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Which Oil Cooler, IO-360 in AZ?

RV7AJeremy

Well Known Member
Hi all,
I am looking for some opinions on which oil cooler to go with. I have a Superior IO-360, I live in Tucson AZ and plan to do most of my flying in the Phoenix and Tucson area (its hot here:cool:). What do you reccommend?

I did look through the archives and found this thread: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=24939&highlight=Oil+cooler but it is dated and I was wondering if anyone had any expierences with something other than an $800 cooler:eek: that would work for me.

What say you?

Thanks
 
I use the stock oil cooler. Granted, I live in the good part of AZ, but I do make trips into the pit from time to time and have had no problem. Climbing out is the worst; I try to get to the cool altitudes as quickly as possible but often have to keep the speed at 110 and the throttle reduced to keep the CHTs down. As long as the CHTs are Ok, I've never had an oil temp problem.

What suffers more is me, even with a sunshade and the vents wide open. And it is often very hot under the panel; if I were to mod anything, it would be to vent the dash and bring fresh air behind the panel. I have had my panel falter on a really hot day until I was able to get the cabin temps down. Just my $.02.
 
CHTs go first

I can second Pat's comments. I have the Vans oil cooler and my oil temps are if anything too cool. CHTs are my limiting factor in climb, and I don't have any other temp issues, well besides the heatstroke.
(0-360,FP Sensenich)
 
So what CHT's do you guys see? I fly my 6A out of DVT and back in July I took off out of GEU when it was 117f on the ramp and I climbed to 8500' on my way to CA and the oil temp got up to 245 while climbing at 110kts. Once at altitude and pulling the power back I got it own to 200-205. My CHT's never got over 390 on the climbs and my hottest cylinder (#3) was running 340 with my lowest at 315. Do these sound OK to you guys? I've been considering a larger oil cooler.

I commute weekly and need my lady to work reliably every week. I think the temps are manageable, but would like your opinion.

thanks all,
 
Anyone out there not using the stock vans cooler that lives in a hot climate? Anyone had to change it out and if so what was the difference?
 
I have heard of several people with RVs in Phoenix who have changed their oil coolers to the larger size. I had the stock oil cooler in my RV-6a that is almost ready to fly and at the advice of the loco RV guru replaced it with an 10 or 11 row oil cooler. Plenty of room in the RV-6a to mount it behind number 4 baffle. Price was not too different from the oil cooler vans sells.
 
So what CHT's do you guys see? I fly my 6A out of DVT and back in July I took off out of GEU when it was 117f on the ramp and I climbed to 8500' on my way to CA and the oil temp got up to 245 while climbing at 110kts. Once at altitude and pulling the power back I got it own to 200-205. My CHT's never got over 390 on the climbs and my hottest cylinder (#3) was running 340 with my lowest at 315. Do these sound OK to you guys? I've been considering a larger oil cooler.

I commute weekly and need my lady to work reliably every week. I think the temps are manageable, but would like your opinion.

thanks all,

Not to hijack the thread, but I thought I'd reply. Your temps sound reasonable, though I don't like to run that hot so I take positive action if any CHT goes over 325. Climbing out of DVT for FLG sees me most of the way to altitude but I often throttle back at around 6000 MSL. Even at reduced throttle the RV climbs well at 110KIAS and by the time I reach 6000 there is no problem clearing terrain to the North. I don't think higher temps are a problem but I like to baby my engine and also keep the fuel flow down. I'm not rich enough for WOT all the time. :p
 
Pacific Oil Cooler Service

Jeremy,

For hot weather flying, the SW 8432R or equivalent (Aero Classics 8001689) was recommended to me by Pacific Oil Cooler Service for a Lycoming IO-360 200hp angle-valve installed in the tightly-cowled RV-8/8A series. Since you apparently have a Superior 180hp parallel-valve in your RV-7, something else might be better for you plus less expensive. I would recommend you call Pacific; they?re very helpful and knowledgeable:

http://www.oilcoolers.com/aeroclassics-lyco.asp
 
I have ane ECI IO 360 with 9:1 pistons and electronic ignition. I fly out of Livermore CA where the summer temps get above 100F. The stock Vans cooler did not work for me...I was always watching oil temps like a hawk and was never able to use the climb potential of the plane due to keeping the speed up for cooling. If I allowed the climb speed to go below 120kts, my oil temp would head for redline.

I talked with Pacific Oil Cooler and Mahlon Russel at Mattituck and my summary of their advice, which I took and has worked is: get the biggest oil cooler that will fit. I know a few people with too much cooling, which can be fixed by blanking off some cooling fins with tape or restrictor plates etc, but I know many more with too little cooling, which can only be fixed with a bigger/better oil cooler.
 
S&W 8432R

Hi Jeremy,

I have an ECI IO 360 that dyno'd at 194 HP. I use the S&W 8432R. It works great. I have good oil temps even in the extreme heat. Extended climbs can get me 220, stabilizing to 178 in cruise flight.

My CHT's (#4) will hit 420 in a climb, stabilizing to 380 in cruise.

This is a great place to spend the money. Cooler oil is great protection.

FYI, on my new 7 with the IO 390 with Barrett rework (212 hp) will be using the RV10 set up.
 
We originally used the stock Vans-supplied oil cooler on my friend's RV-8 with ECI IO-360 and it was so woefully inadequate that it was a seriously unfunny joke.

It did sorta OK in the cool mornings however, but oil temps quickly hit 240+ on Texas hot summer afternoons. Ended up going with a SW10599R instead and it's still a bit on the weak side since we still see mid-upper 220's on hot days. Probably should've bought the SW8432R instead. There are cheaper alternatives now... you can get a 10-row Aero Classics drawn-cup style cooler (similar construction to the Niagara) for under $300, and Aero Classics also now makes welded end tank style clones of the SW8432R and 10599R coolers for a significant cost savings over Meggitt Troy/SW originals.

The 7-row Niagara cooler is the proper size for a carbureted O-320, on which it works great, and some folks have good results with them on O-360s, but on IO-360's it's a big gamble if is going to be have sufficient heat-shedding capacity.

BTW, in a Lycoming engine, the actual oil temperature inside the engine can easily be 20 degrees higher than where the gauge's temperature probe measures it since the oil has had opportunity to cool off a bit before it reaches the temp probe. That means if you've hit 245 indicated, then your oil has actually reached about 265 inside the engine and may have gotten scorched and damaged at the molecular level.

When we hit 245 degrees in the RV-8 with the undersized cooler, we changed the oil before flying it again, since it had darkened and you could smell that it had gotten "cooked"
 
I did not see anyone here talk about oil jets for piston cooling. If present, this will add quite a bit of cooling load to the oil. Angle valve 200hp does, and with advanced timing it directly affects your oil heat load.

I have the standard IO360 M1B, and will be using the standard Vans cooler. All guys that responded to me previously, said that it should be just fine after careful sealing of baffles etc. I expect a development process with baffles and sealing to balance temps and get them properly low, after break-in.

Define your specs for jets or no jets, ignition timing to be used, compression ratio, then you can talk about what coolers meet your requirements.

Good luck.
 
Anyone out there not using the stock vans cooler that lives in a hot climate? Anyone had to change it out and if so what was the difference?

I am using the stock VANs cooler and live in Sacramento which can be nearly as hot as Arizona. I have had to install an oil shutter to aid with the oil temp. During summer time, it is fully open which due to the design still restrict a fair amount of airflow and still during the climb I may see temps in the mid 190 and for cruise it comes back down to 180-182F

During winter times, it is cracked open for only a bit of airflow to bring up the temp to 180F.
 
Also,,

I hear people say, "too much cooling." I completely don't understand that. When it is hot, you can't have too much cooling. If you want to restrict for cooler temps, do it.

I always suggest to builders to equip for the hottest possible temperatures. Restricting is easy, getting more cooling is not. You never know if you'll have to sell. An inadequate cooler will be a deal breaker for much of US.

The heat is the major reason Boeing Helicopters is located in Mesa, AZ. If the aircraft will work here, they can make it work anywhere.
 
Which IO 360

Stock cooler will not (or at least it didn't in my case and many others that I connected with) cool the 200 hp IO360A1B6. Stock seems to work fine with the 180 hp IO360A1A....
 
Van's oil cooler

I also have the Superior IO 360 with 9:1 pistons rated at 185HP and the stock oil cooler works fine for me in Houston, TX. My oil temps typically run about 187*F and have never exceeded 200*F. As noted above, my limiting factor has been CHT's in climb on a hot day which I keep at less than 400*F. Cruise CHT's average about 355*F running ROP.
 
Great info everyone; thanks for all the information! My plan is to call pacific oil cooler service as I have had several people recommend them. Ill let you know what I decide.
 
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