Oil Level on Steep Inclines

[Costa]

Just curious - If you park your vehicle on an incline, the oil level on the dash will obviously be incorrectly read which is quite normal...

Can parking on a steep incline cause a problem with oil pickup when starting a M96/7 motor? ... Or does the wet/dry sump setup of the M96/7 engine minimise this issue.

Edited March 11, 2005 by ZX7R

[djantlive]

If you are concerned about engine not getting lubrication upon start up or idle while on an incline, I don't think you'll have to worry.

Your oil pump should deliver enough oil to lube the engine at idle / start up. At idle, engine doesn't need as much lubrication as when you are at high RPM.

Do you notice the car to be harder to start? Hopefully, good synth oil that flows well should prevent any slight delay in starting up.

[Costa]

No problems starting the car - I was just curious if oil starvation could come into play on startup if the oil pickup(s) were starved of oil. I do not really know how the oil system works in a M96/7 motor as it is not a true dry sump setup. (Sounds like I need to do some reading up on this topic)

A few times that I have parked on an incline, the oil gauge sometimes reads no bars and I have thought 'what if?'....

[umn]

I was just curious if oil starvation could come into play on startup if the oil pickup(s) were starved of oil.

...

Absolutely. You'd wreck the engine pretty quickly.

However, the oil pickups are pretty much at the lowest point of the oil pan, much lower then the pickup for the oil level gauge. So they are never starved of oil.

If you hung up your car by its nose from a crane and started the engine, you'd definitely wreck it pretty quickly. However, on roads it's impossible due to the position of the pick-ups.

The problem you mention is an issue in off-road vehicles and off-road bikes, because they are operated at much more severe angles of incline. Or of course in racing cars at extreme cornering speeds.

Incidentally, I'd be interested to know they solve the problem on planes, because I supposed on aerobatics planes the engine has to be able to operate upside-down.

Cheers,

Uwe

Edited March 13, 2005 by umn

[Costa]

Thanks for the info. - I will try and not start my car when dangling on the end of a crane hook. :D

It is interesting about the Aerobatic plane scenario - they must have some fairly foolproof lubrication setup on those motors.