If you are looking for a "cheap" heater, here is my setup. A tripod from an old, broken work light and an office type cube heater. Put your cowl cover or blanket over the cowling and let her warm up. At 0° F OAT I can get my oil temp up to 80° with this unit running for an hour.

A friend with a Champ uses the same setup, blocking off one air inlet and blowing the heater into the other.

Hi,
Without creating thread drift! Everyone is concerned enough to preheat before starting. Any of you fitted a pre-oiler as well ? If so what's your thoughts on it ?

Derek

L-19 wrote:Thanks thats what I thought. Does your system have the oil cooler heater option? Doubt it's necessary if I use a blanket, should warm up everything pretty well.

No oil cooler option..just pan & cylinder heaters.

hicountry wrote:I usually preheat if the hangar is below 40F. I have the Reiff oil pan and cylinder heaters but this is what I normally use. It is a 1200 watt heating element and blower form an old clothes dryer that I saved many years ago with a piece of scat tube..air is quite warm but not hot enough to damage anything. My wife suggested a cheap Wal Mart hair dryer could do the job as well. My investment was about $2..been using it for years.

I like it cheap but effective ----

Here's where you find out what's what with preheaters. Short days, cold temps, and the desire to go.

Here's a heater I just built for a friend. $30 for the heater, about $10 for the transition, and an old piece of scat tube that he had. Just stick it underneath the cowl on his beach Sundowner..works well.

I use the GSM Auto cell phone switch mentioned earlier. It is amazingly convenient. I plug my sump mounted EZ Heat pad to it. If I want to fly I send it a text message with the amount of time I want it to stay on (up to 18 hours) and when I get to the hangar the oil temp is in the 70's. If anyone is interested I can post a description of how I built the switch. It was a fun project and anyone could do it. The GSM switch is the main component, the rest of the stuff you need costs about $30.

Just got this from Old Alaska Pilot -who has a 55 180 . http://www.atlasaviation.com/AviationLi ... g_Tips.htm

That author of that article gives some bad advice about fuel checks and fuel handling. An airplane sitting in the cold won't have water in the tanks. Draining the sumps gives any ice crystals a chance to jam the quick drain and end your day. I don't sump my fuel tanks in the winter. if the engine compartment has been heated adequately I'll pull the gascolator. If I used the Reiff heater? No fuel gets drained there, either. I don't expect ice to pass through finger screens or the gascolator screen. The condensation advice? I've parked outside for a long time with mostly empty tanks and have experienced little condensation in all that time. Zero condensation in the winter when the temps stay below freezing. For you guys going in and out of heated hangars? Sump your fuel before any water can freeze. Pretty simple.

Pouring fuel from a jug always creates static electricity. Winter temperatures mean low humidity and nylon clothes which accentuate the static problem. Learn about it and manage the threat.
I've found a funnel with a chamois to be the best fuel filter there is but a Mr Funnel is probably good enough. When I expect to refuel from a jug I carry a metal funnel and chamois.

If any of you need a really massive preheat system, I am selling some 60,000 BTU Military heaters on ebay with $100 reserve. They are designed to heat Vehicles but you could build a cart with a Diesel Tank and a couple of 12 Volt batteries. Would be portable and put out some serious heat. Might work good for a cabin heater too. Let me know if anyone's interested.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/260919312145?it ... m=&vxp=mtr

I have been heating my O-360 for seven years with a Tanis system. It is an internal engine heater and provides heat directly to the cylinder head and oil sump. In my area we can go weeks in the single digits. I leave the Tanis plugged in full-time (per instructions) so I am always ready to go. I should also mention that I fly at least once a week. It works great!

I also heat the interior cabin with a small portable heater. This is mainly for the instruments because the cold can be brutal especially on gyroscopes.

I really like the idea of keeping the engine warm at all times. Heating a cold soaked engine takes a long time especially from the outside. If you don't have any choice, then thats what you go with. But if you are in a hangar and have access to electric, for my two cents, I prefer the Tanis.

^^^ What he said. My Tanis stays plugged in 24/7, and it has kept my engine and oil warm on the coldest days . . . The engine starts on the 3rd turn or so with 2 squirts of prime . . . .

Of course I keep everything blanketed, including the spinner and prop blades . . .

Of course I keep everything blanketed, including the spinner and prop blades . . .

If you are heating 24/7 this is EXCEEDINGLY important. Reason:
Metal prop blades and hub are a big cold heat sink and condensation/then rust occurs on the front crankshaft bearings-if this is ignored and temps are cold.......

I use a couple of tall sweat pants (Goodwill) with 1 leg inside the other on each blade then cover whole thing with a couple of old thick blankets.
I was taking a guy flying (a pilot) with me and I was pulling apart my cowling/prop 'warmies' and he got a puzzled look on his face and asked me where I found 1 legged sweatpants? It surprised me enough that I said it just was how 1 leg was inverted into the other....... I should have told him the truth and just said 'Goodwill'...
Anyone with a HD sewing machine and thick fabric could make the equivalent. (or hand sew-doesn't have to be a thing of beauty)

I bundle it up really well with lots of blankets and bungees and clothes pins and run a trouble light (or 2) all night before a flight. You would be surprised how toasty it can be with just a couple of 75 watt bulbs and thick, tight insulation plus time.

lc

Post recalled. No reason to add anything more.

What would you guys recommend for a backcountry situation, where you don't have electricity or room for a generator?

I normally have a camp stove, MSR type, wondering if that could be used to heat the engine just enough to start. I seem to recall seeing something, but I can't find it for searching.

Battson wrote:What would you guys recommend for a backcountry situation, where you don't have electricity or room for a generator?

I normally have a camp stove, MSR type, wondering if that could be used to heat the engine just enough to start. I seem to recall seeing something, but I can't find it for searching.

Google Northern Companion Preheater. You might be able to use it as a basis for adapting your own MSR stove, but frankly, theirs is a tidy, highly effective, well made and engineered package thats only downside is that it's overpriced like anything in aviation. I have used it countless times down to -30F.

Even if this is for an occasional-type use, give some thought to an engine blanket, even if it is not a fancy, purpose-made affair. The trick to these heaters is 1) allow heated air to vent near the spinner so the hot air flows over and across the entire engine, and 2) Insulate around the cowl so that heat can soak in and normalize a bit, after heater shut-off and before start.

p.s.- If you Google image results for Northern Companion Preheater, there's a bunch of home-made versions on exhibit.

-DP

Battson wrote:What would you guys recommend for a backcountry situation, where you don't have electricity or room for a generator?

I normally have a camp stove, MSR type, wondering if that could be used to heat the engine just enough to start. I seem to recall seeing something, but I can't find it for searching.

I started out with this...MSR stove and some ducting.


I've since modified it to use flexible dryer ducting and a piece of furnace ducting to contain the stove, but otherwise it's pretty much the same. Since making it I've never had to start my engine with the CHT's below freezing. The MSR International will run for extended periods on avegas, and it's loud enough that you instantly know if the stove went out or is acting funny.

The northern companion ones look great but I'm cheap so I used one of those little buddy propane camp heaters and just modified a sheet metal floor register duct a little to form a hood over it. Works awesome for preheating and also drying boots and socks in the tent at night, or just warming up, the thing cranks. I've swapped out the more rigid flex duct in the photo for the more flexy dryer duct stuff in 5" that packs up real tight. Just had to play a little with the hood design a bit to stop it cutting out from high temp, and use minimum 5" duct. All in all I think it cost maybe $110 and couple hours of time. Tried and tested down to -26 Celsius. Cheap and warm, just the way the Kiwis like it!

I bought a Northern Companion from one of our participating brethren here. Haven't used it, but I have looked it over. Very nice quality--it would be hard to duplicate the quality and details for the price I paid, although perhaps for the price NC charges, maybe--not counting labor, of course. And of course, it includes the XGK MSR stove, which isn't inexpensive ($160).

I already have the requisite XGK MSR stove that is part of the NC package (so now I have two), which is a honey--I've had it for 20 years, and I've used it successfully on a series of backpacking trips as well as airplane camping. It is REALLY noisy! I actually got a free tent from MSR because of its noise! I did a review of it on their site, said that it was a great stove, but that it's "abominably loud". They had a contest going on at the time for the "best" review of an MSR product, and I won a really nice little 2 person backpacking tent. An accompanying notice said that they appreciated my honesty! Whether they've done anything about the noise in the latest iterations of that stove, I don't know. My go-to stove is also an MSR, the Dragonfly, much quieter and adjustable, so the XGK is my backup.

I haven't needed to start my airplane in cold weather away from electricity in ages; I've been able to plug in everywhere I've gone for at least the last 10 years. I'm quite certain that the NC would do the job, if I should go somewhere where I don't have power.

An insulated cowl cover is really necessary, regardless of what kind of pre-heater is used. I've noticed a huge difference, when I've been too lazy to put on the cover in the winter but still plugged in. With the cover, the engine is much warmer.

Cary

Rogue wrote:The northern companion ones look great but I'm cheap so I used one of those little buddy propane camp heaters and just modified a sheet metal floor register duct a little to form a hood over it. Works awesome for preheating and also drying boots and socks in the tent at night, or just warming up, the thing cranks. I've swapped out the more rigid flex duct in the photo for the more flexy dryer duct stuff in 5" that packs up real tight. Just had to play a little with the hood design a bit to stop it cutting out from high temp, and use minimum 5" duct. All in all I think it cost maybe $110 and couple hours of time. Tried and tested down to -26 Celsius. Cheap and warm, just the way the Kiwis like it!

It’s possible that it wasn’t shutting down from heat, but rather running low on oxygen. That can be a problem with catalytic if they’re not properly vented.

MTV