Low oil temp in winter

M

mtbowhunter

New member
Does anyone know what I could do to get the oil temp in my '76 7GCBC higher in the winter. It's getting cold here now and even after flying for an hour at 2400 RPM my oil temp barely registers. It's fine when it's warm out, just happens when it gets cold. Thanks for any help.

Joe.
 
My '03 7GCBC came with an oil cooler baffle for winter use...I would check with ACA but if that doesn't work I could probably supply dimensions.
 
Joe,

Yes, the baffle helps. Oil temp around 180 F with ambient around 25-30 F. Two screws and clips hold flat plate to rear of cooler. I've never come across it in my parts manual but it does have an ACA stamp on it.

Rob
 
You can also use aluminum tape to cover part or all of the oil cooler. I have the ACA baffle you are describing; I choose to simply tape over about 2/3rds of the cooler (in the Pacific Northwest).
 
Larry's right, except I use plain old Masking tape to get the temp I want. Last year when the outside temps were zero I taped it all up and still had only 200.
 
Thanks for all of your responses. I will have to give the tape a try and if it doesn't work, move to the baffle. Thanks again.

Joe.
 
FYI-

Lycoming shows 2 qts in the sump as minimum for flight, therefore any additional oil is for cooling and consumption. In warm weather I run 7 qts to reduce sloshing and loss thru the breather during aerobatics, in cold weather I reduce to 5-6 qts. to reduce the amount heated and increase temperature. This is in addition to installing the ACA supplied Winter Plate on the rear of the cooler and Duct tape on 3/4 of the front, this is in PA. Remember many of us are adding an addition quart to heat, and increasing oil cooling area by installing oil filters.

Tom-
 
So what do you all do in the summer when its 100 outside? I have a hard time from getting the oil to hot. I've resigned myself to poor cowling design for air flow as I too have to watch EGT's on the back cylinders
 
Hello all,

I have the oil cooler completely covered with duct tape and still I can't get the oil temp above 145F in the winter (-20C and below) no matter what! (7GCBC)

Not sure what to do about it except that I change the oil every 20 hours to make sure that I get rid of any moisture or other by-product residuals as results of inefficient combustion...

Cheers

Bruno
 
I talked to ACA last winter re: a cabin operable damper for the oil cooler on my 8KCAB. They do not offer this part nor is there an STC for this application. I live in Arkansas where winter temperatures can be where you need the "winter plate" one day and the next day you have to remove it.

I was on the VANS RV website last winter and it looks like, in one of their firewall forward kits, they offer a remote control damper that fits the oil cooler used in the ACA build for Lycoming 360. There is no STC as far as I know.
 
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