Engine preheater on ebay??

"Toks Desalu" wrote in message
news:5mYmf.1497$Bj4.230@trndny01...
I remember reading an old article about preheater somewhere. A person who
wrote that article complained about the price of preheaters. So, he made
one
for himself for just 40 bucks. I can't remember how he did it, but I think
he used blow dryer's components. I think the article came from Sport
Aviation. I thought I should mention this.

Toks Desalu

It is easy to do with a little ceramic forced air space heater. You can get
one at Home Depot or Wal-Mart for $20. Add $10 worth of dryer vent ducting,
a flange from the HVAC section, a few pop rivets, and you're ready to go.
Add a $10 timer and you're really rockin'.

The only downsides are that you can't heat an engine quickly with one (I'd
guess an hour or two to get any meaningful temperature increase) and you've
gotta kludge up a way to route the air under the cowl.

KB

Heating it up slowly over a period of 3-4 hours seems like a better way to
go to me. Better to go from 20° to 80° and give all of the parts and fluids
time to warm up rather than blast it with 200° air for five minutes then
attempt to start.

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...

"Toks Desalu" wrote in message
news:5mYmf.1497$Bj4.230@trndny01...
I remember reading an old article about preheater somewhere. A person who
wrote that article complained about the price of preheaters. So, he made
one
for himself for just 40 bucks. I can't remember how he did it, but I
think
he used blow dryer's components. I think the article came from Sport
Aviation. I thought I should mention this.

Toks Desalu

It is easy to do with a little ceramic forced air space heater. You can
get
one at Home Depot or Wal-Mart for $20. Add $10 worth of dryer vent
ducting,
a flange from the HVAC section, a few pop rivets, and you're ready to go.
Add a $10 timer and you're really rockin'.

The only downsides are that you can't heat an engine quickly with one (I'd
guess an hour or two to get any meaningful temperature increase) and
you've
gotta kludge up a way to route the air under the cowl.

KB

Well, every time you start it your CHTs go up 200 degrees in a matter
of seconds.

Paul kgyy wrote:

Well, every time you start it your CHTs go up 200 degrees in a matter
of seconds.

Really? Mine didn't. It usually took at least 5 minutes for the CHT gauge to
move off the peg.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

I live in TX, so I frequently see temps in the 20's , but not much colder.

For me, I got a ceramic cube heater from WalMart ($20), and a 6" flanged
duct adaptor from Home Depot ($6), and an 8' length of aluminum 6" dryer
vent (~$8). I go out to the plane the night before I want to fly, stick the
duct up the cowl, set a standard lamp timer to come on about 3-4 AM, and I'm
ready to go.

"Toks Desalu" wrote in message
news:5mYmf.1497$Bj4.230@trndny01...
I remember reading an old article about preheater somewhere. A person who
wrote that article complained about the price of preheaters. So, he made
one
for himself for just 40 bucks. I can't remember how he did it, but I think
he used blow dryer's components. I think the article came from Sport
Aviation. I thought I should mention this.

Toks Desalu

"skym" wrote in message
oups.com...
There's a portable engine preheater on ebay motors for $129. It looks
like an ok unit but I'm asking for any of the collective wisdom on pros
or cons of a unit like this. There's also one on Sportys for $399.
Any opinions on either or a comparison?

Carl Orton wrote:
I live in TX, so I frequently see temps in the 20's , but not much colder.

For me, I got a ceramic cube heater from WalMart ($20), and a 6" flanged
duct adaptor from Home Depot ($6), and an 8' length of aluminum 6" dryer
vent (~$8). I go out to the plane the night before I want to fly, stick the
duct up the cowl, set a standard lamp timer to come on about 3-4 AM, and I'm
ready to go.

I did the same, but had two of the cube heaters, so made two
preheaters. I used an "offset adapter" as a source of flanges, and
used 4" dryer vent hose (half of an 8' length for each side). I put the
heaters on the ground and insert a hose in each cowl flap opening. I
made hooks from safety wire to hold the hoses in place (attach to the
cowl flap actuator rod). My plane is outside, so I don't have the
option of leaving this setup in place when I'm not around.

Conclusion? They do work, and make the plane much easier to start with
an hour or so application. I think there is room for improvement - I
note a significant temperature drop over the length of the dryer hose.
Perhaps supporting the heaters close to the cowl flap openings (and
using shorter hoses) will help - or switching to some sort of insulated
hose (if I can find any). Another thought (untested) would be to use a
couple of cheap hair dryers - one inserted in each cowl flap. Comments?

David Johnson

wrote:

I think there is room for improvement - I
note a significant temperature drop over the length of the dryer hose.

Try switching to insulated flexible 4" heating duct. HD sells it.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

Thanks to all for the responses. I have a Tanis heater for the oil,
but just was wondering if an air-flow heater might be useful here. I'm
in Montana, and temps well below 0 degree F are not uncommon in the
winter. An airflow heater can warm up the engine and the cockpit for
the sake of the avionics. As for putting together something myself I'm
reminded of the old Groucho Marx joke about belonging to any private
clubs: "I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member."

skym wrote:

An airflow heater can warm up the engine and the cockpit for
the sake of the avionics.

Just pick up one of the $30 ceramic heaters from Wal-Mart for heating the cabin.
IMO, the Tanis is all you need for the engine. That heat will get everywhere in
the engine -- aluminum is a good conductor.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

skym wrote:

Thanks to all for the responses. I have a Tanis heater for the oil,
but just was wondering if an air-flow heater might be useful here. I'm
in Montana, and temps well below 0 degree F are not uncommon in the
winter. An airflow heater can warm up the engine and the cockpit for
the sake of the avionics. As for putting together something myself I'm
reminded of the old Groucho Marx joke about belonging to any private
clubs: "I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member."

I'm across the ramp from you and all a guy needs is a couple of glue on
heating pads from Tractor Supply and a cover from Kennon. At 0 degrees
F the oil will be 100F and the cylinders will be 80F.