Made another one of these for the upcoming winter. They are pretty cheap and easy to build. 6" ducting and uphill the whole way helps with flow. Probably wouldn't do much good out on the ramp, or in extreme cold. I'm sure the heater only provides so much temp rise over ambient. Maybe I'll do a test on that and post the results.

Pic just for example, when in use I keep it a couple feet out from under the plane in case of a meltdown!







I call it Q*bert after the old arcade game

What brand of heater is that?

Add an insulated engine cover and it may work better than you imagine. Try a sleeping bag or quilt across cowing to test. Don’t tell your quilter what you’re using the quilt for.....

MTV

I like heating the entire engine compartment like this. The major issue I see with this type of setup is the heater runs constantly. A solution is a power supply that has a thermo-switch that you can put under the cowl. I found them on Amazon when I was looking last winter.

I want a real engine blanket but for the time being we got two moving blankets from Harbor Freight and sewed up an engine blanket. It works fantastic.

whee wrote:I like heating the entire engine compartment like this. The major issue I see with this type of setup is the heater runs constantly. A solution is a power supply that has a thermo-switch that you can put under the cowl. I found them on Amazon when I was looking last winter.

I want a real engine blanket but for the time being we got two moving blankets from Harbor Freight and sewed up an engine blanket. It works fantastic.

A fitted engine cover is nice, but what you described should work fine except in really cold weather, and you're probably not going to be flying in that sort of weather anyway.

MTV

whee wrote:I like heating the entire engine compartment like this. The major issue I see with this type of setup is the heater runs constantly. A solution is a power supply that has a thermo-switch that you can put under the cowl. I found them on Amazon when I was looking last winter.

I want a real engine blanket but for the time being we got two moving blankets from Harbor Freight and sewed up an engine blanket. It works fantastic.

Thermo switch under the cowl is likely to shut off before the engine is heat soaked. In cold and / windy WX the engine will likely not be as warm as you think it is. If you really want a warm engine just run the heater all night; even at $0.22/KWH you’ll only be spending a few dollars.

corefile wrote:What brand of heater is that?

Its from our local hardware store. They're known as a milk house heater.

https://www.truevalue.com/milk-house-ut ... metal-grey

mtv wrote:Add an insulated engine cover and it may work better than you imagine. Try a sleeping bag or quilt across cowing to test. Don’t tell your quilter what you’re using the quilt for.....

MTV

Exactly what I use, an old flannel lined sleeping bag.

whee wrote:I like heating the entire engine compartment like this. The major issue I see with this type of setup is the heater runs constantly. A solution is a power supply that has a thermo-switch that you can put under the cowl. I found them on Amazon when I was looking last winter.

I use a wifi switch. give it a few hours and everything is warmed up.

the heater does have a thermostat installed, I wonder if the wiring on that could be extended up into the cowling. It probably carries full voltage though.