Van's Air Force
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Oil Coolers
- Thread starter Breezy
- Start date
scsmith
Well Known Member
Lots of info here
On the forum, there have been many discussions on this. If you do some searches in the forum archives, you will find tons of discussion on this.
THere are two large SW coolers with similar size and fit to the Niagra 2006A. They have two different internal routing paths, one is single-pass, the other is two-pass. the consensus seems to be that they are noticeably better.
The archives also have tons of discussion about the merits of firewall mounted vs. baffle-mounted coolers. Lots of good pictures of installations.
You will find that there are sort of two camps in the discussions. Those that have too much cooling and have some of their cooler blocked off much of the time, and those that have OK, or marginal, or inadequate cooling. Aside from the obvious reasons like leaky baffles, unknown leak paths in the upper cowl, etc, there is one common distinguishing factor. The angle-valve engines have piston-skirt oil squirters, which help cool the pistons. This generally leads to cooler cylinders, but hotter oil. So if you have an angle-valve engine (like me) then you will want as good a cooler as you can get.
I was marginally happy with my Niagra 2006A, and was considering switching to the SW 10599. Then, I decided as a last try to caulk the edges of the cooler where there was a series of very small leak paths where the cooling fin channels end. It made a noticeable difference - enough improvement that I am now very happy. You should be able to find that story in the archives too.
Hope that helps get you started.
On the forum, there have been many discussions on this. If you do some searches in the forum archives, you will find tons of discussion on this.
THere are two large SW coolers with similar size and fit to the Niagra 2006A. They have two different internal routing paths, one is single-pass, the other is two-pass. the consensus seems to be that they are noticeably better.
The archives also have tons of discussion about the merits of firewall mounted vs. baffle-mounted coolers. Lots of good pictures of installations.
You will find that there are sort of two camps in the discussions. Those that have too much cooling and have some of their cooler blocked off much of the time, and those that have OK, or marginal, or inadequate cooling. Aside from the obvious reasons like leaky baffles, unknown leak paths in the upper cowl, etc, there is one common distinguishing factor. The angle-valve engines have piston-skirt oil squirters, which help cool the pistons. This generally leads to cooler cylinders, but hotter oil. So if you have an angle-valve engine (like me) then you will want as good a cooler as you can get.
I was marginally happy with my Niagra 2006A, and was considering switching to the SW 10599. Then, I decided as a last try to caulk the edges of the cooler where there was a series of very small leak paths where the cooling fin channels end. It made a noticeable difference - enough improvement that I am now very happy. You should be able to find that story in the archives too.
Hope that helps get you started.
Oil Cooler
Thanks for the response.
The issue isn't cooling. I have the cooler firewall mounted on an RV-8 (Titan, IO-360), using the Vans RV-10 plenum and 4" scat tube. I fabricated an internal butterfly in the plenum for temperature control. This is working very well.
I have 10 hours on the aircraft. On a short flight to warm the oil for change the cooler ruptured at one of the brazed seams. The data download shows normal pressures for the entire flight, indicating over pressure is unlikely. The duration was 00:37, I can only surmise the leak occurred while in the pattern just prior to landing.
So my issue is: confidence in the component integrity.
Stewart Warner has a long standing reputation and looks like a much stouter unit. It appears SW is now Meggitt Troy, so is a SW cooler still SW?
The Aero-Classic 8001649 appears an identical cooler to the SW10611R. The Positech 4219 also looks very similar. By that I mean the unit design. I like the solid cup style distribution chamber with heli-arced weld versus the sectioned Vacuum Brazed Seams (location of the leak) on the Niagara.
Opinions on the above units would be appreciated.
Obviously, I am looking at broad scope unit pricing. Again my issue is confidence not cooling or pricing. Paying 3-4 hundred bucks more, to me, is cheap insurance to mitigate the possibility of a component failure randomly selecting the location where me and the aircraft will need to survive an OFF AIRPORT landing.
Thanks again.
Thanks for the response.
The issue isn't cooling. I have the cooler firewall mounted on an RV-8 (Titan, IO-360), using the Vans RV-10 plenum and 4" scat tube. I fabricated an internal butterfly in the plenum for temperature control. This is working very well.
I have 10 hours on the aircraft. On a short flight to warm the oil for change the cooler ruptured at one of the brazed seams. The data download shows normal pressures for the entire flight, indicating over pressure is unlikely. The duration was 00:37, I can only surmise the leak occurred while in the pattern just prior to landing.
So my issue is: confidence in the component integrity.
Stewart Warner has a long standing reputation and looks like a much stouter unit. It appears SW is now Meggitt Troy, so is a SW cooler still SW?
The Aero-Classic 8001649 appears an identical cooler to the SW10611R. The Positech 4219 also looks very similar. By that I mean the unit design. I like the solid cup style distribution chamber with heli-arced weld versus the sectioned Vacuum Brazed Seams (location of the leak) on the Niagara.
Opinions on the above units would be appreciated.
Obviously, I am looking at broad scope unit pricing. Again my issue is confidence not cooling or pricing. Paying 3-4 hundred bucks more, to me, is cheap insurance to mitigate the possibility of a component failure randomly selecting the location where me and the aircraft will need to survive an OFF AIRPORT landing.
Thanks again.
Oil cooler
I use a Setrab oil cooler on my airplanes.
They are a small flat 11 fin cooler made for cooling hydraulic fluid on fork trucks.
They are well made and work extremely well.
The main reason I use them if their size and weight.
If you had a oil cooler fail on you, I would be suspect of the mounting/weight/vibration it's under causing the breakage.
Vibrations can cause failures and the size and weight of the SW oil coolers have been coming off bafflings since the beginning of time.
Their location close to the engine mount can make interference with the cooler itself and the hose/fittings an issue.
I use Steel fitting going into the cooler itself and XRP triple sealed swiveling hose ends on the hose so the cooler and hose are never in a "bind".
The nice thing about the Setrab cooler is that it's flat and does not get too close to the engine mount.
This makes mouting it a lot easier and it will not break off the baffling either.
Somewhere I have some pictures of the mount if you want me to look for it, I can send them.
I use a Setrab oil cooler on my airplanes.
They are a small flat 11 fin cooler made for cooling hydraulic fluid on fork trucks.
They are well made and work extremely well.
The main reason I use them if their size and weight.
If you had a oil cooler fail on you, I would be suspect of the mounting/weight/vibration it's under causing the breakage.
Vibrations can cause failures and the size and weight of the SW oil coolers have been coming off bafflings since the beginning of time.
Their location close to the engine mount can make interference with the cooler itself and the hose/fittings an issue.
I use Steel fitting going into the cooler itself and XRP triple sealed swiveling hose ends on the hose so the cooler and hose are never in a "bind".
The nice thing about the Setrab cooler is that it's flat and does not get too close to the engine mount.
This makes mouting it a lot easier and it will not break off the baffling either.
Somewhere I have some pictures of the mount if you want me to look for it, I can send them.
Aden,
I would like to see photos of your installation. Thanks for the info regarding the Setrab brand of oil coolers. Could you give us more info about the XRP hose ends? Who makes them? Are they aviation or industrial items.
Charlie
erich weaver
Well Known Member
Please post the photos so we can all take a look. Curious about those swiveling hose ends as well.
Thanks
Erich
Thanks
Erich
