Steve,

    No doubt a bit high on the temps.  I have hit 240 on the oil and 220
coolant, but only very rarely.  Most of the time for a hot day takeoff I
might bet 220 oil and 210 coolant, but once I establish my 120 MPH IAS climb
things cool off quickly.

Remember that a higher climb airspeed provides more cooling air mass, if
your cooling system is more optimized for the cruise regime then the
trade-off is generally higher temps during climb.  So if you can climb at
120 mph IAS give that a try, it might mean a slower rate of climb than 90F,
but might be easier on the engine until you get it all sorted out.

I think you did right by landing, on the older engine blocks it used to be
that going over 210 oil and 180 coolant could cause damage, but clearly the
newer blocks are more tolerant of excesses past that point.  But 240F is my
absolute limit and only for the 3-5 minutes for climbout to an altitude that
I can safely reduce power and get the oil temps down.

The only other thing is what is your web site URL and do you have photos of
your cooling system, ducts, radiators, oil cooler that I could take a look
at.

Ed



Ed Anderson
RV-6A N494BW Rotary Powered
Matthews, NC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Brooks" <steve@tsisp.com>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 6:58 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] 3rd flight


> This evening I made my 3rd flight in my Cozy IV, with less than ideal
> results.  First of all, on my initial take off run, I couldn't get an
> airspeed indication.  I continued up to where it was feeling like it could
> rotate, and still no IAS.  I aborted and taxied back to the hanger.  I
> discovered that some big dummy (me) had left the pitot tube cover off, and
a
> mud wasp had built a nest in the pitot.  Luckily the Cozy uses an AN tube
> fitting for a pitot, so it was pretty easy to take it off and clean it
out.
>
> After the high speed run, and taxi of over a mile back, I was pretty happy
> with the temps 170 coolant and 177 oil which remained steady through the
> taxi.
>
> When I taxied out for the 2nd attempt, my coolant was up to 190 and oil
> showing 183.  Apparently while sitting the heat massed in the turbo must
> warm up the entire engine compartment.  Actually when I lined up on the
> runway, coolant was approaching 200/  I considered aborting, but really
> didn't think that it would be a problem.  To help the situation, I only
> climbed out at about 90 knots for most of the climb, which really boosted
> the temps up.  By the time I got to pattern I was showing almost 220 on
> coolant and about 240 on the oil.  I throttled back, and leveled off with
> high hopes of seeing the temperatures stabilize.  They did, but at 210
> coolant, and 233 oil.  Even though it was cooler out than previous
flights,
> they just didn't want to drop any lower.  I was concerned most about the
> oil, because I have my red line set at 240, and 233 isn't that far below.
I
> had considered retracting the front gear to what improvement that would
> show, but decided it was too hot to continue, so I landed.
>
> I know that I compounded the problem with the slow climb, but what is
> considered normal temperatures in a climb, and what is the maximum
> temperatures for coolant and oil before I should get concerned and land ?
I
> thought that oil at 233 warranted landing, but maybe not.
>
> On my previous flight my coolant stabilized at 200, and the OAT was about
8
> degrees warmer.  I don't know about oil, because I was measuring coolant
> twice and oil not at all, due to stupidity.
>
> I'm looking for any feedback.
>
> Steve Brooks
>
>
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