Hi all.
Here's my cheap and dirt simple engine warmer. It does a great job heating the engine, the battery AND the oil-cooler. As you can see, it heats up the entire engine compartment.
It consits of a 1400 watt heater made for heating the interior of the car, a camera-stand and a homemade mounting plate.
Here's the warmer on the stand:
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg34.imageshack.us%2Fimg34%2F5000%2Fimg7039cg.jpg&hash=0770b612fbe12f01335f87facc100c43)
To mount the warmer on the camera-stand, I made a plate and matchdrilled it to both the mount on the camera-stand and the mount on the warmer:
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg842.imageshack.us%2Fimg842%2F525%2Fimg7037y.jpg&hash=25811125a163d981227b9b6513bc8a01)
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg811.imageshack.us%2Fimg811%2F2458%2Fimg7038y.jpg&hash=5d60d3d1ce94b14d6b0c99f749e0c9f7)
(The stapler is there just to give you an idea of the size of the bracket)
Here's the warmer in it's place on the stand:
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg69.imageshack.us%2Fimg69%2F214%2Fimg7040s.jpg&hash=d2b21318ab831a9ef585edb3b5ac6f31)
And here's the whole setup in place:
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg87.imageshack.us%2Fimg87%2F5458%2Fimg7054j.jpg&hash=607981a291b418d8b0ab5cc2f678db53)
In the foreground, you'll see a white "thing" with an antenna sticking up. This is used to turn the heater on. I simply call it up from my homephone beetween 2 and 3 hrs before I'm going to fly, enter a code and the "thing" turns on power to the warmer.
Thus, when I get to the airport, the entire engine compartment is nice and warm.
To further speed things up, I've covered the top cowling with a blanket and installed the Vans cowl inlet plugs.
The inlet plugs are installed with a little gap so the "used" warm air can flow out of the inlets.
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg140.imageshack.us%2Fimg140%2F4007%2Fimg7053s.jpg&hash=3f4c377b0c1a7019910f713c8b468118)
I guess all these articles can be found in every country having cold weather during winter, so hopefully this can be a tip to others needing to preheat the engine.
I prefer this preheating method over others because I don't have to mount anything on the engine or aircraft itself.
That's both simple and doesn't add weight to the plane.
Here's my cheap and dirt simple engine warmer. It does a great job heating the engine, the battery AND the oil-cooler. As you can see, it heats up the entire engine compartment.
It consits of a 1400 watt heater made for heating the interior of the car, a camera-stand and a homemade mounting plate.
Here's the warmer on the stand:
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg34.imageshack.us%2Fimg34%2F5000%2Fimg7039cg.jpg&hash=0770b612fbe12f01335f87facc100c43)
To mount the warmer on the camera-stand, I made a plate and matchdrilled it to both the mount on the camera-stand and the mount on the warmer:
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg842.imageshack.us%2Fimg842%2F525%2Fimg7037y.jpg&hash=25811125a163d981227b9b6513bc8a01)
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg811.imageshack.us%2Fimg811%2F2458%2Fimg7038y.jpg&hash=5d60d3d1ce94b14d6b0c99f749e0c9f7)
(The stapler is there just to give you an idea of the size of the bracket)
Here's the warmer in it's place on the stand:
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg69.imageshack.us%2Fimg69%2F214%2Fimg7040s.jpg&hash=d2b21318ab831a9ef585edb3b5ac6f31)
And here's the whole setup in place:
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg87.imageshack.us%2Fimg87%2F5458%2Fimg7054j.jpg&hash=607981a291b418d8b0ab5cc2f678db53)
In the foreground, you'll see a white "thing" with an antenna sticking up. This is used to turn the heater on. I simply call it up from my homephone beetween 2 and 3 hrs before I'm going to fly, enter a code and the "thing" turns on power to the warmer.
Thus, when I get to the airport, the entire engine compartment is nice and warm.
To further speed things up, I've covered the top cowling with a blanket and installed the Vans cowl inlet plugs.
The inlet plugs are installed with a little gap so the "used" warm air can flow out of the inlets.
![](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg140.imageshack.us%2Fimg140%2F4007%2Fimg7053s.jpg&hash=3f4c377b0c1a7019910f713c8b468118)
I guess all these articles can be found in every country having cold weather during winter, so hopefully this can be a tip to others needing to preheat the engine.
I prefer this preheating method over others because I don't have to mount anything on the engine or aircraft itself.
That's both simple and doesn't add weight to the plane.
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