Paul,
What is the preferred design for a cabin heater using the
rotary?  Do you
use the oil or the water?  What about an oil to water
cooler using an
external water circuit?  I am building a
pusher.  Thanks for any help.

Joe Berki
Limo EZ

Perry Mick uses an oil cooler under the cockpit
on his Long as I recall.


Paul Lamar

Joe,

The highest temps are from the exhaust.  A water
exchanger will require a
heater core, a fan, lots of coolant hose, and a gallon or
two of H2O. If it
springs a leak, you could be faced with scalding hot water
being sprayed on
your legs/feet, and at minimum, a fogged up
windscreen.  Bottom line... an
exhaust heat muff provides the most heat for the least
weight penalty.  If
you do go that route, spring for a CO detector.

Mark S.

I personally would prefer a little fog to a lethal
 dose of carbon monoxide.  Coolant heat exchangers have
 been used since the early part of the 20th century and
 failures are rare.  Failures are generally the result
 of sloppy maintenance, ie not periodically changing and
 flushing the cooling system and not replacing hoses.

 Coolant heaters have always been a useful tool to
 help dissipate  high coolant temperatures.

 Joel



 I believe that we should all have CO detectors in our a/c anyway.  If it
triggers, close the heater valve and open the fresh air vents... and put on
a sweater.  If the H2O heater springs a leak, you're loosing precious
coolant which will eventually cause the engine to overheat.  Run a 27# cap
and it won't take very long for all of your coolant to be sprayed all over
your cockpit.  You'll have more than a little fog.  It could even take out
your instruments if the leak is under your panel.  You'll be lucky if you
walk away with only 3rd degree burns. IMHO

Mark

I'm a long long way from implementing a heater yet. But I was toying with
the idea of taping a line off my turbo (post compressor) and using the
compressed heated air for cabin heat and windshield defog. Same basic
principle as the compressor bleed air used by turbine powered aircraft for
heat and pressurization. I'm using an oversized turbo to start with and
would actually benefit from bleeding the excess air.

Jay

Not a bad idea. You could duct the hot inter cooler air to the
outside in the summer and the inside in the winter. You need to
keep the compressed air below 140 F to avoid detonation.

Paul Lamar

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