Mounting an oil thermostat

[Dorsal]

Happy Holidays all!
One of my projects next week will be to put on an oil thermostat I picked up from Lockwood. Anybody know of a reason it shouldn't be mounted horizontally instead of vertical? Given I have the oil cooler mounted in front of the radiator below the engine, having the ports on the cooler going up and down will make for a cleaner installation. I know Mo mounted his upside-down which Lockwood said was OK, hoping that orientation is not a critical factor as long as you get all the air out.

[Slyfox]

I will try real hard to get out to the kitfox today and snap a picture of my install. I put an L bracket on one of the holes at the top of the gear box and than put a hose clamp around the thermostate and L bracket.

[Dorsal]

Slyfox,
I am not sure that will help as my oil cooler is on the bottom in the back, I assume yours is in the usual position up front? I am planing on locating mine just in front of the middle of the firewall (just above and behind the radiator and oil cooler).

[Slyfox]

I will go and take a shot anyway, if anything maybe it will help you with the oil lines off the thermostate. I had a hard time knowing if I had it right. A lot at stake if you know what I mean.

[Dorsal]

Thanks, I appreciate the effort, I will certainly learn from the orientation of the thermostat and routing of the lines. As you pointed out this would be a bad thing to screw up.

[Slyfox]

here is a pic of my oil thermostate. Hope it helps. THe oil hose is 3/8 parker 7212 jiffy hose 300psi. Same hose I use for transmission coolers. the hoses on the left side of the engine are for the tank and the oil pump.

http://home.comcast.net/~steveallbee/oiltherm.JPG

[Dorsal]

SlyFox,
Thanks! this is very helpful, it would suggest that the orientation of the thermostat is not critical. I am assuming, of course, that this is working well for you.

[Slyfox]

I really like where I put mine. I have stated that the oil in the tank does not go down very much. I checked it today and it was down maybe 1/4 of an inch from full and I haven't flown it in a week.

[SkyPirate]

Dang Steve,..
you could eat off that thang

Chase

[catz631]

Steve,
Thanks for posting that picture ! it will be a great help for me when I install my thermo. I notice that you have your oil filter safetied with a clamp. Good thinking. I did the same to mine after discovering during the course of an oil change that the filter was extremely loose and could have unspun itself in flight. I had followed the torquing instructions to the letter on the prior oil change. I called Lockwood and told them about it. During my Rotax 912 course they said that it wasn't necessary to safety the filter. The tech at Lockwood said that I was only the second person in the world to call about this problem. Well,BS ! I right away got a big hose clamp,removed the rubber from a big Adel clamp and installed it under the hose clamp to cushion the mating surface with the oil filter. I found a place to run a safety wire to the engine case and I now have the filter where it won't move (plus I torque marked it as you have)
Dick

[Slyfox]

I never told lockwood about my oil filter loosening, so I guess that makes three now.

[Dorsal]

OK, so any tips on how to get the 1/2 inch blue oil hose to seat all the way on the barbed fittings? I put a little oil on the barb and push, twist, grunt and swear and still can't get them to seat against the cap washers. I expect that after I tighten the hose clamp the seal will be good but the plane would have better karma if I could seat them all the way.

[catz631]

I had a ***** of a time getting the blue hose seated also. I ended up using a product called slide glide (sp) which is a silicone grease(used very little) and wrestled it on enough to seat it. It wasn't much fun as I recall.
Dick

[Slyfox]

are you ready for this. If you have a heat gun, hit the hose a little and then push it on. If not, use a lighter and heat the hose.

[Dorsal]

Thanks for the suggestions, I did try heat which helped but not enough. I will try some lube, some heat and different swears (let me know if there are any words that are particularly effective )

[Slyfox]

make sure you put the fitting on the surface and push into the fitting with the hose. Wiggle it as you push it on. If the fitting has an angle try putting it in a vise.

[SkyPirate]

Dorsal the word #@$%##$~!!! works best for me ,..and it's a universal language word

Chase

[Dave Holl]

Gents
Just bought a rebuilt 912ULS engine which had suffered the oil filter comming loose so sounds like it is a problem, I will wirelock mine in position when i get that far!
rgds
dave

[catz631]

Dave,
How about calling Lockwood and tell them about the loose oil filter.Maybe with enough people telling them about it,they will pass it on to Rotax and tell people about it in their school. You make number 4 just on this thread . Imagine how many other guys might be running around with loose oil filters ! I knew I wasn't the only guy that had this problem. Fortunately I caught it before it wiped out my engine.
Dick

[Slyfox]

I bought my engine from John so now he knows.