Oil temp in cold weather

Hi Terry

a look at the 914 manual shows Rotax recommends an oil thermostat.

Cheers

My ramblings:

Oil cooler 

Expensive

Added complexity

Added weight

Lot more coolant connections= lot more potential failure points.

Heat exchanger (radiator /oil cooler) blocking

Cheap

Takes several flights to get right for ambient conditions

Easy to apply/remove

Light weight

No Change to system complexity

Restrict air flow

Applied to entry/exit air points (I prefer exit air)

Cheap

Takes several flights to get right for ambient conditions

Easy to apply/remove

Light weight

Can be pilot operated or fixed

No Change to system complexity

Hi all

This is the most common solution to cold oil temps used in the USA./Canada.  I am sure you can find something similar wherever you are.  The major benefit is it greatly reduces the time needed to warm the oil to operational temperature. 

Cheers

https://www.leadingedgeairfoils.com/remote-oil-cooler-thermostat-kit.html

Ah! The seductive lure of the most expensive/costly solution ?

Hi Sean

The problem ..._"914turbo. Super petrel with dynon skyview. Cold weather operation (34f)."

A cheap solution is simply put some duct tape on the oil radiator to block some of the cooling flow.  This however, besides being ugly, can rob airflow into other areas of the engine bay that may need cooling air flow from the same ductwork.  34F is barley 1C of temperature, this is a problem in a lot of northern Europe and northern USA and Canada.  We have used oil coolers for many years with great success.

The Super Petrel is designed and made in Brazil, they never see that kind of temperature in Brazil.  Given that it is a pusher installation it makes it even more difficult as the incoming air is not under pressure like a tractor installation.  The engine is fully covered and airflow from the coolers has to also deliver air to other parts of the engine bay.  The air inlets are directly under the top wing where there is not much pressure in the first place.  An opening is also on the top of the wing, again not a high pressure area for inlet air.  In normal operational temperatures this generally works great and they have mastered the hot environments wonderfully in my opinion.  How to block airflow however presents some real issues so you do not rob air incoming from the other parts of the engine.  if you block the inlets or the outlets it may be creating another issue somewhere else.  For that reason I think the oil thermostat makes a lot of sense, no seduction here but I love the word. 

Cheers