M20 Air/Oil separator

Kyle Boatright wrote:
"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"Mike Rapoport" wrote:

More oil does not improve cooling. If you think about it, it
makes sense. Where would the additoinal heat go? Same
oil cooler, same cooling fins, same baffles producing the same
airflow. The oil will actually be hotter...

...so the delta T of the oil cooler-to-air will be greater and the rate
of heat transfer will will be increased, no? Thus more heat will be
removed from the engine.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM


I'll add a third opinion: The volume of oil doesn't drive oil temperatures
other than by providing a few more pounds of thermal mass which slightly
reduce the slope of engine temp trend lines. I.E. the engine will warm up
slightly slower and will cool off slightly slower. Once you get to steady
state operations (stabilized temps in cruise flight), you're down to the
fact that the engine transmits X BTU's to the oil, and the oil cooler
rejects Y BTU's. In steady state operations, X and Y are the same...



Except that the oil cooler isn't the only source of heat loss. Heat
from the oil is lost through the cases as well and more oil, to a point,
will reject more heat. The point is, as mentioned earlier, the point
where the oil starts to contact the crank. However, this shouldn't
happen unless you overfill the sump. The manufacturer's fill limit
should avoid windage problems with the crank.


Matt