Hi Justin,
> This one struck a chord with me.
> Although I have a Rotax 912S and Classic cowl I had much the same
> cooling problems to start with..
>
> I agree that it did take 15 hours or so before I acheived total temp
> stability at the normal levels.
I have now about 2 hours on the engine, and it is starting to cool down
considerably. Can't tell of course whether this is due to some cooling
modifications I made, or because the engine is now a little less tight.
Also, the engine now runs much more smoothly, very noticable from the
inside and the outside. I didn't change anything that could have caused
this. My assumption is that the "tightness" was not evenly spread among
the cylinders. It feels normal now, but the first hour or so you
wouldn't believe how much it vibrated, shaked, etc. even on higher rpm's.
I'm happy now that the engine starts to behave more like I hopened for
when I bought it.
> During the flight testing period I experienced too much coolant cooling
> and not enough oil cooling.
Haven't got to this part yet. Managed to get the water boiling during
idle, while the oil was still around 50 Celcius! It is now becoming
better but the oil temperature is still way behind the water temperature.
> I saw a Europa at a fly-in with some of the cooling vanes removed
> between the water tubes in the radiator just in front of the oil cooler.
Good idea! I will keep this in mind in case I'm going to experience the
same oil cooling problems.
> In the heat of the mediterranen sun (say 36 degrees C) I have no
> difficulty in taxiing for an unlimited period. I set the Airmaster to
> "Manual" fully coarse and 1800 rpm and it keeps it steady well within
> limits. Do remember to set the Airmaster back to "Auto" and "T/O" before
> taking off. I forgot this once and it wasn't a good experience.
The good news with the Woodcomp with large twist is that it is more
difficult to forget this. ;-) It becomes quite noisy and rough if set to
coarse while still on the ground. Presumably the inner part with very
much twist gets a so large angle of attack that it stalls.
Thanks for your comments!
P.S. I think it would have been wise if either Rotax or Europa advises
in their manuals about the cooling problems with a new engine. For a
newbe like me it was a real brainbreaker to deal with an engine that
overheats within 8 minutes before the oil even starts to warm up a bit...
--
Frans Veldman
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