Oil and engine cooling

What engine oil actually does, how the engine sheds the rest of its heat, and how to read the temperature limits.

10 min read · The airplane: engine and systems

The oil system is not just about lubrication -- on an air-cooled aircraft engine it also carries away a meaningful share of the engine's heat. Its indications are some of the few direct diagnostic tools a pilot has in flight, which is why reading them correctly matters as much as checking the dipstick before a flight.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.What engine oil actually does
  2. 2.Reading the gauges
  3. 3.How the engine sheds heat
  4. 4.Managing temperature in flight
  5. 5.Oil consumption and quantity

These 5 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the PPL track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the PPL track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.