Does Small Oil Capacity Matter If You Have A Lot Of Oil Cooling?

[nicholastanguma]

Time for another bench racing engineering question.

If using a good oil cooler and giant cooling fins on the jug itself how small could an air cooled engine's oil capacity safely be?

For example: 1.5 liters for a 500cc single cylinder? 1.0 liter for a 350cc single cylinder? 1.0 liter for 250cc? You get the idea.

The air cooled, 4 valve Husqvarna 510 from the 80's was a four stroke thumper that used a mere ONE PINT of oil for the entire engine. It was known as a hot temp engine, but according to Super Hunky himself was of anvil reliability. There's some kind of voodoo engineering they were employing, I think.

[anthax]

As long as there is enough oil to drain back to the sump to prevent oil starvation, you have enough.
I guess it's a thing you have to test to figure out.
More oil takes more time to heat, but also takes more time to cool.

[Alstrup]

[oprn]

It matters not whether you have 2 pints of oil or 2 gallons. The oil temperature will be the same in the long run. If your engine runs too hot a larger capacity just delays the inevitable. If your engine runs too cold a larger capacity with delay the warm up even further.
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[FreeBug]

Dry sump folks might be able to give you some ideas...you didn't say where you wanted to store that 1.5 liters of oil...and they might know the pump's and engine's oil flows. I can say this: if you are a liter low in the crankcase (stock, no sump.), the idiot light comes on in the twisties.

The four vs 3 vs 2 vs 1 cylinder engine's crankcase volumes are not linear. The size of the surface areas for oil to hang around on aren't linear, either.

[67rustavenger]

I had a Husaberg FC501 a few years back. That 4 stroke single only took 1 quart to fill the trans, crank case. There's a lot of stuff in a motorcycle engine that needs bathing in oil. But with all that stuff crammed in the case. There was really no need for more than that 1 quart.

I agree with the 1 ltr. low comment. Mine would loose oil pressure on a hard right turn once in a while.
A 1.5 quart mini sump took care if that problem!
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