In the belief that no sacrifice is too great when it comes to adding to the knowledge base that exists within ICS, (and in the interest of geting it into the hands of our fellow members without undue delay) my wife and I decided to fly our Comanche down to central Mexico, knowing that we would encounter a wide range of OAT's along the way. So here is what we found:

OAT -20C........Oil temp 177F
OAT -17C........Oil temp 184F
OAT -14C........Oil temp 186F
OAT -01C........Oil temp 189F
OAT +07C........Oil temp 188F
OAT +19C .......Oil temp 184F

Based on the above, one can conclude that if the vernatherm valve is operating properly on a PA24-250, the oil temp tends to remain quite uniform throughout the OAT range of Minus 20C to Plus 19C. It should be evident that I have no intention of beginning to cover my oil cooler in winter. I will continue the course that I have followed for the past 31 years.

I am now facing a bit of a dilemma. I'd like to stay here in this pleasant little Mexican town awaiting some higher OAT's so that I can gain more knowledge about oil cooling at higher ambient temperatures, yet I know that the later I head back north the lower the likelihood of encountering REALLY cold OAT's once I get home. Which will of course means that we won't be able to learn as much as we might wish to regarding the oil temp/OAT relationship at extremely low OAT's. In the meantime, I think I'll have another beer while I think about what to do next.

Don Ostergard ICS 3263
c-flhv@magtech.ca

Zach

I didn't want to hijack this thread but wanted to hear more about your trip so I started a thread under new destinations; "Mexico in Search of Truth". If you have a moment between beers you could fill us in?

Thanks, Don