> Carl wrote:
>
> Does anyone know if it is OK to take hot air
> directly from the engine compartment into the
> cabin.
On the CO2 issue, you did wisely cite the need for
a CO2 detector, but the little
button-on-a-credit-card types are crude and
degrade with age. A better electronic version
(house current rewired for 14V) can fail too. But
beyond that, new engine installations have the
odors of cooking rubber, paint, and resin in the
cowling, followed later by the effects of any
minor oil or coolant leaks. The Rotax
installation, besides it's open drip trays for
overflow fuel, vents ethylene glycol fumes and
oil-tank blow-by gasses into the engine room,
unless you route those vent lines outside.
> Conversely, is there any necessity to install cooling to the
> instrument panel.
On newer avionics boxes, no; they draw zip. What
you do is wire them up on the bench, stack them,
and see who gets hot after a while. If need be, a
better system is to bleed off some of the cooling
air into a 1/2" line and direct it at the back of
the avionics stack. The other instruments would
appreciate it too.
A big source of heat inside the panel is the
sun-baking of the top of the panel, especially
with a dark, dull finish to minimize light
reflection. Self-adhesive, foam-backed aluminum
foil on the inside will reflect it back out some.
Regards,
Fred Fillinger, A063, N3EU
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