What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Oil cooler for 390 on RV7

dreed

Well Known Member
Hey All-

I've searched around the archives for several hours, but I thought I'd post to get the latest advice. I'm going to run an (got hung this week) IO-390 on my 7A.

Looks like hanging it off the baffle would be tight and/or have issues. I think the Show planes remote mount is my best bet for location, but am vacillating between the Aero Classics 10 row and 13.

I've heard/read from some that the 13 is perfect while others say it is too much and they have to block some off most/all of the time.

I realize a lot has to do with where you live and fly, but I am in the Portland, OR area so not a ton of super hot days and while we plan on taking her on longer runs, I am thinking of what is best for 90%+ of my flying, so I am just looking for peoples input before I order.

Thank you!
dan
 
Last edited:
Oil cooler

Hi Dan,
With my angle valve I used vans standard 13 row cooler with the plenum from the 10 all mounted on the firewall fed with a 4 inch scat tube from the back of the baffle. I also installed a butterfly valve with a cable (same as the cabin heat cable) so I can control the temperature that way,in saying that I?m finding that I keep it wide open all the time with cruise temps around 190 degrees.
 
RV10

Just wrapped up the FWF with 390 on my 7 yesterday. Like a few others, I used a RV10 oil cooler mount and cooler with 4" ducting. Not a fun fit!!!! If you are going this way get the cooler and mount now. Don't proceed any further until you get this figured out. There are very few options.

Get the parts and test fit where it needs to go. Facing the firewall, the plenum will be right edge of the recess. With cooler mounted you'll be close to the mount.

I temporarily mounted my engine and figured out where everything needed to go. The goal is to determine where everything must go where you have no choice where it goes. Then work around those items. After determining this, I removed the engine to make mounting all of the items much easier. After struggling through this on my first 7 I went this route and highly recommend it.

Additionally, even with the engine mounted, I still had it on saw horses so I could get to the interior much easier!!
 
Last edited:
Thank you Cmore and RV7guy!

I was planning on going with this mount from Showplanes after reading some of the horror stories of the RV10 firewall mount. Looks like a nice kit and keeps it off the FW. I'll need new lines and to figure out some sort of butterfly/shutter system it sounds like. Lines are piece of cake, not sure about flow control right now.

OCM-install-1.jpg

OCM-install-2.jpg

OCM-install-3.jpg

OCM-install-4.jpg
 
Last edited:
So, I realize that this thread is now 2 years old, but I've got the same decision in my future.

Did you go with the Showplanes mount and if so, would you do it again? Anyone?
 
No way that rubber seal does not leak. Certainly not long term, given hardening of rubber and mount sag.
 
The rubber seal also looks awfully tight to me given that it has to absorb shaking at engine startup. Wondering if that’s really necessary. Why not have a rubber seal that is well sealed against the baffles and cooler plenum but is loose inbetween so that it simply inflates a bit with airspeed and pressure?

Erich
 
While I would never mount a cooler on an engine baffle, this install takes me by surprise. You have an oil cooler hard mounted to the engine mount, connected with fiberglass and rubber to a shaking engine so there will be a lot of relative motion in play. Perhaps this has been tested, but it sure looks to me like something will give.

Carl
 
Most of the shake is rotational. It may work, but wild ace guessing it may cause excess stress on oil cooler flanges and/or baffling.

I think making the cooler to baffle duct all soft and flexible would be better..
 
Showplanes mount

I’ve had the showplanes 13 row oil cooler mount on my 390 powered RV8 since 2016 (250 hours) and it’s been awesome. No repairs, still seals great. In my opinion this is the most elegant answer to placing a large cooler on an RV without using up valuable firewall space.
 
Hi All-

I'll do my best to explain how it works, but I've only done a couple test engine runs so far so can't talk long term yet.

The Mount is affixed to engine mount and the plenum to the oil cooler. The rubber seal is just a U shaped rubber seal that presses on to the fiberglass plenum, but it is not tied to the back of baffling at all. It's a close fit, but there is no physical connection.

The engine should be able to do the wet dog shake and put no stress whatsoever on the cooler/mount as they are independent of each other.

dan
 
Here is how I mounted mine to the firewall. This is a 10 row oil cooler. This pic is just a test fit. The position of the mount is a little tricky since the scat tubing needs to be able to fit through the engine mount and it isn't that flexible.
 

Attachments

  • Oil_cooler_3.jpg
    Oil_cooler_3.jpg
    744.9 KB · Views: 176
Here is how I mounted mine to the firewall. This is a 10 row oil cooler. This pic is just a test fit. The position of the mount is a little tricky since the scat tubing needs to be able to fit through the engine mount and it isn't that flexible.

Ray
How do you plan to connect to the baffle?
Where did you move the mixture & prop control cables?

I'm doing similar. I am planning to install Vans Oil Cooler Vent on the baffle and a fiberglass plenum to 4" Scat to the oil cooler mount on the firewall.
 
Larry,

There are some aluminum fittings that are available for the scat to baffle attachment. To be honest I haven't gotten that far to make an actual selection , but here is an example.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/ductflanges.php

I moved my control cables to the recess area. I followed an approach similar to Bruceh if you look on his website.

If you need more info on where to place the mount just pm me. I have a few docs. A couple came from Van's that were very helpful

One possible gotcha on my placement. The brake bracket doubler ends up behind the oil cooler on the opposite side of the firewall. If you have a parking brake mount in that area that could be a concern too. Mine is behind there, but I made a mount that doesn't bolt through the firewall.
 
No horror story here. Used the RV10 mount with 4” scat. Tape off 1/2 for cold weather ops here in GA. Cools sufficiently to keep oil at 185 all the time. Pacific Oil Cooler. Added a drain plug to get that quart of dirty oil out at change time.

600+ hours. Wouldn’t change a thing.

Rotate pix as needed.

 
Back
Top