 'somebody always has to top it dept',

I've got a couple of cans (likely from my dad's collection, or my teen years) of Havoline and a can of Quaker State that are literal cans; as in steel cans, rusting on the outside. I'd post pics, but... well, you know.

Unopened. Make me an offer I can't refuse.

Charlie
 
I asked the AeroShell Rep at AirVenture Oshkosh a few years ago about the Expiration Date on a case of AeroShell 15W-50 that I had sitting in my hangar. He was adamant that it was NO GOOD after the expiration date.

Not sure if it was the additive package in the oil or what. There is a link above that was posted to an AeroShell retest date so not sure how us end users go about retesting once the product we have is past its shelf life date.
 
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I asked the AeroShell Rep at AirVenture Oshkosh a few years ago about the Expiration Date on a case of AeroShell 15W-50 that I had sitting in my hangar. He was adamant that it was NO GOOD after the expiration date.

My wife says the $50 bill in my wallet is going to expire soon and I should buy a nice dress for her that's on sale at Macy's...
 
Perhaps one more reason to use unleaded fuel and a full synthetic motor oil in your Rotax equipped RV-12. Full synthetic motor oil is much, much more resistant to breakdown.

Shake well before pouring in also, so that the batch of oil and additive package is homogenized.
 
Never heard of shaking oil before putting it in an engine. Do we not think that our 2700 (or 4000) RPM engines do an adequate job of shaking up the oil on their own?

Maybe it's stirred, not shaken?
 
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Never heard of shaking oil before putting it in an engine. Do we not think that our 2700 RPM engines do an adequate job of shaking up the oil on their own?

Maybe it's stirred, not shaken?

Now you have heard about shaking it. Just the older, shelf bound oils though. Pour out an aged oil and look at the dark spots in the bottom of the container. That is the additives.

I dump the oil in without regard to a full container drain, then sit the "empty" on the warm engine, shake it around to release the additives, then let it all drain into the engine. My aviation oil does not sit that long, but auto does. A year is enough to settle out some additives. Maybe that is why some ship oil in BLACK containers.:D
 
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Perhaps one more reason to use unleaded fuel and a full synthetic motor oil in your Rotax equipped RV-12. Full synthetic motor oil is much, much more resistant to breakdown.

Expiration dates can be a funny thing. Do the ADDITIVES in synthetic oil break down over time, I think the answer is clearly, they do ... which is why Shell marks the bottles with an expiration date. This is one of the reasons I order my oil 3 bottles at a time a little prior to needing it, as opposed to purchasing a case at a time ... with the clock ticking while the oil sits in the box at the hangar. Would you trust your $25K engine on oil 2 years past the expiration date set by the manufacturer? .... I wouldn't. If I flew a bunch, I would feel OK pushing it a little and using oil just a few months past the expiration date knowing it will be changed out in a few weeks anyway, But if that next oil change is a year away ... no way.

I think most would agree if we ONLY run unleaded fuel, a full synthetic motorcycle oil is probably preferable to a semi-synthetic blend. In fact, prior to the partnership between Shell and Rotax, motorcycle oils were on the Rotax approved oil list. However, I would ONLY use a full synthetic that is formulated for motorcycles. The clutch in the gear reduction unit has already been mentioned in a previous post but, more importantly, it is my understanding that motorcycle oils are also specially formulated to resist shearing at the molecular level which is caused by the gears in the motorcycle's transmission under high loads ... or in our case, the gearbox for the prop.

Having said that, if I knew I was going to leave my area and will be fueling with 100LL during the trip, I would make it a point to run Shell Sport 4 for the trip ... as opposed to a full synthetic which has very poor lead suspension characteristics, which for me a no-go with 100LL.

My 2 Lincolns.

Happy flying,
 
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