Coolant/oil heat exchangers

In my zenith 750 912 uls big bore, living in HOT Alabama, I was seeing heat issues, but focused more on making my baffling (there really isn't any) more effective.  For example, in the two front cowl openings, there was 2" open space for air to go around the oil cooler, and coolant cooler as well.  

So I fabricated some material to direct all the air molecules right at the coolers, so no air would escape around the sides.  I took those side and top hole panels I made right up to about 1/8" away from the face of the cooler.  Haven't had a problem since.

Bert

Steven, I am on my mobile right now with somewhat limited view on the attached pics. The one cooler I find is for water, right?! Does the current cooling  concept rely on that one cooler for both water and oil „connected“ to that sole cooler by the xchanger or am I overlooking a separate oil cooler?

Do you have any pics at hand showing the inlets of the mounted cowling and the outlets which I find interesting with regards to the water cooler?

Hey Peter! There is an oil cooler tucked away behind the water radiator. The concept is the airflow moves through the cowling, through the radiator, and then the oil cooler (don't think it's fully baffled, so some air may bypass the coolant radiator). The coolant/oil heat exchanger uses the oil to take some of the heat away from the coolant.

I picked up a tow bar for my truck, so I'm going to tow my plane to the maintenance bays on the field and do a coolant flush. I can take some more pictures there and markup the coolant setup since folks are interested.

It occurred to me researching that since the plane was based in Salt Lake City, it very well may have 60:40 coolant:water in it from the previous owner. So, I'm hoping some 50:50 + cleaning/fixing of the radiator fins should help get those temps down. If not, I may experiment with 40:60 or even 30:70 coolant:water just for the summer time since we're getting to triple digits. Just until I really hone in the cooling flow in the cowling.

Steven-

"If not, I may experiment with 40:60 or even 30:70 coolant:water" 

The optimum coolant concentrate : pure water, is 50:50.

Increasing the concentrate ratio, will just empty your pocket with no gain & possibly reduce the heat extraction performance of the fluid.. 

Decreeing the concentrate ratio, will improve your finances but reduce the anti freezing level, lubrication,& electrolysis performance.

"The coolant/oil heat exchanger uses the oil to take some of the heat away from the coolant."

You have it back to front - the coolant flowing through the heat exchanger, should be removing heat from the oil. In doing so it is "loading" the coolant system, such that you may need a larger Radiator to get rid of the extra heat.

My friend recently bought a Sirius TL-3000 with the 912IS. The previous owner installed a small radiator fan that we use on the ground. This keeps the coolant temp below 200. Airborne temps get up to 240; rarely more.