Bring down oil temperature on a 912 Vz

Sean Griffin wrote:

"I am about to fit an oil thermostat ....."

I Dont see any harm (other than complexity, weight & cost) nor can I see any benefit.

Your stated problem is high temperature - thermostat will do nothing to mitigate this.

Sam Purpura suggested an intercooler

Others , rethinking/engineering your air flow through the cooler/radiator

Fitting additional/larger systems may achieve improved cooling or not, at significant expense - go KISS first and if that doesn't work start spending 😈

In my experience adding an oil thermostat did help the cooling initially. On take off from cold I would be taking off with oil temp above 120f. This is the oil temp in the engine, the reservoir is still at a much lower temp because of the thermostat. The cooler temp oil is slowly mixed into the engine thus adding time in climb before all the oil in the system is at a max temperature.

By adding a second oil radiator, I was able to add enough additional cooling to solve overheating on any except extremely hot days. My engine is tightly cowled RV-12 and no space to enlarge the stock oil radiator. 

Just for the record. I never said anything about an inter cooler. I did suggest improving the efficiency of airflow thru the existing system.

Walt wrote:

Sean Griffin wrote:

"I am about to fit an oil thermostat ....."

I Dont see any harm (other than complexity, weight & cost) nor can I see any benefit.

Your stated problem is high temperature - thermostat will do nothing to mitigate this.

Sam Purpura suggested an intercooler

Others , rethinking/engineering your air flow through the cooler/radiator

Fitting additional/larger systems may achieve improved cooling or not, at significant expense - go KISS first and if that doesn't work start spending 😈

In my experience adding an oil thermostat did help the cooling initially. On take off from cold I would be taking off with oil temp above 120f. This is the oil temp in the engine, the reservoir is still at a much lower temp because of the thermostat. The cooler temp oil is slowly mixed into the engine thus adding time in climb before all the oil in the system is at a max temperature.

By adding a second oil radiator, I was able to add enough additional cooling to solve overheating on any except extremely hot days. My engine is tightly cowled RV-12 and no space to enlarge the stock oil radiator. 

That's an interesting aspect and good to know! So far my only intent with fitting an oil thermostat was to prevent running the engine too cold on long descents, in winter and due to a newly fitted XL oil cooler. Just mitigating the lower end of the scale really.

Hi Walt,

"In my experience adding an oil thermostat did help the cooling initially. On take off from cold I would be taking off with oil temp above 120f. This is the oil temp in the engine, the reservoir is still at a much lower temp because of the thermostat. The cooler temp oil is slowly mixed into the engine thus adding time in climb before all the oil in the system is at a max temperature."

Sorry if I offend - this makes no sense to me.

To the best of my understanding, an oil thermostat is an automatic device that divert most of the oil flow away from the oil cooler ie bypasses the cooler. It does not reduce the flow from the oil reservoir.

In doing this, it reduces the time taken to get the oil to operating temperature.

May, in very cold climates, assist in maintaining the oil at its optimum working temperature by bypassing the oil cooler.

It may also assist in slowing the cooling of the oil,  in a low powered descent.

I can not see any way that it would reduce oil temperatures.😈

What Sean said. A thermostat won’t help with high temperatures but it’s great for cold weather and low temperatures.