This is all sounding very complicated.
I was having cooling issues on the ground and on extended cruise climbs. I have
the 13 row oil cooler too, but the builder had it mounted with a 30 mm gap
between
its base and the inside cowl face. So, a lot of air was just exiting the
cowl without being forced through it or the water radiator.
I've just moved it down 30 mm so there is no gap between it and the inside of
the
cowl. I also made two plates that extend the sides of the aluminium cowl duct
(that it's mounted to) down to the base of the oil cooler face and infront
of the mounting points on either side to block off those gaps. Now, all the air
that comes in through the stock rectangular cowl opening has to pass either
through the water radiator or the oil radiator. There's no where else for it to
go.
Testing suggests all cooling issues have been solved. On the ground I was still
within temperature limits after 15+ minutes at approx 2300 rpm. In an extended
cruise climb to 5400 three days ago (23+ degrees at ground level) the oil temp
remained at 96 degrees C and coolent (Evans) at 75 degrees C (see attached
image). During the long low-power decent back to the airfield the oil temp
remained
between 90 and 96, but the coolent temp went down as low as 56.
I've also fitted a thermostatic radiator valve fitted that only routes oil
through
the radiator when it reaches approx 83 degrees C. I'll take some pictures
of the finished job and add them to this post.
It will be interesting to see how it copes this winter and if I have to
partially
cover either radiator. I don't think this will be necessary, but we'll see.
All the best.
Carl
G-URMS
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=459862#459862
|