Flew my (new to me) 182 in the 0 degree temps yesterday and she was a bit chilly! The defroster heat was very hot and powerful although the old closers are seized up and I could only close one side half way. I noticed my feet getting warm about 20 mins in as well. So there's definitely heat there to tap in to

Cold and drafty up by my body. Air pouring in around the wing root soup can vents and door posts.

So I am experimenting with an additional eyeball vent Tee'd (well actually wye'd) off the defroster hose from some leftover parts from my RV. If this works well I may just tap a line directly off the air box.

I also put some foil tape over the wing vent inlets. As soon as the IFR lifts I'll go test it out.

Anyone do something similar or have any suggestions?

Looks like your'e putting together a good heat hose fix. I always taped over the inlet vents on the wing leading edge. Cessnas are airy while Pipers (PA20 and larger) have more insulation, I think. Better heat venting as well. My wife says the PA22 has the warmest back seats in aviation.

That transverse "tube" that you tapped in to is supposed to distribute warm air, of which there should be a lot.

I'd also cut a hole in the right side to share some of that heat with your passenger.

Otherwise, it looks good. Run hoses to where you need heat, equip the ends with one of those Wemec adjustable valves, and go fly.

MTV

mtv wrote:
I'd also cut a hole in the right side to share some of that heat with your passenger.

MTV

If this works I'll probably remove the wye and tap directly into the transverse tube over on the passenger side, like the defroster is on the pilot side.

Odd this 56 has no ducting to the rear seats.

Hoeschen wrote:

mtv wrote:
I'd also cut a hole in the right side to share some of that heat with your passenger.

MTV

If this works I'll probably remove the wye and tap directly into the transverse tube over on the passenger side, like the defroster is on the pilot side.

Odd this 56 has no ducting to the rear seats.

I don't think they worried too much about rear seaters back in the day.

MTV

This info is probably being shared unnecessarily but I'll risk it. On my 57 182 there is a push/pull for heat and another to open or close the air at the firewall. The odd thing is these were designed what seems kind of backwards to me in that the air door is closed when the knob is pulled out and LOTS of air comes in when pushed to the panel. Like I said, you probably know this already but I had to play with mine a bit to get it flowing. Once pushed in, pull the other knob for heat control. Mine will flat cook you in zero degree air.

Easy Riser wrote:This info is probably being shared unnecessarily but I'll risk it. On my 57 182 there is a push/pull for heat and another to open or close the air at the firewall. The odd thing is these were designed what seems kind of backwards to me in that the air door is closed when the knob is pulled out and LOTS of air comes in when pushed to the panel. Like I said, you probably know this already but I had to play with mine a bit to get it flowing. Once pushed in, pull the other knob for heat control. Mine will flat cook you in zero degree air.

I agree, that is a goofy system, took me awhile to figure it out as well. "Pull Off" on the fresh air.

mtv wrote:
I don't think they worried too much about rear seaters back in the day.

MTV

Hell, they don't care about the front seaters either in the newer piston Cessnas.

If I was in a Sled at 40 below, I always figured 39 below in the cabin.

Gump

GumpAir wrote:

mtv wrote:
I don't think they worried too much about rear seaters back in the day.

MTV

Hell, they don't care about the front seaters either in the newer piston Cessnas.

If I was in a Sled at 40 below, I always figured 39 below in the cabin.

Gump

I've been in exactly one 207 that the heat works in. The '64 206 we owned had the best heater of any Cessna I've ever seen, front and back.

Hoeschen wrote:

Looks like you do have rear seat heat.
The ends of that horizontal cabin heat plenum at the firewall, which you've tapped into for your eyeball vents, feed a duct built into the kick panel which lets the air out at the forward edge of the doors to blow back alongside the doors & feed the backseat area. I believe some models even extend those kickpanel ducts by having matching ducts in the door panels.

Leaks at wing root areas: 1) tape over vents outside (which you've done); 2) take off the inside fairing and stuff the area with foam rubber or something to cut down leaks; 3) take off exterior wingroot fairing and tape / re-tape the gap between wing and windshield. Between those three steps, hopefully the air leaks will be greatly reduced.

The outlets from the air ducts in the kick panels for heating the back seat area can be taped over (which I did right after I took this photo).



Have you ever noticed that when you slow down from cruise speed to pattern speed, the cabin heat gets warmer? I discovered with my last airplane that you can sometimes increase the available heat by partially covering over the inlet to the cabin heat system. Sounds ass-backward, but by reducing the airflow, you increase the "delta t" (temperature differential) across the heat exchanger. I did that today also-- in the case of my early 180, it's right next to the air filter in the nosebowl's "shark mouth".

In my previous life as a Vans RV guy it was common to hear of people packing the annular space between their heat shroud and the collector pipe with steel wool, this would slow down the air (heat it longer) and provide more surface area of hot material and thus improve cabin heat. Most those planes run straight pipes.

My RV-9A had dual mufflers and the cabin heat drew off one of those. That coupled with a bubble canopy made it very comfortable even down to zero degrees, as long as you kept your limbs from touching the cold side walls

I'd check the fit of the cabin doors and the opening windows in the doors. The 170A I have been flying the last couple of years only has the one heat outlet in front of the pilots right foot. The first year flying in the winter was chilly while my left foot was burning up. My elderly mother who would not miss at chance to go flying had to cover up with a blanket in the right seat and was still uncomfortably cold. Then last winter I reached over to do something next to the front of the right door and could feel the cold air blasting in. The next time we went, still 10 degrees F or so, I duct taped over the front of the door and the window. She was able to take the blanket off and I had to turn the heat down to half so that she was comfortable. If you can't keep the cold air out you will never have enough heat.

Hope this helps, Tim

Seems like your eyeball vent arrangement wouldn't do much to warm your lower extremities.
The stock arrangement for flight deck heat in my 53 180 is a pair of shuttered outlets in the plenum, one each for the pilot & copilot. The LH one is about where you added the flange for connecting the scat. I like it- puts the heat down low where it warms your lower half, then when the heat rises (as it does) it warms your upper body. I took a photo yesterday but it was too big to load here- I guess it's gotta be smaller than 4 MB.

I'm curious about the vertical control cable in your photo-- is that for a parking brake. Like most old Cessna's, my parking brake has long since been disconnected, but I don't think I've ever seen one that goes through the cabin heat plenum like yours appears to. Or does it go over the plenum, but under what appears to be a naugahyde cover on the plenum?

Very nice panel BTW.

Hoeschen wrote:

Easy Riser wrote:This info is probably being shared unnecessarily but I'll risk it. On my 57 182 there is a push/pull for heat and another to open or close the air at the firewall. The odd thing is these were designed what seems kind of backwards to me in that the air door is closed when the knob is pulled out and LOTS of air comes in when pushed to the panel. Like I said, you probably know this already but I had to play with mine a bit to get it flowing. Once pushed in, pull the other knob for heat control. Mine will flat cook you in zero degree air.

I agree, that is a goofy system, took me awhile to figure it out as well. "Pull Off" on the fresh air.

I think a lot of people miss that "push on / pull off" for cabin air. I've seen a few cabin air knobs mislabeled.
The 180 owner's manual says to be sure to open the cabin air before pulling the cabin heat on.

hotrod180 wrote:Seems like your eyeball vent arrangement wouldn't do much to warm your lower extremities.

I'm curious about the vertical control cable in your photo-- is that for a parking brake. Like most old Cessna's, my parking brake has long since been disconnected, but I don't think I've ever seen one that goes through the cabin heat plenum like yours appears to. Or does it go over the plenum, but under what appears to be a naugahyde cover on the plenum?

Very nice panel BTW.

The parking break cable goes through the plenum. But it doesn't work anyhow!

Got to fly today in 10 degree weather and can report that the eyeball vent was nice. Still need to stuff the wing roots though as i still have quite a bit of air coming through, even with leading edges taped. The holes in my plenum work good on feet and legs. But it's pretty drafty up top.

Looks good! Glad it works for you. My 62 180 has the heater intake just under the oil cooler and it does a pretty good job of cooking me out. Just flew 2 hrs in -15*C and had the heat off most of the flight. Almost as good as the eater my citabria had.

Seems like Cessna has monkeyed around with different heating/ventilating, without hitting on anything that is really successful, without some cobbling by owners and/or mechanics. When I first bought my airplane, I flew it home in about +20F weather in February, and I about froze. My IA did some cobbling (officially owner-built modifications, I think) and the heat improved significantly.

Then I switched out the fruit cans for the Soros Ventube package, which includes the exhaust vents in the back under the window and the vent out the side of the tail. That causes a flow that brings the heat back so that the entire airplane can be comfortable. The Ventubes seal much better than the Cessna fruit cans, so that very little air gets past them when they're closed. The other benefit is that in warm weather, the ventilation is much better.

But none of that works if there's cold air leaking in. Good door seals, window seals, and baggage door seals make a huge difference. The door seals on my airplane had been replaced not long before I bought it, and they're still good a dozen years later. There was no seal at all for the pilot window, so I took care of that a couple of years ago (don't know why I waited so long), and just last month I replaced the seal around the baggage door, because it was coming apart.

As a result, the cabin is really pretty comfortable. Flying back from Durango last week, with outside temps at around -8F, both Molly dog and I were comfortable in our down vests, with no other jackets on (of course, she has fur, too ). I don't like to fly with gloves on, and although I had to do that at first before the cabin warmed, I could take them off soon after departing. A couple of days ago, I flew the airplane down to KBJC for avionics work to make it ADS-B Out compliant, plus some other work, and as cold as it has been around here, it was shirt-sleeve warm in the airplane.

Cary

+1 on the Soros vents. My 182 was previously in AK and has that mod. Probably why mine is so warm. Lots of ventilation in the warm months as well