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Thread: Oil temp during cruise

  1. #11
    Birdseyeview's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Location
    Oregon, Ill
    Posts
    198

    Default Re: Oil temp during cruise

    Dustin, thanks for your input - I have a sheet metal shroud at the bottom of my radiator which extends down to the lower cowl surface. It follows the entire contour width of the lower cowl. However, there is a 1/4" gap between the lower edge of this shroud and the upper surface of the lower cowl, along the entire contour. I'm planning to install a rubber weather strip into this gap to seal it up. That should force a little more air through the radiator and oil cooler.
    Larry Olson
    Kitfox Series 6 - 1st Flight Oct 2021
    Tri-gear, smooth cowl
    912 ULS

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Boulder Creek, CA
    Posts
    55

    Default Re: Oil temp during cruise

    Cooling air management is critical. I had a customer who had a Mooney 231 that in cruise had to have the cowl flaps 1/2 way open. After consulting with Loren Lemen at Continental, I discovered that the baffling was old and did not seal correctly. I replaced all the rubber with new silicone baffle seal and the plane after take off power was pulled back could climb with the cowl seals almost closed. Both Continental and Lycoming state that in a typical 6 cylinder application no more than 1 square inch of gaps between the high pressure side and low pressure sides of the cooling baffling. They even specify a delta difference in inches of water column. My Porsche 911 with a fender mounted cooler couldn’t cope with high ambient temps while the loud pedal was close to the floor. I built a baffle system to create a high pressure and low pressure area. Some aluminum and aircraft baffle seal solved the problem and kept the oil/engine temps in the middle of the normal operating range. If the high/low baffling isn’t enough perhaps a divergent/convergent duct would help. The essence, is air control. Optimize the existing radiator/cooler then decide if the sizing needs alteration. Most of the kit built aircraft I have seen have woefully lax airflow control relying on brute force, which often isn’t enough.

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