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I purchased an Airflow-Systems 2008X oil cooler, which is 17 row and I think the largest available. I plan to mount it horizontally on the firewall and feed it with 4" scat tubing off the back baffle. I can mount it either side. From those flying with a conventional baffling setup do the right or left cylinders run hotter? Will be robbing quite a bit of air for the oil cooler.
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I'm using the left baffle with a 4" duct and a 13 row cooler. I started there because in the beginning I was using a cooler that was mounted to the left rear baffle per the Vans design. They may have had a good reason for choosing the left side, but I don't know what it was. I've got a couple of yards of 4" SCAT in case you need any. I'm currently running the double wall duct in hopes that it reduces pressure loss. I measured the air pressure at the face of the cooler and at the top of the engine, and with the Vans RV10 oil cooler mount and about 2 feet of SCAT I was loosing half of my pressure just getting to the cooler. -
Is the double wall smooth on the inside? The left side would allow a slighty shorter piece of tubing.Comment
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It is a little smoother, being that the wire is encapsulated by the inner wall. I'm not sure how that smoothness works out when the tube is bent. It is also heavier, and much less pliable. I didn't do a before and after airflow test to see how much of a difference the SCEET made, but lots of the RV-10 guys seem to think that's the only way to go. Are you going to make up a plenum to go from the duct to the cooler, or use the one from Airflow? I'm using theirs, being that I didn't want to spend a weekend making one.
Vans part number VA-187 is the 4" flange for mounting the duct to the baffle.
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I'm using the one from Airflow also.Comment
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I notice that on the BH builder manual it indicates that Bob likes the oil cooler to be mounted directly to the right rear baffle. Without knowing much about the subject, I'm wondering why so many people opt to mount it to the firewall. What do you guys think?Comment
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Oil coolers mounted on the rear baffle have to be very well reinforced as the weight tends to crack the baffling. On my 4 place BH the oil cooler is on the engine mount with a 3 inch scat tube from the right side upper baffle feeding air to a "plenum" that makes the air go through the entire face of the oil cooler - not just the 3" center. This has worked well. MarkComment
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I put my cooler on the baffling, and it cracked the baffles three times. I ended up moving it to the firewall. I used 3" SCAT and my oil is nice and hot. You don't want the oil too cool.
To the original question, about which side of the engine - each install is very different, especially in homebuilt aircraft. I don't think cooling should dictate the side, but rather available space on the firewall. That's my 2cComment
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