Winter kit.

[Mousse]

My mod for cold weather flying in my -10 has not produced very good result. So far I have blocked the exhaust side of my oil cooler which worked fine on my -9 but no so good on the -10. Oil only reached 161 deg.F flying in 26 deg.F (-3C).
I have since but not tested, reduced air to the oil cooler from 4" to 2", a reduction of 75% by installing a restriction plate in front of the flexible 4" scat.

Please share comments/suggestions or past experiences in this matter.

Michel

[Carl Froehlich]

I have a 4? butterfly valve from ACS in line with the SCAT hose to the cooler. Fully shut keeps oil temps up on the coldest day. Even on not so cold days it gets shut a little out keep temps above 180.

Carl

[rvbuilder2002]

Originally Posted by Mousse

reduced air to the oil cooler from 4" to 2", a reduction of 75% by installing a restriction plate in front of the flexible 4" scat.

Michel

This is what is done with the factory demo RV-10 and it works well, but the OAT it operates in is not as cold as it is for some people.

[rdrcrmatt]

Originally Posted by Carl Froehlich

I have a 4” butterfly valve from ACS in line with the SCAT hose to the cooler. Fully shut keeps oil temps up on the coldest day. Even on not so cold days it gets shut a little out keep temps above 180.

Carl

I did the exact same thing, it works GREAT. I keep it fully closed for take-off and once oil starts getting to 180°F I start backing it off one little knob "click" at a time. I can keep the oil temps wherever I want now in cold weather. I'm in Wisconsin, I was flying around in 5°F OAT on the ground last winter with no problem.

http://www.tcwtech.com/control_valve_servo_kit.html

I got the 4" kit.

[TimO]

Almost same exact story as Matt. I got the TCW Tech butterfly valve. I put the same valve on both my RV10 and RV14. The only difference from standard TCW Kit for me is that I did a manual push-pull cable on both planes, and got the cable clamp nut from Aircraft Spruce. It works very well, and I find that on the RV-10 I close it a little bit in the winter and keep my oil temps nice, but on my RV-14 I almost fully close it, depending on OAT.

My only caution is that with anything like this, make sure you keep the nuts and screws snug, and inspect it so you know it will fully open when not using it, and it is 100% reliable. You would not want it binding or anything that would prevent it from fully opening. When I installed it on my RV-14 a few weeks ago, I had to adjust slighly my location where I clamped the push-pull cable because If I moved things wrong and had too much flex in the valve end of the cable, I could cause it to not fully open. A quick change in my clamping of the cable fixed it for good.

Definitely nice to have if you live up where I do.

[Mousse]

Thanks you for your comments. The butterfly valve will be my next mod.

Also, are your CHT reaching normal temp. without modification to the cowling?

Michel

[RV10inOz]

Originally Posted by Mousse

Thanks you for your comments. The butterfly valve will be my next mod.

Also, are your CHT reaching normal temp. without modification to the cowling?

Michel

DO NOT do anything to raise the CHT's, the old Bonanza "winter kit" baffles were the cause of much trouble. Leave the baffles alone. Your engine will be warm enough.

[Canadian_JOY]

Originally Posted by Mousse

My mod for cold weather flying in my -10 has not produced very good result. So far I have blocked the exhaust side of my oil cooler which worked fine on my -9 but no so good on the -10. Oil only reached 161 deg.F flying in 26 deg.F (-3C).
I have since but not tested, reduced air to the oil cooler from 4" to 2", a reduction of 75% by installing a restriction plate in front of the flexible 4" scat.

Please share comments/suggestions or past experiences in this matter.

Michel

Michel - I'm based in similar weather conditions to what you're experiencing (Ottawa here). I flew last winter with no oil temp problems at all by using a butterfly valve in the SCAT tubing feeding cooling air to the oil cooler. Ours is just a lowly O-360 so a 4 cylinder rather than a 6 cylinder. Still, the principle of blocking airflow to the cooler using a butterfly valve works just fine in our normal winter temperatures.

As for cylinder head temperatures, if you can't keep the engine warm you can reduce the size of the cooling inlet using aluminum plates. This is something you want to approach very, very carefully by reducing the airflow a little bit at a time. An aluminum plate that covers the inlet and can be increased or decreased in size, or filled full of holes and then tape over the holes as needed, is worth investigating if you can't keep the engine warm. I do this on my little airplane (with a C85 engine) because it just won't stay warm in the winter.

[Mousse]

Originally Posted by Canadian_JOY

Michel - I'm based in similar weather conditions to what you're experiencing (Ottawa here). I flew last winter with no oil temp problems at all by using a butterfly valve in the SCAT tubing feeding cooling air to the oil cooler. Ours is just a lowly O-360 so a 4 cylinder rather than a 6 cylinder. Still, the principle of blocking airflow to the cooler using a butterfly valve works just fine in our normal winter temperatures.

As for cylinder head temperatures, if you can't keep the engine warm you can reduce the size of the cooling inlet using aluminum plates. This is something you want to approach very, very carefully by reducing the airflow a little bit at a time. An aluminum plate that covers the inlet and can be increased or decreased in size, or filled full of holes and then tape over the holes as needed, is worth investigating if you can't keep the engine warm. I do this on my little airplane (with a C85 engine) because it just won't stay warm in the winter.

Thanks Mark. More testing to come.

[Mtherr]

Curious to see developments on this topic.