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
Hi Mike,
Sorry for the delay responding. I've been spending 10 hours a day for the past 4 days, riveting my fuselage together. I remember 3 instances of a Setrab cooler failing. I believe that the fellow you mention above was responsible for 2 of those failures. As you mention, he did a poor job of mounting the cooler. I'm still riveting, so it will be a few days before I can research who the 3rd failure belonged to.
I'm glad to hear that people are having sucess with the Setrabs. That was the real point of my original post. I had heard all the negative stuff on the RV List. I was curious to see if anyone was having good luck with them. The Positechs are also much heavier than the Niagara style coolers. Are the Setrabs similar to the Niagara style coolers? Or are they something completely original? The Niagara style coolers are also less tolerant of poor mounting, compared to the heavier Positech/Stewart Wagner.
Charlie Kuss
RV-8A the riveting fool
Boca Raton, Fl.
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