Rusty,
I know of at least two guys running
12A's in racers that ran a good quality water to oil heat exchanger with good
success. You do, of course, have to increase the size of your radiator/s to keep
up with the increased heat rejection. Paul L of other site fame dislikes them,
(read condems them to Hades), but they should work well if sized properly. This
is another thing that lead to big arguements, excomunications, etc. It was very
similar to the electric water pump arguement. I would like to run one for
several reasons including smaller size, simpler ducting, and more layout
flexibility. I plan to run 2 radiators in the RV-10, and it would be much easier
to make them a bit larger and just have two ducts. Running a third large oil to
air heat exchanger, and the required ductwork, while I have the room for it, is
still a pain. The water to oil exchanger would be a better fit, and allows the
oil to warm up faster in cold climates as well.
Bill
Bill,
I looked at doing the same thing. When I ran the
numbers, the amount of heat rejected from the oil cooler was quite large, on the
order of 80 hp or so worth of heat for a steady state 250 hp engine. The biggest
oil/water exchanger that Fluidyne had was not close to large enough. Few of us
will operate at that power level continuously. If you cruise at 100 hp or
so the heat load is only around 30hp For the oil cooler. I think the
radiator folks talk in BTUs/min.
I fully agree that it cleans things
up immensely and would be a great way to do things. You just need
a really big oil/water unit.
Monty