Van's oil cooler shutter retrofit installation

[bruceh]

I'm adding Van's oil cooler shutter so I can get my winter oil temps up.

I'm assuming I need to cut off the little flanges that flair out and meet up with the fins on the oil cooler. They stick out too much to allow the shutter to lay flat. There are also rivet shop heads on the top and bottom that will hit the shutter face, so I'm looking to put some spacer washers in between the shutter and the aft baffle.




Any one here been through this and has any pictures or advice?

[bullojm1]

Bruce,

I will be paying attention to this thread because this is a mod that I want to make. Right now, I have the oil cooler shutter installed behind the oil cooler - it works OK, but not all that great.

I know Captain John installed his shutter before the oil cooler. Perhaps he can chime in?

[captain_john]

Bruce, yes, I did have to flush up those rivets on the aft side too. However, my cooler is a different model. I sourced mine yellow tag from Pacific oil cooler. Here is a picture of it while I was mocking it up.



Oddly enough, it is mildly leaking right now and I need to send it back but don't want to suffer the downtime!

I have a loaner that looks like yours. Is it the Vans cooler?

I might put that one in to get me by or keep it installed if my temps are okay.

I did have to trim the actuation arm, as it interfered with the cowling.

I hope this helps!



CJ

[bruceh]

Off with the flanges using the dremel cut off wheel. I filed down the cuts and smoothed off the edges.


I match drilled the shutter to the baffle and gave it a test fit. The rivet heads at the top of the baffle would interfere with the movement of the shutter blades, so a regular AN960-10 washer will need to go between the baffle and shutter.


The aft part of the shutter needs just a thin AN960-10L washer between it and the oil cooler. The oil cooler bolts need to be longer. I bought some AN3-44A size and this was perfect. I also used a single AN960-10 under each of the long bolt heads.


The B-nut that Van's sells with the oil cooler shutter interferes with the aft baffle skin.


The aft-most baffle skin can be cut away, since the baffle seal is forward of this skin.


Another quick set of cuts with the dremel cut off wheel and some filing. Now the B-nut has plenty of clearance in both the on and off position of the shutter.


The worst part of the project was punching a new hole in the firewall for the cable control. It took a bit of work, but I got the control cable drilled on the panel, run through the firewall and up to the shutter.
I did a lunch flight today and the OAT was about 60F at altitude. The oil temps were barely pushing 175F with the shutter open. I pulled out the control knob just a bit and was able to control the temps nicely to about 185-190F.

I took more pictures of the finished project, but left the camera at the hangar. Look in the Phase 2 gallery on my web site in a few days to see the rest.

[captain_john]

Very cool Bruce!

I did a "Z" bend on the control cable (ala Briggs and Stratton) instead of using the b-nut.

I like the shutter!

Nice work!

CJ

[bruceh]

Last few photos of the installation:


The worst part of this project was getting under the instrument panel, drilling a new firewall hole for the control cable and installing the eyeball pass-through. I used my Harbor Freight 1 1/8" punch set, then drilled the remaining 6 holes for the eyeball holder. Drilling stainless steel is a real pain. Once the holes are created and deburred, getting my hands down there to tighten the tiny screws was a real challenge. The control cable comes up to the engine mount around the oil filter and across to the shutter.


An adel clamp holds the end of the control cable.


I put the control knob next to the Cabin Heat knob. I need to get a decal made up for this control. Currently just using a post-it note as a placard. I did a flight up to Camarillo with my wife for a Tri-tip BBQ lunch. I messed around a bit with the control and it seems to work effectively to increase the oil temps.

The two holes in the panel to the right of the Cabin Heat knob are for a RAM mount 1" ball that will hold my iPad/iPhone.

[BSwayze]

I'm very interested in this post because I'll be mounting my oil cooler and installing my baffling before too long. Perhaps I should incorporate this into the original build so I don't have to come back to it later.

I'm a bit confused, though. Doesn't your engine's oil filter adapter have a Vernatherm, Bruce? Mine does. Isn't that supposed to regulate whether or not oil goes out to the cooler in the first place?

I'm scratching my head. Can someone help me understand?

[bruceh]

Bruce,

My understanding is that the vernatherm also always allows a little bit of flow through the oil cooler at all times in order to prevent cold oil from congealing in the cooler. It isn't like a thermostat where it is either all on or off. In my case, my oil temps were too cold, so I need a way to block off the airflow to the cooler in order to raise the oil temps up to the nominal range. The oil cooler shutter seems to be the solution and it is working fine so far. My problem has been low oil temps, not high temps. Even in the extreme heat of summer flying my Phase 1 hours over the desert, I was never able to get the oil above 190F. Oil temp should ideally be somewhere between 180 and 245F according to Lycoming Operating Instructions. Engine oil shouldn't be below 140 during continuous operations. Flying back from Boulder, CO we were at 35F OAT, and seeing around 150-155F on the oil temps. The desired temp according to Lycoming is 180F. When we flew to Jean, NV on New Year's the OAT was between 24F and 19F (Brrr!). With the oil cooler taped over (mostly), my oil temps were better at 158F. The new oil cooler shutter does a much better job of sealing off the airflow. A recent flight with the shutter open (which still has some affect on restriction of airflow) got the oil temps right up to 177-180F with an OAT of 62F. Pulling on the shutter knob just a bit had the oil temp up to 188F after about 10 minutes with the same OAT.

You can always do the retrofit later if your temps with the larger O-360 are too cold. It was probably best to have it completely off during engine break-in. It wasn't that hard of a project.

[BSwayze]

Thank you, Bruce, for all the details! That's a lot of good information. I'm going to check with some of the locals about their experiences here in the Northwest, and consider all of it before making a decision. Like you say, I can always come back and add it on later, as you have done.

Happy flying!

[bullojm1]

My hangar door is frozen shut, so it was a perfect time to start the relocation of my oil cooler shutter to forward of the oil cooler.



My retrofit was a little more involved since I needed to remove the rear left baffling.