Running Hot

[Keith W]

Thanks Neil have ordered a new radiator cap and modified the cap on the overflow bottle, will change the coolant to castrol radicool and see how we go from there, keeping my fingers crossed thanks Keith.

 

 

[facthunter]

IF you want a corrosion inhibitor with hardly any glycol like the now unavailable Green Castrol in the 400mm tins, CALTEX XL (Pink colour ) is a similar formulation. Very long life .(If that matters).. Nev

 

 

[Neil_S]

Thanks Neil have ordered a new radiator cap and modified the cap on the overflow bottle, will change the coolant to castrol radicool and see how we go from there, keeping my fingers crossed thanks Keith.

Hi Keith,

 

Sounds good - let me know how you go!

 

All the best,

 

Neil

 

 

[Keith W]

Went to Lethbridge for the toy run today, looked at 5 Gazelles and they all had a bigger radiator shroud than mine, they were the same as the one on the white gazelle for sale on the raa members market, mine doesn't come out as wide and has gaps underneath, has anybody have one I can buy or copy or can anybody post some pictures of there shrouds to help me fabricate a new one thanks Keith.

 

 

[Keith W]

Skyfox made the larger radiator shrouds and a scoop for the oil cooler and called it a tropical kit, managed to get a lend of one to copy and took it over to Border Aerospace at Wangaratta where Rolly and Paul fabricated one for me, fitted it up and flew today with an air temp of about 30deg,big difference got nowhere near as hot on climb out and cht temp dropped back to normal operating temp at cruise, will now work on the oil cooler scoop and get that fitted up, very happy with the job can now fly whe n the temp gets over 30 deg.

 

 

[eightyknots]

Skyfox made the larger radiator shrouds and a scoop for the oil cooler and called it a tropical kit, managed to get a lend of one to copy and took it over to Border Aerospace at Wangaratta where Rolly and Paul fabricated one for me, fitted it up and flew today with an air temp of about 30deg,big difference got nowhere near as hot on climb out and cht temp dropped back to normal operating temp at cruise, will now work on the oil cooler scoop and get that fitted up, very happy with the job can now fly whe n the temp gets over 30 deg.

I am glad you finally sorted this out Keith!

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Sometimes the big picture gets lost among the trees.......

 

1) Before everything all was good

 

2) replaced hoses, supposedly with exactly the same hose and the same??? coolant

 

3) Temps now much hotter....

 

4) Cant explain difference so replaced a whole bunch of the airflow stuff around the cooling system which dropped temps back to what they were (ish)

 

If 1) to 4) are a correct interpretation then you still need to explain what changed to create 3)

 

Hiding the result of 3) by doing 4) might not necessarily be a good thing long term.....

 

Have I missed something?

 

Andy

 

 

[DrZoos]

I have done an immense amount of reading on this lately as my rotax is very tightly cowled and in summer prolonged climbing and sitting on a taxi way waiting to access the runway can be problematic.

 

it appears evans coolant is not a good choice if your already running hot,

 

Im running pink nulon , but the Castrol radicool seems to be a better option

 

The clearest solution for me seems to be a bigger oil cooler and or radiator. Depending in when you get the worst symotoms...in my case its when i climb, because the oil cooler is up top and loses air flow

 

Other solutions include

 

1. Placing spacers betwwn your cowl and fuselage to allow more air to exit

 

2 creating exit ramps on the exit of your cowl

 

3. The bump- a 75 mm to 100 mm flat sheet of aluminium bent into a half cylender with a flat piece 1 cm to rivet to the lower fire wall just above where the air exits...creates a venturi effect.

 

4. More air exits on the lower cowl or a bigger air exit, particularly with a ramp to create some drag or low pressure in the exit area.

 

5. Attaching a clamp with big cooling fins to the oil filter and or oil tank

 

6. If you have available amps, running a small electrical fan on the radiator or oil cooler

 

Irrespective of your engine type the jabiru engine installation manual has some really good info on the airflow within engine cowls...

 

Recently we experimented on a friends 19 rego who also has temp issues and added two 30 mm 25 degrees small exit ramps to the bottom of the cowl and 2mm tap washers around the cowl...at oat 25c engine temps on climb dropped 15 degrees and reached a max of 102 on climb to 6000

 

Where as before with no spacers and ramps at oat 24c on climb his would hit 117c and he would level out take it back to 105 and go again and he took 2steps to get to 6000ft

 

When we get a hot day soon we will duplicate that and re test .. It .. I will then ask my manufacturer for permission to try similar. Failing that I will be installing the large oil cooler

 

 

[gdutertre]

Skyfox made the larger radiator shrouds and a scoop for the oil cooler and called it a tropical kit, managed to get a lend of one to copy and took it over to Border Aerospace at Wangaratta where Rolly and Paul fabricated one for me, fitted it up and flew today with an air temp of about 30deg,big difference got nowhere near as hot on climb out and cht temp dropped back to normal operating temp at cruise, will now work on the oil cooler scoop and get that fitted up, very happy with the job can now fly whe n the temp gets over 30 deg.

Hi Keith,

 

My temps are getting uncomfortably high when operating on over 30Deg days. Do you have any pictures of the tropical kit installed?

 

Cheers

 

Guy

 

 

[Keith W]

Hi Keith,My temps are getting uncomfortably high when operating on over 30Deg days. Do you have any pictures of the tropical kit installed?

Cheers

 

Guy

Hi Guy sorry don't have any pictures I gave them to the bloke I sold the plane to, if your oil cooler doesn't have a scoop on it you probably have the normal shroud,if you give the guys at border aerospace at Wangaratta a call,they made 2 and kept 1 to copy let me know how you go cheers Keith

 

 

[gdutertre]

Thanks Keith,

 

Paul from Border Aerospace was very helpful and was able to send pictures of the kit pieces but not installed. It is difficult to know where they go as every picture of every Skyfox 912 engine bay I get a hold of is different. Do you think I would be able to get in touch with the new owner. Perhaps I can track him down at RAAUS if it is still registered.