Oil Temp and Cowl Flaps Observations
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Loving the plane. Fantastic work Nick.
I have noticed that the oil temp takes a very long time to get into the green even with 90 degree OAT even with the cowl flaps closed after start.
I have also observed that cowl flaps settings are not impacting oil temp. Maybe a few degrees or no change at all. I have done climbs with cowl flaps closed and descents with them open with throttle at almost idle and there seems to be little change to oil temp. It has been some years since I flew the 114 in real life but cannot recall if this was true with the real plane or not.
Not sure if others have noticed that as well.
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Loving the plane. Fantastic work Nick.
I have noticed that the oil temp takes a very long time to get into the green even with 90 degree OAT even with the cowl flaps closed after start.
I have also observed that cowl flaps settings are not impacting oil temp. Maybe a few degrees or no change at all. I have done climbs with cowl flaps closed and descents with them open with throttle at almost idle and there seems to be little change to oil temp. It has been some years since I flew the 114 in real life but cannot recall if this was true with the real plane or not.
Not sure if others have noticed that as well.
@Bishop Perhaps it's slow, but the oil temperature is definitely influenced by the cylinder head temperature, which is definitely influenced by the cowl flaps. I'll see if I can get some real world observations for the time constant.
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Tested it in the European heat the last days. The Oil temperature and Cylinder head temperature were chilling even after half an hour full throttle over London with cowl flaps closed. But then I was never able to get any of your piston aircraft to stress over heat with a closed cowl flap, no matter the ambient temperature and power setting.
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Tested it in the European heat the last days. The Oil temperature and Cylinder head temperature were chilling even after half an hour full throttle over London with cowl flaps closed. But then I was never able to get any of your piston aircraft to stress over heat with a closed cowl flap, no matter the ambient temperature and power setting.
@StefanL85 said in Oil Temp and Cowl Flaps Observations:
But then I was never able to get any of your piston aircraft to stress over heat with a closed cowl flap
That's interesting to hear, since I've actually worried that all my aircraft run too hot, with CHT's routinely passing the redline in high pitch climbs on hot days.
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it definitely does seem a little too easy to keep cool, like with cowl flaps closed and 80F outside and getting too slow in the climb id expect oil/cht temps to get a bit high, but they never seem to move a noticeable amount. I still need to do some more flights to confirm though
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I had a CHT high temp warning from the EDM (from memory: 233° C) some flights ago somewhere FL200 and climbing with throttle full forward, 2500 rpm and cowl flaps closed.
Today I did a kind of a technical test flight out of EGSC (OAT 25° C) and shoot quite steep to about FL150 (full throttle, 2500 rpm). Even with cowl flaps closed CHT was somewhere around 215° C reaching FL150.In the steep descent (Vne), throttle fully closed, cowl flaps full open, the CHT cool rate was never higher than 14° C per min.
Seems to me the temperatures rise and fall quite slow.
Didn't observe the oil temps yet.
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I had a CHT high temp warning from the EDM (from memory: 233° C) some flights ago somewhere FL200 and climbing with throttle full forward, 2500 rpm and cowl flaps closed.
Today I did a kind of a technical test flight out of EGSC (OAT 25° C) and shoot quite steep to about FL150 (full throttle, 2500 rpm). Even with cowl flaps closed CHT was somewhere around 215° C reaching FL150.In the steep descent (Vne), throttle fully closed, cowl flaps full open, the CHT cool rate was never higher than 14° C per min.
Seems to me the temperatures rise and fall quite slow.
Didn't observe the oil temps yet.
@Zacke It is true the temps can take time to rise or fall based on ambient conditions. I will point out something interesting however. It is very possible to get an overtemp (especially cylinders) when climbing up high. Though its generally colder, the decrease in air density means its less efficient at taking heat away. A few years ago I was flying a turbo mooney at 17500. If I even thought of closing the cowl flaps the cylinders would spike in temperature. Always best to use the cowl flaps to give an engine what it needs, not by some generalized procedure.
