I had contemplated adding an oil thermostat DIY buy ended up buying the Thermostasis kit that included the hoses and fittings from Aircraft Specialty / Flightline .
I live in So Cal so you may ask “why”. On a 60 degree day my warm-up to 120f is 6 minutes, reviews say this should reduce it to 3 minutes. I also think it is better for the motor to run as close to one temperature rather than fluctuating throughout the flight.
SO you say “what good is 3 minutes” based on 1 hour flight 3 minutes saved is 5% of my engine time, In a 100 hours the savings is 5 extra flight hours. Another way to look at it it’s an extra 100 hours on a 2000hr engine, that 100 hours is worth $1000 on a $20,000 engine.
The install went good, it included a call to Steve to clarify the hose routing. I drained my oil and reinstalled it since it only had 5 hours on it. Then purged the system checked for leaks, dressed the hoses and test flew it.
The added hoses increased my oil capacity 9 ounces or approximately 9%. The added hose and thermostasis unit added 1.75 pounds. The additional oil added .5 pounds for a total weight increase of 2.25 pounds.
I don’t have much time on it so can’t say if it will met my expectations. I flew it today, the start up with an ambient of 80f got to 120f in 2:15 minutes.
I live in So Cal so you may ask “why”. On a 60 degree day my warm-up to 120f is 6 minutes, reviews say this should reduce it to 3 minutes. I also think it is better for the motor to run as close to one temperature rather than fluctuating throughout the flight.
SO you say “what good is 3 minutes” based on 1 hour flight 3 minutes saved is 5% of my engine time, In a 100 hours the savings is 5 extra flight hours. Another way to look at it it’s an extra 100 hours on a 2000hr engine, that 100 hours is worth $1000 on a $20,000 engine.
The install went good, it included a call to Steve to clarify the hose routing. I drained my oil and reinstalled it since it only had 5 hours on it. Then purged the system checked for leaks, dressed the hoses and test flew it.
The added hoses increased my oil capacity 9 ounces or approximately 9%. The added hose and thermostasis unit added 1.75 pounds. The additional oil added .5 pounds for a total weight increase of 2.25 pounds.
I don’t have much time on it so can’t say if it will met my expectations. I flew it today, the start up with an ambient of 80f got to 120f in 2:15 minutes.