snipped

  George Graham used a Setrab cooler in his airplane. I think Lynn uses
Setrab as well. I'm putting a Setrab in my RV-4.

snipped

Mike Wills

Has George had good luck with his Setrab? I ask, because the consensus

on the RV list, is that these coolers are too lightly built. Several have
split open, causing engine fires in RVs. Does anyone know if Setrab has
redesigned their cooler, ala Positech?

Charlie Kuss
RV-8A fuselage

That is interesting. We have had three in-flight fires because
of oil coolers splitting. One was fatal. I assumed they were
cheap Chinese oil cooler bought from Griffin rad. I had
no idea Setrab coolers also split in aircraft service.

Paul Lamar

Charlie,

  If you know of "several occurances" please specify. I know of one
documented case of a failure of a Setrab cooler in an RV. In that case the
cooler was rigidly attached to the engine (Lycoming O360) and failed in
short order due to fatigue. As is typical of the RV-list there was an out
pouring of rants about using anything other than  an "aircraft quality
cooler" in spite of the fact that this one failure was a fatigue failure
due to vibration (the owner indicated this). I will concede that the
Stewart Warner cooler (and the stock Mazda cooler) are of a much stouter
construction and so are far more tolerant of a poor installation. They are
also much heavier, and in the case of the S-W would be totally incapable of
providing adequate cooling for a 13B. In my search of the RV-list archive
this is the only Setrab failure I find only this failure (after you discard
all the messages by somebody who knows someone who died in a crash where
there may have been an automotive type cooler that may or may not have
failed). The RV-list is flooded with far too much innuendo and far too
little fact on subjects like this.

  I purchased my cooler on the recommendation of Mark Frederick. Mark has
built numerous RVs and Rockets (he produces the F1 Rocket kit) and built
Bruce Bohannon's hybrid RV as well. He uses Setrab coolers exclusively,
highly recommends them, and has never experienced a failure. The Setrab
coolers are easily capable of handling the oil pressure of a Lyc or 13B and
should provide good service if mounted properly.

  If you know of an instance where a properly installed Setrab cooler
failed I'd like to hear specifics and talk to the owner of that failed cooler.

Mike Wills

 
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