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Heater door leaks air when turned off

sdischer

ATP, CFII, A&P
MEMBER
COLLEGE STATION, TX
Any tips for stopping the hot air leaking into the cabin around the control door when the heater is off? The little door is adjusted as far shut as it will go but I still get hot feet as it doesn’t seal
completely. Maybe the guys in cooler climates dont notice but this is Texas folks and even with the big door open my feet are sweating like a long tailed cat in a rocking chair factory. I was going to use the analogy of the “woman” in church but this is a mixed crowd. I thought about disconnecting the hose but then we will certainly get that “100 year ice storm” or a
real front and I’ll want to go fly and need my heater.

Fun day at Kingsbury Aerodrome yesterday BTw. If you are anywhere near San Antonio put that one on your schedule for next year for the weekend after Veterans Day. Cool little place.
 
Probably the safest choice. I thought of making a sheet metal blank I might slide between the face of the outlet on the firewall and the two diagonal fuselage tubes that are on each side of the vent but I am afraid trapping/deflecting all that hot air might make the blank hot enough to melt the firewall blanket material inside.
 
I just made a closed cell foam wedge that I shove in the outside intake. Seems to work fine.

Jerry

Edit: This is what I have done but read all the comments below that provide clarity to why this is a less than good idea.
 
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I just made a closed cell foam wedge that I shove in the outside intake. Seems to work fine.

Jerry

I've never been brave enough to shut the air off going through my heat shrouds for fear it would create hot spots
 
Maybe you need to take a good look at the air control box to see why the hot air flows through into the cabin instead of dumping out when you have the flapper closed. If you have a shroud around the muffler, the heat needs to go somewhere.

Jim
 
Well -- Thanks for straightening my bad idea out! I did edit my original post a bit. But now I have to understand what bad things have happened. I have been doing a this bad idea for over ten years now with no notice of any overheating issues at all. I have two mufflers that I did this with, the LES and the Atlee hotrod muffler. I'll look in the Atlee can for any heat stress but did not see any problems on my LES (which was the most exposed to this folly) when I put it back on this year. Keep in mind I'm not defending anything here just getting a bit of laugh from looking in the mirror this morning. The guy I saw there looked pretty stupid. It's time to line up and get your paddles out.

Thanks guys. I DO appreciate the correction.:oops:

Jerry
 
Jerry, did you notice any performance difference when switching between the Atlee and LEES exhaust?
 
Jerry, did you notice any performance difference when switching between the Atlee and LEES exhaust?

Just noise. I've been back and forth between the two and even did a fairly thorough test with a friend on a couple of cubs and the take away from it all was the main difference is their weight, cost, and how much noise they make. I can't deal with the noise of the hotrod muffler. Some can. I hate the way the LES crowds the engine compartment. My ears won this battle.

Jerry
 
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Winter

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Summer
 

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Airflow still cools the muffler in summer from the pics. The cowl is slightly pressurized so heated air from the muffler heater exhaust above and engine cooling can enter the open side of the control box and then into the cockpit. Cap fixes that. The cowl side control box door doesn't appear to be a tight fit. I replaced a leaker like that years ago with something better from Atlee Dodge.

Gary
 
We have the same issue on our experimental cub, I was shocked at how much hot air was getting past the weather checked gasket that forms the seal when the door is closed. Our is fully closing but the gasket has cracks and splits in it. We blocked it off for summer when a thin piece of sheet metal.
 
We have the same issue on our experimental cub, I was shocked at how much hot air was getting past the weather checked gasket that forms the seal when the door is closed. Our is fully closing but the gasket has cracks and splits in it. We blocked it off for summer when a thin piece of sheet metal.

I cut a thin piece of aluminum 6x6 inches and it slides perfectly between the two tubes on both sides of the outlet and the firewall blanket. I think that’s the easiest and safest option. Next time I swing the engine
I’ll work on a new door gasket.


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Door gasket.....maybe a thin flat piece of engine baffling seal glued to the door's face with high temp RTV?

Gary
 
When I bought my -12 it had a swing-away cover on the cockpit side of the firewall. Open in winter, closed in summer. I "think" that was factory. Super-simple - - -

edit: That wasn't very clear. The cover was round and swiveled in the plane of the firewall, so it just slid over the opening, pivoting on a hinge bolt.

edit again: I now have the Atlee cabin air box and defroster air box, and the system works real well.
 
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This little piece slides in between the tubes and firewall issue solved!


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