Mounting oil cooler on engine mount

I'm at the end of my rope with high oil temperatures. Baffles are sealing fine, and I can't see light from below the engine except through the fins.

I assume that the airflow coming in on the left sight is turbulent because of the front-mount governor getting in the way, and the cooler is the smallish one that Van's sells.

My oil temps are between 190 and 225 and I have to step climb to keep them from going above that.

I'm also out of room on the firewall to put things, so my question is, can I mount the oil cooler on the engine mount using stainless Adel clamps and aluminum angle?
thanks,
-John

RV-10 Oil Cooler on RV-8

I used a suggestion provided by VAF forum to use a larger oil cooler on my RV-8 from the RV-10 and use the RV-10 firewall mount. It seems to have installed without a problem, but I have not run it yet.

There is a difference in the space available on a taildragger vs an A-model.
I followed Jason Beaver's example,
http://www.jasonbeaver.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=oil+cooler&IncludeBlogs=5

Gary

I mounted the cooler on my Rocket as shown. Worked great. I added a butterfly later to control airflow, otherwise the oil was normally much too cool.

http://vincesrocket.com/2004-08-19/finished oil cooler.jpg

Other photos and text on http://vincesrocket.com/Engine and Prop.htm

Thanks for all this info, much appreciated!

John Courte said:

I'm at the end of my rope with high oil temperatures. Baffles are sealing fine, and I can't see light from below the engine except through the fins.

I assume that the airflow coming in on the left sight is turbulent because of the front-mount governor getting in the way, and the cooler is the smallish one that Van's sells.

My oil temps are between 190 and 225 and I have to step climb to keep them from going above that.

I'm also out of room on the firewall to put things, so my question is, can I mount the oil cooler on the engine mount using stainless Adel clamps and aluminum angle?
thanks,
-John

Click to expand...

John, a few questions.

1. Do you have the Niagara 20002a cooler?
2. What engine/power do you have.
3. What ambient temp, airspeed (WOT climbing), and oil temp do have for the target cooling condition?
4. What are the temps-speeds do you have not, or said another way - Can you provide an airspeed point, WOT, Ambient and oil temp that is representative.

Niagara has a 9 row cooler that might serve your needs without adding more variables and a lot more cost. You can look up the dimensions and see that the flange is not larger than the 7 row. It will fit on a 7 (depending on how you mounted the 7 row). With attention to above questions, you can determine if it's higher heat transfer capacity will drop the temps to meet your goal.

Try using the search function. You are not the first person to have this issue.

Here is just one thread on the subject.

Also, it would be nice to know which engine make and size, if you have piston squirters, prop, model (tail or nose dragger), cowl (Van's or Sam James), location of your cooler, cooler make and size, etc.

The system shown in post 2 is working great. Here is a picture of the finished product:



Here is a link to a gallery with a few more pictures.

https://tangodelta.smugmug.com/N247TD/2015-Oil-Cooler-Installation


Even in 100F days I can climb right up to altitude with this setup and oil temp stays around 205. Once at altitude I close down the slide valve about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way and oil stabilizes about 195 to 200F. It's not very sensitive - teh vernatherm valve is also helping regulate temperature. Surprisingly there does not seem to be a lot of effect on CHTs when I open or close the valve. Some, but not a lot.

Bubblehead:
Do you have piston oil squirters in that engine?

Did you previously have another cooler setup that didn't work so well, and if so, what was it?

No skirt squirters on the engine. It is a 180 hp IO-360-A1F6D for whatever that is worth but I do have slightly higher compression pistons and Eci cylinders, which supposedly run a bit hotter than some others, and if the cylinders run hotter the oil will too.

I had the standard oil cooler behind the #4 cylinder on the baffling but did not get enough cooling due to poor baffles and living in Texas. I went up a size of oil cooler, still on the baffle, and it got better but still sometimes had to stair step to altitude. We worked hard to get the baffles as good as possible but they were old and the original builder did not do a very good job on them. When I decided to put new baffles on I decided to go to a big cooler and duct it off the back of the baffle. It took a lot of work but I think it was worth it.

Hi Bill,

Apologies for the delay in response, I tend to go underground for long periods as work gets intense, then come up for air occasionally.

#1: I have the standard Van's 7-row oil cooler, mounted on the aft of the #4 baffle.

#2: It's a frankenmotor - 180hp O-360F1A6 converted to FI with AFP FI and Superior Sump.

3: I'd like to be able to climb out in 90 degree heat at 120mph and keep the oil temperature below 200f. right now, it will go up to 230 if I don't step-climb.

4: This is a typical flight: When everything's warm after some pattern work, if I climb out from SMO (400') at 120mph to 500' with a right turn at around 1000' then on to 4500' I will be at 220f before I get to 3500. Because I'm heading north, I usually level off at 2500, pull back to 23 squared, and let the temp settle down. Then I continue in a slow climb to my target altitude. CHT goes to 400 on Cyl 1 first and usually stays there until I level off, then it settles in at around 370 at cruise, higher or lower depending on OAT.

I've tried to be pretty devout about sealing baffle leaks, but it's entirely possible that I've missed something. But since the CHT's are more or less OK, I'm pretty sure the oil temperature is the result of something else. Is it possible for an oil cooler to get clogged in the first 100 hrs of flight? If so, I would guess that points to a fairly serious issue.

It could also be that my timing is off a bit. I read somewhere (maybe on here) that will lead to increased oil temperature.

cheers
-John

BillL said:

John, a few questions.

1. Do you have the Niagara 20002a cooler?
2. What engine/power do you have.
3. What ambient temp, airspeed (WOT climbing), and oil temp do have for the target cooling condition?
4. What are the temps-speeds do you have not, or said another way - Can you provide an airspeed point, WOT, Ambient and oil temp that is representative.

Niagara has a 9 row cooler that might serve your needs without adding more variables and a lot more cost. You can look up the dimensions and see that the flange is not larger than the 7 row. It will fit on a 7 (depending on how you mounted the 7 row). With attention to above questions, you can determine if it's higher heat transfer capacity will drop the temps to meet your goal.

Click to expand...

I have an engine close to yours, John, but I have oil squirters and a little compression also Baffles and CHT's are fine, but had trouble keeping the oil temps below 220-225 during climb. Switched to an Aero Classics cooler last month. They said it was about the same size as the Niagara, so I was going to mount it on the baffle behind #4. It was over an inch wider, and heavier but great quality. Not a good fit on the baffling. Mounted it on the firewall with 4"scat coming off #4. A little work, but I won't have to worry about the #4 baffling cracking anymore.

Full power climb out, 110Kt, 10,000 density altitude, and 80F, oil barely goes over 200. I am happy with the outcome. Will probably need some kind of shutter by the time winter arrives.