Does oil capacity affect engine life?

[Vilan]

Originally Posted By: peterdaniel
The Toyota 3.4 runs 1.6 qts per liter of displacement ( 5.5 qts)

The Saab has 2.0L if Im correct and that would be 2.0 qts per liter.

The 1.8 with a 4 qt capacity would be 2.2 qts per liter.. even more!


My Metro has a 1.0L engine with a 3.5 quart sump. I win the thread!

And it needed a rebuild around 150k. It did get low on oil a few times, that probably wasn't good for it.

 

[RGrant]

Sump capacity is only a factor in determining OCIs, not directly related to engine life. Only in a direct engine comparison using equal OCIs would smaller sumps potentially yelid shorter engine life.

 

[Bambam]

Originally Posted By: gwdriver
I have a supercharged V-6 Frontier. Has towing package. Sump is 3.5 qts, coolant cap is 12qts. Use M-1 10w30 and a M-1 or Wix filter, same thing in my Titan. 5-7k OCI's. No problems at all and I push this truck hard. Tows a 4k boat. This engine was used in many Nissan and Infinity models for many years. No problem with the small sumps. I know people with over 300k on these engines. Most do run syn oil because of the low oil cap.


I don't doubt what your saying but that is an awful small sump for a supercharged engine IMHO.

 

[Blokey]

My '78 Pontiac Grand Am had the 301 (4.9L) V8 that only had a 4 qt oil capacity - even the oil filter was tiny, about the size of the filter that I have on my lawn mower

I always thought that was kinda measly. The engine was severely sludged when I got it so I had it rebuilt. Ran fine on CAM2 10W-40 afterwards.

 

[ARB1977]

Originally Posted By: peterdaniel
I would bet my paycheck that the amount of oil capacity a sump has has a direct bearing on how long the engine lasts..

Case in point.. The Toyota 3.4L V6 which is one of the best engines I have ever seen regularly runs 300K miles + and its oil capacity in the 4wd drive version is 5.5 qts which is pretty big for a smallish v-6.

The 2.4L 22R motors have a 5 qt capacity.


What do you think?



With a over sized filter you can squeeze 6 qrts in the 3.4L

 

[KLowD9x]

Volvos new 3.2 liter inline 6 has a whopping 8.5 quart sump.

I have already seen the typical Volvo customer do a 15,000 mile OCI on semisyn without any ill effects.

 

[Patman]

I do think that it helps to extend engine life slightly, and that's why I overfill both of my cars. My wife's Civic calls for 3.6L of oil but I have always put in at least 4L (lately I've been putting in 4.4, since that's the way Castrol sells GTX 5w20 now, you can no longer get 4L jugs) My Corvette calls for 6.5 quarts of oil but I just put in an even 7 quarts (and when I was using GC, which is sold in 1L bottles, I'd do 7L, which is almost 7.5 qts)

 

[PT1]

My wifes 2008 Lexus ES 350 V6 holds 6.4 quarts. That oil always gets changed at 5000 because of warranty and is barely dirty.