How do you close off the cooling air to the avionics bay?

[Shadrach]

21 hours ago, AndreiC said:

@Shadrach: can you please post a pic or two of where you put the aluminum tape? Or say a few more words where you put it? On the outside of the cowling?

[AndreiC]

Oh, wow, very different from what I would have thought. Is that one continuous piece of aluminum tape, or one separate piece for each “fin”?

[Shadrach]

9 minutes ago, AndreiC said:

Oh, wow, very different from what I would have thought. Is that one continuous piece of aluminum tape, or one separate piece for each “fin”?

One piece. If you really take your time, it should take about 2 minutes. Removal should take about half of that. It’s helpful to have a dental pick to get removal started…wouldn’t want to risk breaking a nail.

[UMRPIlot8]

On a related note, does anyone restrict the airflow into their cabin vents just aft of the cowling?  I just got my '69 F and with the really cold temps we've seen on the east coast, and the inherent leaks in a 55 year old airplane, the heater was having a hard time keeping up. 

On a local rental 172, I saw some sort of material stuffed into it's wingtip vents that appeared to restrict airflow during the winter.  

[Slick Nick]

13 hours ago, UMRPIlot8 said:

On a related note, does anyone restrict the airflow into their cabin vents just aft of the cowling?  I just got my '69 F and with the really cold temps we've seen on the east coast, and the inherent leaks in a 55 year old airplane, the heater was having a hard time keeping up. 

On a local rental 172, I saw some sort of material stuffed into it's wingtip vents that appeared to restrict airflow during the winter.  

Speed tape will work wonders here. No need to stuff foam in or anything.

[AJ88V]

Never put tape on my oil cooler.  Does the engine oil system not include a thermostat to regulate oil temp (somewhat)?

[Brian2034]

Just to add to the foil tape on oil cooler, yes it works perfect and as Shadrach mentioned you can add or remove strips of the foil tape to increase or decrease your oil temps as required. We usually block the oil coolers in our hangar aircraft in the fall when temperatures drop below 10c or 50f. We use complete aluminum block off plates in our pipers and Cessnas or tape on aircraft that don’t have provisions for a plate. 

Also, YES there are cheaper quality foil tape available that are to thin and or doesn’t stick as well as a quality foil tape. Your best bet for a quality foil tape is a hvac/ air conditioning store.

Look for a brand name such as 3M or equivalent, if you look around you will find a big difference in qualities of tape. Just find a decent thick product and give it a try.

its a 2 minute install and just as fast to remove, maybe avoid sticking it to your pained area around the cooler. It may take some paint when removing.

 

[Brian2034]

Also no we don’t cover individual cores we overlap the foil tape to create a flat panel of tape 

[Aerodon]

On 1/10/2024 at 9:59 PM, PT20J said:

I wonder if closing off the cooling to the radios is a good idea. My J doesn’t have that capability, so at some point Mooney quit doing that. A legacy stack can overheat pretty easily depending on what you have in there.

I would not block off the oil cooler unless you know from experience that it is necessary. And, I would fabricate a plate to do it right. Aluminum tape will deform into the oil cooler from the air pressure and be difficult to remove.

 

Piper Seneca (TSIO360 like the Mooney 231) has a plate that blocks off 1/3rd of the oil cooler, temperate were still way too low in winter.  So we made another plate for the other side and blocked off another 1/3rd and temperatures were reasonable.

Cessna 172 has a winterization plate that blocks off about 1/3rd of the airflow into the cowl.

Yes, close off all 'outside air' for radio cooling, spraying avionics with damp air is not a good idea.  Aluminum tape, or plastic caps on ducting.

Some radios have internal fans.  Some still need cooling, use an avionics fan (like Mooney 231).

Aerodon