General oil capacity question.

[Troy_Hale]

This is something that I've been wondering about for a while. On any given engine, can the oil capacity help/hurt the longevity of your OCI? For example, the new Hyundai 1.6L engine in the Accent and Veloster holds 3.5qts, where the 1.6L in the newer Mini's hold 4.4qts, keeping the actual engine design and it's wearing characteristics out of the equation, would the Mini have an advantage when talking about extended OCI? I understand that there may be space consideration when a manufacturer designs a car with a specific engine (perhaps not). Even when comparing BMW's V8's with the LSx from GM, the BMW's hold a few more quarts than the GM examples (in most cases, save the LS7).

I honestly think it does, but I do not have a lot of experience when it comes to the real specifics on how engines wear, etc.

Troy

 

[WrxRcr]

Good question, i have always wondered the same thing. I would guess the answer is yes.

 

[Warstud]

The larger the capacity the longer the OCI.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Troy_Hale
On any given engine, can the oil capacity help/hurt the longevity of your OCI?

Absolutely. Our member TooSlick even devised an OCI calculation formula that took oil sump capacity into account, among other things.

 

[Dominic]

All things being equal, a larger sump reduces the ppm of particulates in the oil, but a larger sump requires a slightly longer engine warm up until it comes up to temperature. I still think for modern passenger cars anything over a 5qt sump is excessive.

 

[Troy_Hale]

When I first bought my Mini and found out it held 5.1qts, I was pretty surprised, for such a small engine that seems like a high amount. Of course BMW/Mini does promote pretty long OCI, if you follow the service computer on the dash that is...

Five out of the six cars I've owned have been 4 cylinders, the '00 Civic Si and the '03 Protege5 held under 4qts (both N/A engines), the '07 Mazdaspeed3 and '02 Saab 9-5 Aero (both turbo) held around the 6qt number. I just wonder if there is a specific rhyme or reason. Not that it's super important to know this fact, it's just very strange sometimes, the fact that the current BMW M3 V8 holds like 9.3qts (random example) just seems ridiculous. But I'm far from an expert.

 

[ammolab]

My 750cc BMW K75C holds 4qts and I always thought that was a lot of oil for a small engine. It does take a while to warm up all that oil.