Oil weight question and cold weather

Newps wrote:

Why would you want to catch the condensation and then keep it trapped at
the top of your engine? How about don't open the dipstick and let the
air circulate out of the engine normally thru the breather? This way
any water will drip on the floor.

The cloth absorbs the condensation, where it then evaporates into the air,
rather than drips back into the oil.

I suppose pulling the cap without the cloth would work, too, but there's
something about leaving the engine exposed and vulnerable to creepy
crawlies and such that suggests (to me, anyhow) keeping the oil spout
covered.

--
Peter
























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Peter R - A very interesting idea - does the rag actually get wet? I
wouldn't think there would be enough natural draft to flush the
crankcase of a hot engine with only the breather to supply air.

Idea - Maybe a small 12V cooling fan from a dead cpu etc powered from a
wallwart, set on the oil fill to help exhaust the moisture from the
crankcase? or is there enough natural draft from the heat of the
engine to do this?

nrp wrote:

Peter R - A very interesting idea - does the rag actually get wet? I
wouldn't think there would be enough natural draft to flush the
crankcase of a hot engine with only the breather to supply air.

Perhaps not (I am not an A&P), but I suspect that even this little bit is
better than leaving the oil cap tightly secured on cold days. Yes, the rag
is noticeably damp after a 1/2 day or so the aircraft sitting on a ramp
where temps are below about 30 degrees F. After a couple of days, the rag
is discolored slightly brown, but dry.

To put it another way, I am only about 150 hours into a newly rebuilt
engine, so I will hang charm bracelets off the cowling if the action will
result in a few more hours of useful engine life.

--
Peter
























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To put it another way, I am only about 150 hours into a newly rebuilt
engine, so I will hang charm bracelets off the cowling if the action will
result in a few more hours of useful engine life.

Say no more. We now understand everything...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I'm not an A&P either - just a mechanical engineer. Opening the oil
cap immediately after shutdown & giving the breather pipe a shot of
compressed air should also clear out any crankcase airborne bad stuff.
I'm gonna try that next time I go & see what comes out. Tanis raised
this intriguing point in an earlier post some months back. It can't
hurt.

Around here (MN) we don't usually get that much engine corrosion damage
but I have seen what I now recognize as cold start damage as being more
common. I think one does have to be religious about starting only on
adequate preheat - especially if an engine has been sitting for
several days, and again especially if it is a Lycoming with the
camshaft on top.

Around here (MN) we don't usually get that much engine corrosion damage
but I have seen what I now recognize as cold start damage as being more
common.

Bingo. Those who say it's bad to leave your pre-heater plugged in often
ignore the fact that the alternative is to fly without pre-heat.

We've all done it. You get to the airport, and discover that you forgot to
plug the danged thing in last night. It's freezing in the hangar, and
you've got passengers who want to go *now*. Do you plug in your Tanis
heater and tell them to wait an hour? Nope -- you just cringe and go.

I suspect the damage done in a cold start (and I mean COLD, not 40 degrees)
is substantial. To avoid this, I leave it plugged in from (roughly)
December 15 to March 15, and fly every few days.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
: We've all done it. You get to the airport, and discover that you forgot to
: plug the danged thing in last night. It's freezing in the hangar, and
: you've got passengers who want to go *now*. Do you plug in your Tanis
: heater and tell them to wait an hour? Nope -- you just cringe and go.

I tried once... was going to go for a quick flight with family friends while
in Milwaukee for Christmas. It was about 30 degrees in the morning but I hadn't
planned on flying so didn't ask the FBO to plug it in. As you said... "cringe and
go"... except for the go part. Rolled it over and over but REFUSED to start. Came
back 1/2 hour later with Tanis plugged in (and 35 degrees outside) and started fine.
I figure it was iced-up plugs and that it was trying to tell me something...

-Cory


--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:qm1cf.554413$xm3.401986@attbi_s21...
Around here (MN) we don't usually get that much engine corrosion damage
but I have seen what I now recognize as cold start damage as being more
common.

Bingo. Those who say it's bad to leave your pre-heater plugged in often
ignore the fact that the alternative is to fly without pre-heat.

Question: Can a dipstick heater be used safely on an aircraft engine? Does
it help much? See eBay item 8006970279.

-Greg B.

N93332 wrote:

Question: Can a dipstick heater be used safely on an aircraft engine? Does
it help much? See eBay item 8006970279.

I cannot imagine how a dipstick heater alone could adequately heat all the
oil that settled at the bottom or that in the cylinders, especially if the
air is very, very cold (0 degrees F or lower).

--
Peter
























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Jon Kraus wrote:

You
California boys can't handle a little cool weather huh? :-) See ya!!


Yo, Jon...it's "Kal-i-for-nya" boys. :-)



--
Jack Allison, Kalifornya boy
PP-ASEL-IA Student
Arrow N2104T

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

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