Thread: cockpit controllable oil radiator cove

Originally Posted by slsaowner

I spent some time recently with a ***** dealer, and he showed me that the G-3 is equipped with a cockpit controllable oil radiator cover - a sort of cowl flap for a Rotax. Maybe you can get your airplane's manufacturer to work up some sort of retro-fitable gizmo for your aircraft. I sure would like to have something like that for mine!

Amen! Here in the Badger State our winters get a little brisk. I got delivery of my bird a year ago this month so had to start my relationship with it in the cool of fall, and the brisk days of winter. I found, to my dismay, that it took a VERY long time to get up to the required 124 deg. oil temp prior to takeoff, AND I couldn't keep the temp in the green when the throttle was reduced in the pattern and on final. The Dynon EMS was shouting low temp warnings regularly. This was with OAT approximately 20 deg. F; not exactly frigid conditions.
With that season returning about now, I'm concerned about being able to fly with temps in the green. Have any of you found a cure for this challenge (other than the strip of 2" metal tape across the top of the radiator, which I did last winter with less than perfect effect)?
I read an account from a link on the FD website about a couple of guys who flew a CT from Germany to Canada in 2005. They designed and installed some kind of cockpit controllable device in the nature of cowl flaps to address this problem, but I don't have contact info for them. Besides, I'd be concerned about FD approval of the mod which is necessary to maintain the S-LSA status of the CTsw.
I've got to believe that every CT in the northern 1/2 of the U.S. and all of Canada has the same problem, unless people are content to leave them in the hangar from Oct. thru March. Any thoughts?

Bob Sigman
CTsw N715Y

i'm going to call lockwood aviation and get a oil thermostat kit. the tape on the radiator works well enough in cruise flying out of the mountains in california but i do wait a long time for warm up.

Hi Ed,

CPS around the corner from you has the oil thermostat, too. It's where I got mine.

Ed....I will be very interested to see how your thermostat goes if you decide to install one. My Perma-Cool thermostat has been totally ineffectual even though I have tried 2 different configurations as suggested by the manufacturer (see this link http://www.ctflyer.com/viewtopic.php?t= ... 85898af1b2 )

I have just come back from yet another test flight and with OAT 59F I never got the oil temperature above 176 F and during approach with approx 2500 RPM, the oil temp dropped back to 158F, so it is not regulating at all.
I phoned Perma-Cool last week but got the impression they really didn't want to know about it. I have been trying to e-mail them for more than a week in order to send them some engine data, but their mail box is full and the e-mail just comes back as undeliverable

Having spent about AUD$750 on purchasing and having this thermostat installed, I guess you can detect I am somewhat unimpressed.

Hope you all have better luck with it.

Dave

(PS I am 99.9% sure that my indicated oil temperatures on the Dynon D120 are accurate.)

Hi Guys,

With out doing any testing and only with verbal feedback with the oil thermostat, it leaves me wondering if our water coolant system is too dominant over the oil temps? The coolant has much more influence over the oil temp than expected. Doesn't seem like it should, but some investigation is warranted.

We JUST had the first annual performed on 15Y and I asked the A&P (VERY experienced, and VERY knowledgeable about the CT and the Rotax 912) about installing an oil temp thermostat. That was based largely on the chatter in this Forum from guys who had done it or were recommending it. His opinion was not to do it. My understanding is that he believes it is a potential source of trouble. He's from MN where they REALLY have winters, and he says that what they do is to simply add a little more metal tape to the front of the radiator, but he knows that it is not a great solution. He told me that he intends to discuss the subject with Tom Peghiny, and would like to see a complete "winterizing kit" developed, including an in cockpit controllable "cowl flap-like device" to cover the radiator as required. In fact, he said something about possibly creating one himself.
More thoughts? This must be an issue in Canada and Northern Europe, too. I'm perplexed why Flight Design hasn't created a solution for all of us who fly in cold temps!?!?

Bob Sigman
CTsw N715Y

Hi Bob,

If you really want to go all out then FD has a coolant and oil thermostat kit/pkg. It gets really cold in other parts of the world too. Call them for a price. If you want to do it right then the pkg is the way to go.

Originally Posted by WestcoastOz

I have just come back from yet another test flight and with OAT 59F I never got the oil temperature above 176 F and during approach with approx 2500 RPM, the oil temp dropped back to 158F, so it is not regulating at all.

Doesn't this have a certain bypass flow, like 10%, i.e., when fully closed, 90% of the flow is diverted while 10% goes through the cooler. Would that be enough to cool the oil that much at lower power? Depends on how you descend, I guess, power on or off.

I can't say that I'm encouraged by the experiences people have had with the oil thermostats.

Doug

Just to stir it up a little, I wonder whether the higher temp is even needed with the full-synthetic oils. Mobil1 Racing 4T claims to have "excellent low temperature flow characteristics".