Hi Neil,
Yes, I recall that you and Jim did use a
thermostat plugs up with no problem. I found burping the block (actually
my cores) necessary even without a thermostat. It could be that I
did it the same number of times I did without the thermostat and that was
insufficient.
I normally would run the engine 5000 rpm
for 30-40 seconds to burp the air. Would need to do this about 3 times
before I got all the air out of my cores. Because of my ignorance of all
factors early on when designing the plumbing for the cores, I had both
inlet and outlet on the bottom – not conducive to getting air out of the
cores.
So should have one tube going in the
bottom and the other out the top or both out the top or at least a spigot on
top to release the air as the tanks filled.
You know – the old “should have,
could have, would have - but didn’t”. Now it’s
just simpler to burp the engine three times on the infrequent occasions I drain
the coolant.
I agree that slower moving airframes
benefit more from thinner cores. However, if you have sufficient dynamic
pressure to force air through thicker cores they can function very well even
though -as you point out - the are technically less efficient. The
190 MPH NASCAR radiators are a nominal 3” thick and on the long tracks
with lot of straight runs can be as much as 6-7 inches thick. But, the
thicker cores do require dynamic pressure - and low speed flight or sitting on
the ground does not provide much of it {:>)
Ed
From: Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of neilak@sympatico.ca
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008
5:14 PM
To: Rotary
motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Update
... Three more flights, water ok, oil too cool
Ed,
Jim and I both ran thermostats, plugs up. Summer or winter, No
problem. Burping the block was mandatory.
NeilK
“snip”
I have tried using a thermostat on two occasions and almost fired my
engine on the ground. I am not certain but because I am plugs up, I think
I may trap some air around the thermostat stopping it from heating up and
opening
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