Hi Doug,
Well, the Texas heat is still with us, but only in the upper
90's, not triple-digits. We had about 50 days this summer in the
triple-digit territory and I'll have to say that I gave out before my cooling
system did. Highest coolant temp I saw on the water was 220. But
with a 23# cap and running an ethlene-glycol mix, I felt ok. I
don't think I could say that if it went much higher. Keep in mind that
this is during climb out where I'm pushing it pretty hard. Oil temps
will sometimes hit 230, but that is after the first cooler. The second
cooler brings the temps down another 10-20*. These are worst case
readings, temps in cruise climb and cruise are lower, of
course. I measure water temps coming out of the engine and again
after the radiator, and oil temps after the oil/air exchanger and again after
the oil/water exchanger. Overkill, but I had the extra channels, so I
used them for this.
All in all, I'm happy with my cooling system and don't plan on making any
changes. It has more reserve than me or my pax. I have noticed a
lot of buildup on the radiator fins (not bugs). That can't help the
temps any. I need to keep an eye on that.
One addition that I may consider before next summer is to add water spray
to the main radiator to use if things start to get out of hand. A quart
reservoir would probably be sufficient.
The only other issues has been a small but nagging oil leak, and tuning
the EC-2. I finally figured out that I had a wiring error on the
EC-2 PCM (Programming Control Module), which prevented the auto-tune feature
from working, and a defective PCM. Having corrected both of
those, I am still working with Tracy to try and figure out why the EC-2
MAP table gets corrupted mysteriously and without warning. I'll
post something for the group after we find and fix the problem. This
only seems to be a problem with fiberglass a/c, so you RV types have nothing
to worry about.
I've burned the packing out of the Hushpower II muffler many hours
ago. It had been nice an quiet... for the first 30
minutes. Not sure if there is an answer for that one unless I want to
install a turbo-charger.
The real "jewel" has been the c/s prop. This allows me to cruise at
around 10.6 gph at 4200-4500 rpm, 153 TAS. Until recently, I had been
cruising at 5200 rpm, burning 14-15 gph. Speeds are about the
same. Keep in mind that I normally fly at 3500-5500 msl. I
anticipate lower fuel burn at higher altitudes. I'm planning a trip
to Galveston in October and I can try out this theory then.
Mark
On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 10:15 AM,
<DLOMHEIM@aol.com> wrote:
Howdy Mark...the majority of the nasty high temperature days should be
over in your neck of the woods now so I was wondering how your cooling
faired this summer, etc.? Have you pretty much
gotten any "bugs" worked out of your installation so it has
basically become more automotive like (a simple turn key
operation)?
Thanks for the update.
Doug Lomheim
RV-9A / 13B