How Much Oil To Add?

[DaniBoy]

998 RS. 4½ quart capacity with complete annual oil and filter change. But has anyone come up with how much oil it takes to get from the add mark to the full mark during riding season on the 998?

 

[Peter Aawen]

Here in Oz, the general recommendation is: if checking when the oil is hot and you're using the correct checking procedure, and you can see oil on the dipstick showing that it's above the ADD level, you have sufficient oil for safe local running. However, if/when you do wish to top up, never add any more oil than 250 mL at a time, as being a little below the FULL mark is better than being a little above the FULL mark!

So, what's 250 mL?? IIRC, it's a tiny tad over 1/5th of one of your US Quarts...

 

[JayBros]

The BRP writers who author the Operator's Guides used the same picture of the RS dipstick from the year it was introduced, 2010, until its last year of production, 2016 (Copying is always easier than original research. Ask any 2014 RT owner who found an incorrect picture of the new 1330 ACE engine dipstick in their OP Guide.) In 2013 the writers woke up and realized some owners might want to know how much oil it took to fill the dry sump from the Add mark to the Full mark and stated 500ml in the guides for the last four years of RS production. In the seven years of producing the RS the writers always included the fact that the engine and oil had to be at normal operating temperature, not that of the temp gauge which measures the temperature of the coolant, and always added the caveat Do not overfill. The BRP writers live by the French version of the old military saying WRATGAS.

 

[Bfromla]

Sorry, no actual measurements to offer always carry spare quart & funnel. Check at fuel stops, it varies depending on riding conditions, & conditions of the oil. Add sparingly while on the road unless you carry some form of pump so you can remove any excess (easier at home). Generally a hair over the second hole on the dipstick (at operating temp & parked on a level surface) is good wipe off & check again, threading in completely. On Automotive dipstick’s, the hash mark area equals 1quart - not so on Spyders.

 

[Mrmikey]

Just changed the oil on mine. Bought it a week ago and was checking it over and I checked the oil, letting it warm up and check it within 2 minutes after shutting it down. The oil was up to the wire on the dipstick which was sorta disconcerting with the way people say overfilling is so detrimental so I figured I'd change it. Replaced the original plugs with the hex head magnetic ones, new O rings (one old one had a slight cut in it so I'm glad I ordered new ones).
I had bought 5L jugs of T6 so I poured out 500ml and dumped 4.5L into the bike and let it warm up and checked the oil...it was just to the bottom of the 'OK' zone, dumped in 250ml and brought it up 1/2< way into the OK zone. I dumped in the remainder so it'd be a full 5L and it was to the top of the zone, not even to the big part of the plastic, so all's good.
I measured what I took out and it was 5 1/2L so it was overfull and the oil level was up to the wire by about 1/8" or so.
Side note, I bought the Showchrome plugs for the trans and sump, they both came with the washers, one copper and one aluminum. Problem being the washer on the trans plug had too small an i.d. It wouldn't sit on the flat surface of the plug, it was riding up on the taper from the sealing surface to the main body of the threaded portion of the plug. Would it have sealed...probably but it may have tightened up to the correct torque (snug) without actually compressing the washer surface to surface. Just something to be aware of.

 

[Peter Aawen]

Just changed the oil on mine. Bought it a week ago and was checking it over and I checked the oil, letting it warm up and check it within 2 minutes after shutting it down. The oil was up to the wire on the dipstick which was sorta disconcerting with the way people say overfilling is so detrimental so I figured I'd change it. Replaced the original plugs with the hex head magnetic ones, new O rings (one old one had a slight cut in it so I'm glad I ordered new ones).
I had bought 5L jugs of T6 so I poured out 500ml and dumped 4.5L into the bike and let it warm up and checked the oil...it was just to the bottom of the 'OK' zone, dumped in 250ml and brought it up 1/2< way into the OK zone. I dumped in the remainder so it'd be a full 5L and it was to the top of the zone, not even to the big part of the plastic, so all's good.
I measured what I took out and it was 5 1/2L so it was overfull and the oil level was up to the wire by about 1/8" or so.
Side note, I bought the Showchrome plugs for the trans and sump, they both came with the washers, one copper and one aluminum. Problem being the washer on the trans plug had too small an i.d. It wouldn't sit on the flat surface of the plug, it was riding up on the taper from the sealing surface to the main body of the threaded portion of the plug. Would it have sealed...probably but it may have tightened up to the correct torque (snug) without actually compressing the washer surface to surface. Just something to be aware of.

It's a good thing you didn't add oil at the start, and your later drain volume is a clear reason for that!! So good on you for playing it smart (and changing the plugs, too!)

I'm posting all this again, I know, but it seems many still don't realise that THAT bit of the quoted post is a trap for the unwary!! At least you didn't fall into that trap @Mrmikey, but others have and I'm sure more will in the future, because if that's all you'd done, then you didn't 'warm it up' much at all and if the level was just a little down so you chose to add more oil, you easily could've over-filled it - maybe not by a heap, but then again...

So, particularly for anyone/everyone who hasn't had/this sink in yet, but maybe also as a reminder for some (many??) others - You REALLY should only ever check your oil AFTER a ride of saaayy 10 minutes minimum, preferably at least 30 minutes or more!! Then when you come out to ride next time, unless there's a dirty great puddle of oil underneath your Spyder, you KNOW that you've got sufficient oil in there for you to safely start riding for the 10+ minutes minimum/preferably at least 30 minutes or more necessary before it's even worthwhile bothering checking it and getting a proper oil level reading!

At the risk of teaching some to suck eggs, but especially for those who aren't yet aware - our Spyders are dry-sump engines, they don't have a dirty great puddle of oil in a catch-all sump underneath all the important bits of the engine that'll let the spun up engine slosh the lubricating stuff around when you start; a sump that'll to let you check to see if the puddle is full enough to even bother measuring the depth of the cold oil in there before you start - instead, the dry sump system delivers oil under pressure to all the essential components from a remote reservoir that can & sometimes does leak oil down & out when your Spyder is parked up, altho they will fill that reservoir via scavenge pumps very quickly when you start the engine, albeit with COLD oil!! So checking the oil before you start or even when it's cold/not properly warmed up is simply not such a great idea! If there's no puddle underneath, you checked the oil level AFTER your last ride of more than 30 minutes duration, and it was fine then, then the odds are now massively if not completely in your favour that you've got plenty of oil in there to start out with, so you're good to go!!

Engine oil takes a whole lot longer than the coolant to reach its operating temperature and therefore its full volume, and you'd be surprised at how much greater volume you'll see on the dipstick/it'll expand to when it's does eventually reach its proper operating temperature! So if you check the oil in that reservoir level while it's cold (also being aware that it may've also leaked some oil out of the reservoir while your Spyder was standing) or even if you check it after you've spent 10 minutes or more of idling the engine to warm it up, YOUR OIL IS STILL COLD, or maybe it's just beginning to warm up, and it HAS NOT REACHED ITS FULL VOLUME yet, so your dipstick level is not a true reflection of the necessarily hot volume of the oil in your Spyder's engine!!

So please, if you value your Spyder/its engine, DON'T ADD TOO MUCH OIL WHILE IT'S COLD!! That said, being a touch over on the dipstick before it's properly warmed up shouldn't be a major problem, but are you sure it didn't leak 1/2 quart or more out of the remote reservoir while it was sitting, so the 1/2 to 3/4 of a quart you might add now, before you ride/warm everything up, just to bring the cold oil level on the dip stick up to full could ALL BE OVER-FILL?? If it is, then at best, it'll probably lead to a messy engine &/or oil filled air filter, at worst...

Just Sayin'... again!

And here endeth today's lesson.

 

[EdMat]

Here is an example of what Peter is talking about. I think I have posted it before. The thing that surprised me when I did this several times was the inconsistency after one minute of idle. During this test it was at the bottom of the top ball. I had seen it anywhere from between the bottom teardrop and lower ball to halfway between the low and full balls after a one minute idle from cold. As you can see, this time it was probably a few tablespoons overfull.

 

[Mrmikey]

I meant to mention also I had checked mine before starting it just for the halibut. The oil level was in the middle of the acceptable range so I'm thinking the previous owner had checked it cold and filled it to a level for a 'normal engine'.