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To Angier Ames regarding oil coolers and remote mounted oil filters.
There are two (that I know of) remote spin-on oil filter mounts
available. The Chief Aircraft (800-447-3408) catalog has both listed:
Airwolf, and Aviation Development Corp. It looks like, however, that
if you already have paid for the spin-on filter adapter for a Lyc.,
(in place of the oil screen) that will be wasted because I don't
believe the adapter is used with either of these remote mounts. On
other hand, I have found a way, on my O-235 with the rear-mounted
filter to get the filter off with a minimum of mess. I cut off the
bottom of a fairly large plastic jug (about 8" dia.) so I had a tray
about 2" deep. I kept trimming it around the edges until it would fit
between the engine mount members (slightly squeezed) and slip up
under the filter can. With a bit of scissor-work, I got the thing to
fit all the way in under the edge of the filter where most of the oil
first comes out. After I get the filter out, I can reach in and remove
the tray. A little oil is spilled but not enough to be a bother - and
I'll bet that even with a remote, you'll spill some. Anyway, the
bottom line is: Schaefer's Fantastic Plastic Oil Catcher, $0.00 -
Airwolf or ADC Remote Oil Filter, $395.00 to $699.00. As the man says,
you pays your money and you takes your choice.
On the oil cooler front, my experience says you need to stay with
aircraft quality here. When I first started flying N235SP, a local
LongEZ flyer had touted me onto an automotive racing oil cooler
from Earl's Racing, here in the LA area (they sell all over the nation
so you guys out there may have their catalog). These coolers are
apparently held in high esteem by some of the EZ builders and they
are less costly than a Stewart-Warner or other standard aircraft
units. Long story short, while it cooled the oil OK, after about 50
hours, while at 9500 feet over some fairly unfriendly terrain in
Arizona, it failed by springing a very big leak. Fortunately, I was
only about 10 miles past the airport at Needles, CA and I pulled the
throttle to idle and made it to the airport. When I got parked, it
turned out that I had lost all but about 2 quarts of oil. After that
episode, I decided that trying to be innovative (and save a few bucks
as well) in something like the oil system plumbing was downright dumb.
I installed an equivalent to the Stewart-Warner 8406R single-pass
unit since I'm running an O-235. Larger engines probably need the
8432R style which are multiple-pass units because of the higher heat
load. I'm sure that there are a number of manufacturers that produce
equivalents to these type of certified coolers - from my point of
view (now) you should use nothing less.
For tire pressures, I run 25 psi in the nose and 40 in the mains. Not
very original, I know, but when I tried a higher pressure in the nose
(about 35 psi) because I was getting some cupping, I had a pretty bad
shimmy on the first landing after I put in the higher pressure. The
cupping wasn't particularly bad, considering that I had close to 150
hours on the nose tire, so I just figured, screw it, I can live with
some cupping, but not the shimmy. With the nose back to 25, I never
get a shimmy - works for me! Oh yeah, I have the later model nose
strut, so whatever induced the shimmy must really have some oomph
behind it to get it started.
For those who may wish to use the fiberglass arrow shaft trick I
mentioned yesterday (I think) I just noticed that Aircraft Spruce
carries them in the composites section of their catalog.
To Fred N9BF. Just how bad DOES your brother fly??
Cheers,
Dan Schaefer
N235SP
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