Oil Heat

1/25/07

The inlet and outlet plenums were made from 1/8" G10 material which was purchased from McMaster-Carr. For those of you who are not familiar with G10, it's basically the same stuff with which circuit boards are made from. It's an epoxy with fiberglass embedded material which is good to temperatures up to 300°. It cuts easily with the Fein Detail Sander. I took some relatively light gauge aluminum angle iron, trimmed them to the dimensions I needed, and pop-riveted them together. A few 2" aluminum flanges from Aircraft Spruce, and we were in business. The cage fan was mounted to a rather stout piece of aluminum angle iron which was attached to the oil cooler assembly on one end and the other to the side of the Nose section. The oil cooler assembly was attached to the fore end of the NG30 box with a couple of brackets I fabricated from aluminum. I placed a couple of EZ points on the inside of the NG 30 box to have something to bolt to. The air delivered by the rather small squirrel cage fan maybe a little anemic, but I feel that just means the air getting to the feet will be hotter. We'll see…..

The oil lines are double braided AQP hoses with the reusable AQP aluminum fittings. I have them made 10 feet long and it looks like they'll be just about the correct length. As you can see, I routed the oil cooler lines over the wheel well, and down through the plans heat duct. Ken Laundrie routed his oil cooler lines in the same fashion and has had no problems in his installation. Although his installation is just forward of the wheel well, with the fan being tucked up behind the IP instruments. With my MT CS Prop, I'll probably need the weight further forward than most. Once again, we'll see....

Oil Heat

1/25/07

The inlet and outlet plenums were made from 1/8" G10 material which was purchased from McMaster-Carr. For those of you who are not familiar with G10, it's basically the same stuff with which circuit boards are made from. It's an epoxy with fiberglass embedded material which is good to temperatures up to 300°. It cuts easily with the Fein Detail Sander. I took some relatively light gauge aluminum angle iron, trimmed them to the dimensions I needed, and pop-riveted them together. A few 2" aluminum flanges from Aircraft Spruce, and we were in business. The cage fan was mounted to a rather stout piece of aluminum angle iron which was attached to the oil cooler assembly on one end and the other to the side of the Nose section. The oil cooler assembly was attached to the fore end of the NG30 box with a couple of brackets I fabricated from aluminum. I placed a couple of EZ points on the inside of the NG 30 box to have something to bolt to. The air delivered by the rather small squirrel cage fan maybe a little anemic, but I feel that just means the air getting to the feet will be hotter. We'll see…..

The oil lines are double braided AQP hoses with the reusable AQP aluminum fittings. I have them made 10 feet long and it looks like they'll be just about the correct length. As you can see, I routed the oil cooler lines over the wheel well, and down through the plans heat duct. Ken Laundrie routed his oil cooler lines in the same fashion and has had no problems in his installation. Although his installation is just forward of the wheel well, with the fan being tucked up behind the IP instruments. With my MT CS Prop, I'll probably need the weight further forward than most. Once again, we'll see....

I tossed this subject around quite a bit before I finally decided.   I must have asked a thousand people 2000 different questions and actually I got 3000 different answers.   I guess what it all came down to is I wanted to have a reliable source of heat which could involve bringing possible fumes forward into the cabin.   Debbi, a.k.a. : "Epoxy Lady” gets cold quite easily.   The plans he must system just seemed a little bit to "iffy" if you get what I mean.   So, it came down to either oil heat or electric heat.   The engine package I purchased does not have a high-capacity alternator's required for the electric heat, so that simplified my decision making process a bit.   I decided to go with oil heat, which should provide me the comfort of warmth at altitude.   A side benefit may also be that the forward heat exchanger might be able to do extra duty as a supplementary source of cooling, which is needed I plan to duct out through the wheel well.   Ken Laundrie has a system that I've pretty much copied.   The main difference is my heat exchanger is located over the NG 30s, just forward of the gear retract mechanism.   Ken's is located over the wheel well with the blower being just asked of F-22