Hello again folks. Today I shall discuss Oil Coolers! So, as per usual I’ve taken my historical data on oil coolers, reviewed all of it, then went hunting for more data. I think I’ve failed to state that a fair amount of my research is via Kitplanes magazine as well, and as a lot of you know they’ve had a couple of good articles on oil coolers lately. Also, I know I mention the RV forum a lot, but don’t get me wrong, I’d be remiss to neglect to say that I do check out the Canard Aviation Forums pert near every time as well. Finally, don’t get me wrong by thinking that any of the forums are the final say in selection of my aircraft components (ok, unless it’s Marc Z!). I spend a fair amount of time (much to their chagrin I think at times) talking to builders (canards & engines), EZ flyers, the actual parts manufacturer bubbas, and of course my Long-EZ building buddies.
Thus, for my oil cooler I reached out to one of those fellow Canardians, Mike Beasley, to asked him his thoughts on oil coolers. He came back with the recommendation by EJ Johnson & Co. to go with a Stewart Warner (now Meggitt) cooler and I wouldn’t be dissatisfied. He said if I bought any other brand, I would probably come back to Stewart Warner, on my knees, begging for forgiveness, asking to be given one more chance to use them because I clearly wasn’t thinking right when I bought brand X. So what did I do? (Remember, I’ve never claimed to be that bright!). I bought brand X… literally! Sorry Mike… good advice, but remember, I’m cheap!
So after some back and forth discussions with Wayne Thomas from Pacific Oil Coolers and Bill Genevro from Airflow Systems (both incredibly helpful), I decided to go with an Airflow Systems Series-X 2008X. If you know this line of coolers, you know that it’s about the biggest one they make. So why did I order this mo-jamma? Well, remember, not only is a Long-EZ a pusher–with the inherent cooling challenges that brings to the table right there–but I’m running a strokered engine with tapered cylinders, high compression pistons, Nickle+Carbide cylinder walls (much better rust resistance, but runs a little hotter usually), fuel injection, and cold air induction with RAM air intake. All these are significant heat producers, so I need as much oil cooling realistically as I can get. Of course figuring out engine & oil cooling is always a crap shoot… hard to engineer, apparently harder to predict, so I’m trying to stack the deck and HOPEFULLY get the odds in my favor just a bit!
My Christmas present to myself: an oil cooler (hoo-ah!).
