Thorp Air Command - T18.net

I made the terrible mistake of moving from Florida to Missouri - and now it's cold. For those with a similar affliction, what engine pre-heater setup do you use?

We talked about this briefly at KY Dam, but I couldn't find any good references in previous posts here. It seems like there are a few different options for the heater:

1 - Use a rectangle-to-circle HVAC adapter on a space heater and run aluminum tube into the front air inlet. Could use a T to run into both sides. This would get the top of the cylinders warm, but it would take quite some time to trickle the heat down to the oil pan.

2 - Make an adapter so that the aluminum tube interfaces with one of the cheek cowl outlets. The other one would conceivably stay open to allow the warm flow to pass over the bottom of the engine (and oil pan) and exit the other side.


Is it better to heat the engine from the bottom side or top side?

There was an article in Kitplanes a while ago about a setup that a guy used. He had Something attached to a rectangular space heater, as I recall. He would call it to turn it on. In that article they talk about heating options.
Cubes

Just remember that one of our members burned his Thorp to the ground with one of these setups. Do not, under any circumstance, have the heater on the ground. Gas fumes settle.

_________________
Bob Highley
N711SH
SN 835
KLAL

I use a hair dryer, a blanket, and cowl plugs. It takes about 30 minutes to pre-heat. I installed Reiff cylinder heating bands on my Luscombe and that is the best system I've used, but they do condensate water inside the engine and you have to fly it after you pre-heat it. I plan on putting these on the Thorp eventually.

http://www.reiffpreheat.com/product.htm

Szekely,
Andy

This set-up worked very well for me for decades. In fact I use the same unit now for the Kitfox I built. Nice, dry heat (no condensation on the engine) for less than $10 at the time, from Walmart. Set the timer to come on several hours before I plan to fly, and oil temp shows above 100 deg. and the entire engine is warm using the "low heat" setting. I used some 3" thick foam to make a plug for one inlet, and to make a surround for the 4" aluminum ducting where it enters the other inlet. Throw a blanket over the cowl. If you have cell reception at your hangar it is relatively inexpensive to control a unit like this with your cell phone nowadays also.

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John Evens
Arvada, Colorado
T-18 N71JE (sold)
Kitfox 7 SS N27JE

I have an electric sump heater glued to the bottom of the Lycoming O-360 sump. Have one on my Cub glued to the O-200 kidney tank also. Both work great. I can plug them in and the oil temp will be 100 degrees and the cylinders warm to the touch within a couple of hours. However my hangar seldom gets below about 50 degrees even in the coldest weather.

I have a small space heater with a metal dryer duct wired on it. I route the duct wherever convenient, preferably low since heat rises, and throw a moving blanket over the cowl.

Fuel leaks and venting are common so I agree with Bob’s post about using caution on heat source location since electric motors generate sparks.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

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