Preheating schemes?

BJ - Here is an article you may find interesting concerning cold
starts:
http://www.reiffpreheat.com/Article-Busch.htm

- Mike


Big John wrote:

Michael

Lots of suggestions. Here are more.

1. If I had to RON in cold country, paid for a hanger.

2. If parked outside, pulled engine through a dozen or so times. Then
gave the intake a shot or two of ether and cranked. When ether fired
engine would start running and you could then warm up normally prior
to take off.

Still have one or two of the little cans of ether on my msc. shelf in
shop. Can be bought at any auto parts store.

Small and light weight so can be thrown in baggage compartment and
forgotten until needed.

Big John


On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 04:44:14 -0500, Michael Horowitz
wrote:

I'd be interested in any schemes you may have developed for
pre-heating your engine.

One idea I heard was to use flex ducting to direct car exhaust into
the cowling; that does present CO concerns, but on could leave the a/c
doors open. - Mike

"Michael Horowitz" wrote in message
...
BJ - Here is an article you may find interesting concerning cold
starts:
http://www.reiffpreheat.com/Article-Busch.htm

- Mike

Interesting article. Then if I didn't have electricity and was out in the
boonies and the temp were below 30 I'd rig up a camper stove or catalytic
heater. If a 912 I'd remove the h2o and heat it, and the oil. If a
Taylorcraft I'd heat the oil to 200 degrees F.

Years ago,we would put some gas into the oil right after shutdown and
that would keep it loose for quite a while and then just burn off when
running again.Jim

James

That was called "dilution". There was a schedule for different
temperatures and it told you how much gas to put in oil prior to shut
down. It took about 30 minutes at cruise power to boil the gas out of
the oil next day. You could take off with diluted oil if you had oil
pressure in the green.

Oh the good ole days. Haven't thought about 'dilution' in years. Tnx
for bringing up )

Big John

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 21:29:40 -0500 (EST), (James
Lloyd) wrote:

Years ago,we would put some gas into the oil right after shutdown and
that would keep it loose for quite a while and then just burn off when
running again.Jim

Yeah,I know what you mean John.Nowadays all we think about is what the
electronic box is telling us to do and you find less and less people to
ask info. from that have done it before.

Having read yesterdays post today, need to explain a little more.

There was a spring loaded switch in cockpit that controlled a valve
that let the gas go into the oil system. With engine running before
shut down you held this switch in on poisition for the number of
seconds that handbook told you to do for the expected temperature the
next day.

For example, 30 seconds for freezing, 60 seconds for 20 degrees, etc
(these are just examples not real life figures).

After putting the gas in oil, you had to run engine for a few minutes
so would mix and then thined oil get to all parts of engine.

Way I wrote, sound like you opened the oil cap and poured gas in prior
to shut down G No, no, no.

Big John


On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 23:52:36 -0600, Big John
wrote:

James

That was called "dilution". There was a schedule for different
temperatures and it told you how much gas to put in oil prior to shut
down. It took about 30 minutes at cruise power to boil the gas out of
the oil next day. You could take off with diluted oil if you had oil
pressure in the green.

Oh the good ole days. Haven't thought about 'dilution' in years. Tnx
for bringing up )

Big John

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 21:29:40 -0500 (EST), (James
Lloyd) wrote:

Years ago,we would put some gas into the oil right after shutdown and
that would keep it loose for quite a while and then just burn off when
running again.Jim

Sorry John,I forgot to say that we ran the eng. after adding the gas.Jim

For a cont. eng. with the oil tank,I have used a small 12 volt bev.
warmer and put it into the oil tank with an extention for the cig.
ligter plug to my car.It heats up the oil in about 6 mins.

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 21:24:17 -0500 (EST), (James
Lloyd) wrote:

For a cont. eng. with the oil tank,I have used a small 12 volt bev.
warmer and put it into the oil tank with an extention for the cig.
ligter plug to my car.It heats up the oil in about 6 mins.

Lloyd, very, VERY, bad practice. I deal with oils from a fluid power
standpoint, and the electric heaters for them have low "watts per
square inch" because of 2 things ... local high temperatures on the
element, and poor thermal conductivity of oil vs. water.

The 2 of these together cause oxidation of the oil which gets worse as
the heating element gets a buildup of partially burned oil.

And, if it does anything to (4 qts) of oil in 6 minutes, my guess
would be about 1 degree ... the calcs are not too hard with known
volume and wattage.

Typically from 10 to 30 watts/sq inch (lower for thicker, static
applications, higher for thinner, flowing situations) are used. Your
tank is static and probably has an SAE 50 fluid.

In contrast, long life elements (home water heater) are in the 40 to
70 w/in^2 range.

http://www.chromalox.com/Literature/TANK.PDF has much more than you
ever wanted to know.

If you use about 50 lbs/cu-ft and 0.5 BTU/lb/degreeF you will be
close.

The airplane you save may be your own ...

Thanks for the info George.I have never talked to anyone about this
before.I got the idea one day and just tried it and it seemed to work
fine for me.Even on a 15 degree day,the oil would almost boil if you
left it in over 10 min. or so.I change my oil every 20 hrs. so I figured
that it would be okay.After your post,I think I will reconsider,Jim