Engine Heater

I’ve used the hornet heater in the past and was pleased with it. If permanent installs of the other heaters mentioned upthread wasn’t in the plan, I’d use it again. Pricey, yes, but well built and designed with safety in mind.
 
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Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
A heated hanger would be a LOT nicer for working on things, nicer for cold starts, nicer to get into, etc.
But, it's a tradeoff. Your engine is connected to the ambient air only through a long skinny breather tube - it's going to take a long time for the moisture in the over saturated air inside the crankcase to diffuse out of the engine. How long, I don't know. But, in the meantime...

Would I use a heated hangar? Yea. But again, it's a tradeoff.

Would I plug in engine heaters of one kind of another and leave them on 24-7 (or put them on a timer)? Given that the airplane sits for weeks at a time, that's a hard no.
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If I keep my heater on and use cowl plugs and a blanket my engine and the air around it stays warm all winter, just like a hangar. So what's the big whip?
 
steingar said:
If I keep my heater on and use cowl plugs and a blanket my engine and the air around it stays warm all winter, just like a hangar. So what's the big whip?
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Not like a heated hangar because you will still freeze your butt off prepping for the annual in December and doing any follow up maintenance in January. That may or may not be an issue if you just write a check vs. doing the work yourself.

Running heat under the cowl saves you time when you want to fly at the expense of increased corrosion. That may work for you. It does not work for me.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Not like a heated hangar because you will still freeze your butt off prepping for the annual in December and doing any follow up maintenance in January. That may or may not be an issue if you just write a check vs. doing the work yourself.

Running heat under the cowl saves you time when you want to fly at the expense of increased corrosion. That may work for you. It does not work for me.
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The point is that whether it's a heated hangar or a full engine heater (with blankets/plugs), the effect on the speed of corrosion is roughly the same. The engine doesn't care why it's at room temperature, nor do those pesky oxygen atoms.

But, the other thing to note here is that the speed of corrosion is going to be relative to absolute zero. We're warming it from maybe 270K to 295K, around 10%. Ensuring the engine is properly warmed is a lot more important than the difference in corrosion speeds being increased by 10%, especially since those of us who vent the engine as well are helping it to be even drier inside, which should more than make up for the difference anyway. :dunno: Chemists, please step in!
 
Magman said:
Dan’s comment on Cam/lifters reminds me of an O-235L2C as in a 152 that ALMOST made it to 100 hrs SMOH.
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I am familiar (worked on) an IO-360 that was shot at 270 hours. Internally rusted. The owner wasn't flying it, just ground-running it. A brand-new engine, too. Not overhauled.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
But, the other thing to note here is that the speed of corrosion is going to be relative to absolute zero. We're warming it from maybe 270K to 295K, around 10%. Ensuring the engine is properly warmed is a lot more important than the difference in corrosion speeds being increased by 10%,
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The rate is generally exponential with temperature, not linear. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrhenius_equation#Equation
Hence, the rule of thumb about the rate doubling about every 10C / 20F.
 
Corrosion is a chemical reaction. All chemical reactions happen faster as the temperature increases. There's a reason they were able to restore a "Glacier Girl" but there's no "Jungle Girl."

As to the "what about summer?" or "what about a heated hangar?" arguments, Reiff and Tanis heaters get the temperature into 3-digits. I'd say you're likely to get corrosion pretty quickly when parked outside in a place that's routinely that hot, especially if it's humid. Likewise, a 100-degree hangar would be a terrarium. Not only would you find corrosion, you'd probably even get mildew!
 
I have used pad heaters,but had my best luck with a Reiff heater. I have a portable generator if a plug is not available .while heating the motor I also use a small space heater in the cockpit.
 
Terry M - 3CK (Chicago) said:
@flyingcheesehead how do you vent the crankcase for a mechanically challenged person?

Pull a spark plug after the flight?
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kyleb said:
You already have a crankcase vent, so you remove the oil filler cap and now you have pass-through venting if the crankcase.
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This... Unfortunately, my breather is on the filler tube so I don't have a pass-through, which is why I'd like to build a dehydrator as well, to speed the process up rather than relying solely on diffusion.
 
I have an oil sump heater that came with the plane. It works, but under 20F it struggles. Just got a hornet heater to use as well. I want the cylinders and panel to get some good heat as well.
 
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