Low oil temp

[Bearhawk Builder]

During the rebuild I heard that some have had trouble with high OT's with the rear mounted oil cooler so I paid close attention to baffling and cowl fit. Maybe sealed it up too well, my oil temps are pretty low. Flew a couple hours today and never saw above 123 degrees. It was cold, hovering around zero but even in the summer I have a hard time getting above 180.
Cooler is blocked off with metal tape. Any ideas how to raise these temps safely?

 

[stewartb]

A cooler shutter from Anti Splat Aero would be useful. Put the tape on the front side and see how it works.

Some guys with rear coolers struggle with CHTs. Oil temps are usually cool.

 

[Dirt911]

The local champs here have ways of blocking off portions of the inlet of the cowl’s ranging from metal plates that sandwich onto the cowl, to duct tape. There must be a supercub block off plate to cover part of the air inlet, I know there are for my 170. I don’t have them and had low oil temps today too

 

[Bearhawk Builder]

Thought I might run into you today Dirt, beauty day.

 

[Bearhawk Builder]

Tape on the front side is pretty hard to do with the cooler up against the cylinder. Could probably get to an inch or so of it on top.
I'll try that

 

[Dirt911]

You have skis yet? We had Andy, Tim and my 170. Landed at 20 something lakes all over Northern VT..

 

[Bearhawk Builder]

No, anyone with a set of wheel skis let me know. No sonny?
Almost tipped over some Bob houses on Silver Lake though.

 

[Dirt911]

Sonny’s skis are not quite ready to go. We saw a fair number of surprised looking ice fishermen today. Hey sometime soon I’d like to talk to you about building a SC. I’m just starting to really consider a javron L21. Might be a while before I’m ready to be serious, but clearly a SC would be the right airplane for most of what I’m doing...

sorry for the thread hi jack

 

[jrussl]

Tape on the front side is pretty hard to do with the cooler up against the cylinder. Could probably get to an inch or so of it on top.
I'll try that

Looks like I have the same cooler setup. I use something like a paint stir stick to help apply the tape all the way down the front side. It takes a bit of finagling but it can be done. Good luck

Jeff


Sent from my iPad using SuperCub.Org mobile app

 

[DENNY]

Put thin washers between the cooler flange and the Baffling Then you can slide blanking plates between the cooler and baffling. I block off most of mine in the winter.
DENNY

 

[Bearhawk Builder]

Thanks Guys

 

[RaisedByWolves]

What oil cooler and baffle is that? doesn't look like cubcrafters? On the carbon cub i build a door for the back but in the winter it still takes some tape on the front to warm it up

 

[BC12D-4-85]

You got one of these installed?

https://www.lycoming.com/sites/default/files/SI1008C Bypass Valve Installation.pdf
https://www.lycoming.com/sites/default/files/SI1255A Thermostatic Oil Cooler Valve Replacement.pdf
https://www.lycoming.com/content/understanding-oil-flow

Gary

 

[40m]

What oil cooler and baffle is that? doesn't look like cubcrafters? On the carbon cub i build a door for the back but in the winter it still takes some tape on the front to warm it up

The door works incredibly well nine months a year but with temps below zero F. I have all but one inch taped off on the front side to keeps temps in the 180 range.

 

[mvivion]

Try blocking off the side cowl outlets with aluminum plates that attatched to the firewall, and conform to the back of your cowl doors. Really helps increase temps by reducing flow through cowling.

Ive actually seen something like this set up hinges, with a push-pull control. But I ran my cub in interior AK with these plates, and a Top Cub with them in NW MN.

MTV

 

[Farmboy]

Dave, as a point of reference mine is blocked off and with the cold last saturday I saw 136 as a high. Going to have to insulate it soon. lol.

 

[BC12D-4-85]

Are those of you with cold oil running a vernatherm unit in your oil temp accessory housing? See Post 13. Just curious as they have worked for me providing the CHT's in winter are kept warm via cowl baffling.

Gary

 

[Bearhawk Builder]

Yes on the vermatherm, makes me wonder if it’s operating property. CC cooler setup for the 160 HP

 

[stewartb]

Typical. Block your cooler on the impact air side.

 

[BC12D-4-85]

Yes on the vermatherm, makes me wonder if it’s operating property. CC cooler setup for the 160 HP

The reason I asked is I had two installed on a O-320 and O-360 and it helped in winter. Oil should be kept out of the cooler until it reaches some warmer temp. I also blocked the cowl air outlets too. Maybe consider checking the oil temp bulb in boiling water to see if it's accurate? Not sure how to check the vernatherm, but they do recommend a current part number in one of the links.

Gary

 

[NunavutPA-12]

Typical. Block your cooler on the impact air side.

+1. My Anti-Splat oil cooler shutter works great on the front side. Attached with (are you ready?) VELCRO. That stuff survived just fine through the summer. I just pop the shutter off for the summer when I do the change-over to floats.

 

[DENNY]

I have had very poor luck with the Vernatherm units. Tested with boiling water ok, replaced with a new tested one and still did not control oil temps well. Just went to tape/blanking plates. Denny

 

[cubdrvr]

During the rebuild I heard that some have had trouble with high OT's with the rear mounted oil cooler so I paid close attention to baffling and cowl fit. Maybe sealed it up too well, my oil temps are pretty low. Flew a couple hours today and never saw above 123 degrees. It was cold, hovering around zero but even in the summer I have a hard time getting above 180.
Cooler is blocked off with metal tape. Any ideas how to raise these temps safely?

I made an aluminum plate with a wingnut that covers the area you show. My cubs oil temps will religously run between 110-120 degrees over OAT without the cover and a bit more with the cover.

 

[KeithO]

Wanted to share what I found recently in regards to my chronic low oil temp problem.

Background: Bought a 1982 certified Supercub in August of last year. PA18-150. The plane came with the baffle mounted oil cooler STC installed as well as a B&C BC700 spin-on oil filter adapter. Also had a basic "three in one" gauge with oil temp, oil pressure and #4 cylinder CHT.

My oil temps were nearly always 150F - except for a few times in August in Texas before I got high enough to cool off. Turns out I have a Vernatherm set at 185F so I am wondering what's the issue. I am doing some maintenance now and have lots of pieces on the hangar floor for inspection, upgrades, TLC, etc... I'm adding an EIS to get better engine data so I am adding sensors to the engine and I'm able to swing the engine on the mount so I decided to look at the low oil temp issue.

Took out the Vernatherm and did the hot water test. The nose of the Vernatherm moved "a little" but not much. As I recall, not in spec. It still moved a little, but overall it didn't feel like the smoking gun on the low oil temp problem. I got a new Vernatherm but before I installed it I used a USB "snake" camera to look inside my BC700 oil filter adapter where the Vernatherm screws in. Here's what I saw:

Yeah, that's the pressure bypass plug that is supposed to be removed when the BC700 oil filter adapter is installed. The nose of the Vernatherm wore that crater in the pressure bypass plug. I think every time that Vernatherm got hot it jammed against that plug until the Vernatherm got to beat up.

My Vernatherm did have a bright band around the nose where it is supposed to seat against the BC700 adapter - but I don't know if that was before the BC700 was installed or after. I think the best the Vernatherm was able to do was to expand little but only enough to regulate the oil temp at 150F.

I was able to fish out the pressure plug and spring. Looking forward to seeing how the oil temp regulates now.

 

[Steve Pierce]

Glad you were able to get it out of there. That was my concern when I saw the picture. People need to realize that a lot of these engines did not come with vernatherms and that bypass plug must be removed prior to installing one. Thanks for the post, good example and what can happen.