Agree that it IS a fine art. In the 40's F i'll use a strip of 3" wide metal tape. If the day is closer to freezing as a high I'll add another half width.MrMorden wrote:Using tape is a fine art. I often find I use too little or too much, and then I end up with my temps too high when I climb or too cool in cruise. Yesterday with 32°F OAT was a "too cool" day. Oil temps around 180°F most of the time so I went into a steep WOT climb to 6500ft to get the temps up. That worked well and got me to 220°F. But now I had another problem, I had to get back down! Even on a very shallow descent, the oil temp went down as low as 140°F before I got back down to ~2500ft. At least I got the oil temp up for a bit, but I can't imagine big temp swings like that are ultimately good for the engine.
I don't press the tape on too hard I just smooth it on and it follows the contours of the surface.
On my RV-12 this provides oil temps on the upper end of the green arc whilst getting the coolant temps into the green for (ahem) the 'heating system". This does provide some warmth on cold days as well as defogging the canopy.
I usually tape a note on the panel during winter to remind me about the metal strip. This is because here in SC the coldest days are less frequent and often followed by a series of days back in the 60'sF in which case the tape would cause the oil temp to go into the upper free/caution range. The other point is that if you're flying early in the day, with frost, use the tape. Later on if ambient temps have warmed, you may need to remove it. If you fly from cold temps to warm, you may need to forgo the tape or use a narrow strip.
Hence the 'fine art' point!
It would be easier to have the shutter with a control from the cockpit. The Remos I flew had a little 'lollipop' thing that would work as a shutter for oil temps. Some of the ELSA guys flying the RV-12 have devised shutters etc but not approved for my SLSA. Besides, the metal tape works fine, lasts a long time. I usually carefully remove it/add it depending on the ambient temp.