Old message. How to find TMR. Use the netscape search message function and
search all old ACRE NL messages. PL

Mike Wills wrote:

  There has been an ongoing thread on the RV-List the past couple of days
about an oil cooler failure that occured on a recently completed RV6 with
Lyc power. The airplane had about 3 hours on it when the Setrab cooler
failed. The owner has cut apart the cooler and has determined that the
failure was due to a fatigue crack. The cooler was mounted to the cooling
baffle so probably was picking up engine vibes. I wouldnt have thought that
it would fail in only 3 hours of operation but who knows?

  Anyway, Ive had some off line discussions with another RVer who has been
using Setrab coolers successfully on RVs for years.Ive also talked  with
TMR who sells Setrab and Earls coolers. I'd been led to believe by another
dealer that Setrab and Earls coolers were basically interchangeable. Not so
according to TMR. They look very similar but the Earls cooler is made from
thinner material and is poorly constructed. Quote from Mike at TMR, " I
wouldnt put an Earls cooler on my lawn mower much less an airplane". As
long as the Setrab is properly isolated from engine vibes it will work
fine. The RV  guy I talked to said the same. He has had an Earls cooler pop
on him and is aware of several other failures of Earls coolers. He has used
the Setrab on a IO-540 powered Rocket for the last 550 hours with no problem.

  Bottom line for me - cancel the Earls cooler which has been on back order
for the past month and order a Setrab from TMR. Lots of sizes available.
And its cheaper than the Earls cooler too.

  TMR is in Orange, Ca. 714-771-1348 and ask for Mike. BTW, I mentioned
that I was using Mazda power and he apparently has had some experience with
an RX7 race car. Worst race car he's ever owned, terrible reliability
problems. I didnt go into detail with him but will quiz him on this the
next time I talk to him.

Mike Wills

If he is that far off on the race cars he may be off on the coolers too:-)
Mazda rotaries have won more than their share of endurance races including LeMans
outright.
Actually I have heard roughly the same thing on Earl's coolers.

Paul Lamar

 
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