adding a second oil cooler

[C-FAH Q]

My RV7 IO-360-A1B6 seems to run a tad warm. The cowling is tight and everything sealed up very nicely. I was thinking of adding a small second cooler to the system for summer operations. Has anyone tried this? any success?

[billgill]

Hello Gary,

What oil cooler do you have? It would be much simpler to install a better and/or bigger cooler to keep the oil temp in check versus adding a second coller. I am using a SW 10599R cooler with an IO-390 installation in an RV-7 -- no problems keeping temp below 200?F even during the hottest time of year. Temp during cruise is a constant 190?F.

Bill
RV-7 N151WP

[Low Pass]

You planning on installing in parallel or series? In parallel, how are you going to balance the flow? With two coolers, you've increased your chance of failure significantly. Keep it simple - revise what you have or enlarge the single cooler installation. Too many people successfully running Lycomings with single coolers out there to consider otherwise.

[C-FAH Q]

I think a cooler change might be in order. looks like the sw 10599r is working well.

[billgill]

Gary, I can send photos of my installation if there's interest.

Bill

[D-Dubya]

Gary, I've seen two oil coolers installed on an RV-6 down here in Southeast Texas. It was a slightly tweaked IO-360 parallel valve engine developing more than 200 hp, and if I remember correctly, they were originally having trouble keeping the oil temps down during summertime climbs. The original configuration had the main cooler installed on the firewall with SCAT tubing feeding it off the back of the plenum.

The new & improved version had a small oil cooler between the inlet and the #2 cylinder that was plumbed in series. I'm going by memory, which is dangerous for me , but I believe that's the way it was done. But it did solve their high temp problem.

Now, I don't want to second guess your problem, but I used to work in Ontario years ago and I don't remember it getting very hot during the summer. Is it possible that there is something else going on that's causing the higher temps? Maybe some sort of air path restriction? Without knowing how your system is configured (i.e. cooler location, size, type, plenum, etc.), it's tough to really say.

So yes, it is possible to install a secondary cooler and others have done it --but I'd be looking for a reason why your one cooler isn't doing the trick.

[hyephil]

I ADDED SECOND OIL COOLER WHEN TEMPS WERE GETTING HOT ON A REGULAR BASIS. THE RESULT WAS ZERO IMPROVEMENT. I THEN TOOK PLANE TO LYCON IN VISALIA CA WITH PROBLEM AND THE PROBLEM TURNED OUT TO BE THE THERMOSTATIC VALVE FOR THE OIL TEMP. THEY ALSO COVERED MOST OF THE ADDED SECOND OIL COOLER. TEMPS CAME DOWN TO NORMAL LEVELS. JUST A THOUGHT. THE ENG WAS A ANGLE VALVE IO-360

[DENMACRES]

I HAVE INSTALLED A SECOND COOLER ON MY -6. IO-360 ANGLE VALVE, VERY TIGHTLY COWLED. YES IT IS TWEAKED A LOT! THE COOLER IS A 7 ROW INSTALLED IN SERIES, UP FRONT OF THE #2 CLY. MY TEMPS WENT FROM 200-220 TO 170-190 WITH OAT AT 90-100. NO PROBLEMS EVEN DURING LONG CLIMBS TO ALT. IT ADDED 7lbs. INCLUDING OIL. THX FOR LISTENING. DENMAC

[C-FAH Q]

I didnt even realize there was a thermostatic vavle for the oil. I will check into that. Not adding anymore weight is always a good thing. My angle valve 7 comes in at 1099, prefer to keep it thier.
Thanks

[Robert Anglin]

This may help, but I have found that cooling is as much an art as a math
problem. The way every thing is fitted and sealed as well as shaped. Changes
the cooling to some degree. Two engines just alike in two aircraft just alike
will in most cases not cool the same. We have a none standard IOX-360, with all 8 cooling jets installed. That puts us in the midle, not 180 bhp. not 200 bhp. The answer was one cooler behind number 4 per plans, but not 7 row. We found that you could fit a 9 row in the same place, only 2 more rows.
This gave us aprox. 22% more cooling area, for the aprox. 7% more than standard bhp. A good infer-red temp. gun comes in handy on these jobs. It can take a lot of time to get it just right, Go slow..
Yours as always REA III #80888