When I drained my oil in preparation for
the flight to the Rotary Flyin, I decided to do it a bit different. My
oil cooler is the lowest point in the system and I decided that since the
oil thermostat housing was on the bottom of the cooler that draining it
from there would be the smart thing to do.
So I proceeded to unscrew the plug - but,
it wasn't until everything shot into the oil bucket that I realized that
the innards had a strong spring incorporated. So SPLASH! everything into
the oil bucket - not problem I fish out the components and then realize
that the thermostat pellet will fit either way. Of course, I did not have
my Mazda engine manual since it was only a simply oil change.
In my minds eye I recall seeing the spring
hit the bottom of the bucket before I heard the heavy "Clunk" of the thermostat
hit. So I finally decided that the spring must have come out of the housing
first(forgetting that light travels faster than sound). After all I had
a 50/50 chance of being correct.
So I replaced the thermostat back in the
housing and screwed the plug on. Fired up the engine - and noticed that
while oil pressure was fine - the oil temperature did not budge off the
bottom of the gauge even after a couple of minutes of running but that the
coolant was already up to 120F. Hummmm.
Decided not to put the cowling back on
until after going home and consulting a manual. Sure enough I had installed
it backwards.
So went back out to day reverse the thermostat
and oil temps once more responding normally.
This got me to thinking that I fly without
a coolant thermostat and wondering whether oil temps would lower if the
thermostat was removed or wedge permanently closed. I know you can not
just remove it or the oil will by-pass the cooler.
My question to those (Lynn?) who have
more experience is what effect would removing the oil thermostat on oil
temperature??
I tried that several years ago Ed. It's easy to plug the bypass hole in the
cooler with a 1/8" npt. It had no effect on my oil temp in cruise, but I
didn't like it because the oil ran way too cool on long descents and it wouldn't
warm up before taking off.