Help Please

[cwtf]

Have a friend with a kitfox s7 with overheating. engine has about 4 hrs. did not have an oil cooler so he installed one to see if that would help, but his water temp is still high. Any sugestions?

[kmach]

Hi, what kind of engine is it? and what are the temps for the oil and coolant, cht's , egt's ?

[cwtf]

912s, oil temp runs 260-270 on a moderate climb out, not sure about egt and his water temp does not exsist yet. He just bought this, the builder hooked water temp gauge to oil temp sensor, LOL, so my friend ordered a water temp sensor to install, but he realized immediately when he purchased the plane the overheating issue. He ordered and installed an oil cooler below engine where the duct goes right on to it, as reccomended by kitfox. Someone told him to move it to top cowling opening, so he did that, no luck there either. So to date, we have no idea of water temp. It does boil over. He's going by oil temp only until sensor arrives. Any suggestions, someone on an old post mentioned two oil coolers...

[cap01]

i think id be getting concerned with that oil temp . i run a cooler with a thermostat and rarely get above 220 in a long climb . there is an airport in the hills that i often visit that i have to cruise climb to 7500 ft and never have a problem with oil temp .
as for water temp , i have it installed but never look at it . i use cht which is close to the same temp as water temp.

[DBVZ]

Just an observation, not expert advice; but on water cooled engines often a temp issue is about coolant circulation or capacity. Sounds like this plane had some assembly issues? Where is the radiator located? Hose kinked? Water pump working properly? Water and oil will both get hot if the cooling system is not working right. At least rule it out before blaming it all on oil cooling. Similarly, oil cooling only works with adequate circulation and capacity. Oil pressure ok?

[Av8r3400]

When running synthetic oil in a 912, the redline is 280°.

What color is the coolant? If it is the waterless Evans coolant (clear light tan color - like tea), this will easily run at 250° safely.

[HighWing]

A couple of thoughts. First, check to make sure that there is no air in the cooling system. Any pockets of air will generate hot spots that will result in boiling. Check that there is adequate outflow area for the cooling air to exit the cowl. Ideally, it should be 1.5
times the inflow.
Lowell

[cwtf]

I appreciate everyone's input. I will fly over this weekend and make sure no kink in any radiator hoses, he also has talked about running waterless anti-freeze, sounds like he should. He's been thinking this whole time that airflow to the radiator has been an issue. But it's in the kitfox reccomended location, below the engine. Again, he originally mounted the oil cooler in front of radiator below engine, thought that caused overheating so he moved it to top cowling, right under the prop. Still no change. Very good point about water pump. If you have any more advice or opinions, please let me know. I worry for him.

[Dorsal]

While you are at it take and post some pictures of the set-up, there are a lot of good eyes on the group that may spot something out of order.

[Slyfox]

I guess the best thing to do is make sure the sensor for the oil temp is correct. You are going to have to test the sensor, problably in hot water with an oven temp prob would be my guess and make sure that the planes temp sensor is in deed correct.