Oil Temp never gets in the Green

Hi Gene,

You're on the right track. With OAT's around 40F your oil temp probably won't get very high. A huge amount of us just use some thin 2" wide aluminum tape across the the cooler and or radiator. Easy and quick to apply and easy to just yank it off. Oh and did I mention it's cheap to do. 😀

I'd like to know why 100% of all liquid cooled piston engines built in the last 130 years use thermostats, except Rotax. This 100's of billions of engines in every car, truck, train, heavy equipment, ship, and boat, but Rotax thinks tape over the radiator is a good idea. Tape - too hot on climb out and too cold in cruise and descent.

Hi Ben

The major difference is this is an engine with only liquid cooled heads, not cylinders.  As such the engine is not as prone to cold seizure like the "billions" of engines you refer to.  Ships, trains, heavy equipment almost exclusively use diesel engines so they don't really count in my mind.  

I have never seen any reference from Rotax about tape, that is simply not true.  I am pretty sure what Roger is referring to is the practice of most operators to work around the issue rather than develop winter kits like we see on GA aircraft for cold weather operations.  A correct design of the cooling system would not need that.  Perhaps talk to your kit supplier or OEM for the aircraft.  The specs call out the temperatures not how to achieve them. Just my opinion. 

Cheers