wrote in message ...
Here in Colorado, we keep the airplane plugged in with an oil pan
heater and a battery maintainer (think float charger that shuts
off).

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

How to Warm a Cold Engine

By Kas Thomas

TBO ADVISOR, Nov/Dec 1998



Note that the oil pan heater is plugged into another device. If you
think about it, an engine heater (oil pan or tanis) may get too hot
if left on all the time...

A heater is a resistive device. Usually, they are 600 watts or
less. Now think about a normal light bulb... resistive. What I did
was build a breakout-box with a "light dimmer", calibrated and
turned down to "75%". So, we have our heater plugged in all the
time (300 watts), turned down to 75%, so the engine and oil are
"warm", but not "hot".

Our last engine (IO-520)/206 went 750 hours beyond TBO. The
previous two (O-470)/182 went 2X TBO.

I grew up in northern Wisconsin. We do not have real winters in
Colorado. It just looks like that on TV. :-)

Especially the last couple weeks...


--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO (MTJ)