<< Jerry Hey wrote:
 > >>
 > >>  I would appreciate the comments of pilots who are flying without a
 > >>  thermostat.  Do you have adjustable cowl flaps for exit air or for
 > >>  intake air?  If you do, is adjusting them a constant chore?   If you
 > >>  don't have adjustable cowl flaps, then do you find  times on cold
 > >>  days when your operating temps are too low?  I am sitting on the
 > >>  fence as far as a thermostat is concerned.  It offers a lot of
 > >>  convenience but is also something that could fail.   I have 250,000
 > >>  miles on my Nissan and my wife has the same on her Mitsubishi and we
 > >>  have not had any thermostat problems.      Jerry

I don't fly a rotary but I run the hell out of one with a 160 degree Robert
Shaw thermostat. I drill two 1/8" holes in the housing to be sure that air
bubbles can escape on fill up. On hot days it runs 175 or 180 degrees. On
cool days it runs below 160 degrees. With the thermostat closed, it can over
cool through the two holes. Two years ago at the national championship race
at Mid Ohio, the air temp was 51 degrees at the start of the race. With 1/3rd
of the radiator taped over, it didn't get above 150 degrees. The oil temp was
also 150.

I have never seen a failed thermostat, and I have been looking for a long
time. I have seen many people not get all of the air out of the system, and
suffer dearly for it.

Lynn E Hanover-- 

 
The AirCraft Rotary Engine NewsLetter.              Powered by Linux.
ACRE NL web site.
http://home.earthlink.net/~rotaryeng/            http://www.linux.org