Continental 0-300 warming

[Warlord]

My brother just purchased his first plane, a Cessna 172 with the Continental 0-300 opposed six cylinder. He lives in Northern Alberta and wants to fly it year round. He is convinced he needs a $1000 heating system which heats the oil pan and each individual cylinder via a heating wire wrapped around each in order to fly it in the winter. It has some sort of blower heater installed but he doesn’t think it works. My advice was to get a nice stick on pan heater and just pop a couple micro furnaces or hair dryers under the cowl cover for a while. With the hot air blowing over the air cooled cylinders I figure they’ll soak up the heat decently well. Heated hangar is not an option. I also suggested a change to Aeroshell 15w50 or W80 for winter conditions as it is filled with Phillips 20w50 now.

I am not qualified to give aviation advice so what advice would you give?

 

[WylieCoyote]

I'm no plane mechanic, but if he's worried about start-up temps, a pan heater may be good, but I'd never recommend putting hair dryers or electric space heaters in a plane's engine compartment. I'm not fully-versed on the necessity of having the cylinders warmed before startup. I've only observed winter startup on turbo-props, which can be a long and smoky wait.

 

[Warlord]

I'm no plane mechanic, but if he's worried about start-up temps, a pan heater may be good, but I'd never recommend putting hair dryers or electric space heaters in a plane's engine compartment. I'm not fully-versed on the necessity of having the cylinders warmed before startup. I've only observed winter startup on turbo-props, which can be a long and smoky wait.

Yeah if it were mine I would think heating the oil would be enough but apparently it’s common to heat the cylinders too. The hair dryer idea came from reading other forums about how Canadian pilots hear their planes. It’s not an overnight thing. Just while he’s doing his preflight checks and whatnot.

 

[wwillson]

He needs a propane or electric engine warmer for the cylinders and a oil pan heater that is designed and approved for piston engine aircraft. The propane/electric engine warmers work very well for the upper end, but do nothing to warm the oil pan. He will need both warmed. Tell him to pull the carb heat out and leave it out when he shuts the engine off. The cable can get very stiff and hard to pull out at below zero temps. He'll find the engine will run smoother much faster if he can raise the temperature of the air being pulled into the carb.

 

[FastLane]

With my C150 I use a space heater. I set it at its lowest heating power and set the thermostat to give me roughly 10C under the cowling. The lower heat setting makes the heater run longer and blows the heat around. I've ran 20W50 for the last 17 years. I would pocket that 1000 bucks and put it towards the sticking valves that are going to happen down the road. We have the same ****ty designed engine. 0200 vs O300 is just two more cylinders. Change your oil lots. You will have a heart attack when you see the price of an overhaul now, on a glorified 1930's lawnmower.

 

[wwillson]

Yeah if it were mine I would think heating the oil would be enough but apparently it’s common to heat the cylinders too.

It isn't. Without heat, it is very common to get frost on the plugs if the engine fires then quits, which they often do when it's so cold. There is no choke, only primers, so you have the correct mixture until it fires and starts running. When it starts running the mixture becomes way too lean and the engine quits. The residual water from combustion freezes on the spark plug tips. With frost on the plugs, you'll never get it started until you preheat it and melt the frost off. Just preheat every time when it's cold and you won't have frosted plugs. Almost everything I know I learned the hard way, including this.

 

[Cujet]

We've had good luck with Tannis engine heaters. But to make them work well, one must plug up the cowl inlets, often use a blanket over the engine cowl. It's good to know they take many, many hours to heat up an engine. We have not had great results with the 1 hour preheat. More like 5+ hours. 15W-50 oil seems to work well in cold climates.

People have come up with all manner of engine heating tricks. One "idea" that I liked was a Honda EU1000 generator with it's cooling airflow (and exhaust heat) run through a duct to the cowl inlet. The cooling airflow was restricted for cold weather ops, and the electrical output heated an 700W resistance heating element in the duct.

 

[Warlord]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I’ll send it his way.

 

[BusyLittleShop]

I also suggested a change to Aeroshell 15w50 or W80 for winter conditions as it is filled with Phillips 20w50 now.

Between the Aeroshell 15w50 and Aeroshell W80 I would advise W80 Plus... because AeroShell 80 is an freer flowing 40 grade and the 'W' means an ashless dispersant with non-metallic dispersant additives plus the extra anti-wear and anti-corrosion additive package of AeroShell Oil 15W-50.

 

[MRC01]

Good knowledge advice so far. Regarding the original question, common advice says preheating is beneficial when ambient temperatures drop below freezing. Also, when it's that cold, a multi-grade oil becomes preferable to a straight weight 40, which is the normal "winter" oil for places that don't get as cold as Canada.

Aeroshell W80 plus is a straight 40 weight oil, which is in spec for that engine but the 15w50 or 20w50 will flow better in extreme cold giving easier better lubricated cold starts. Philips 20w50 and Aeroshell 15w50 are both ashless dispersant oils, like most aviation piston engine oils. You may want additional anti-wear and corrosion additives for winter, and Camguard is one of the best. However, the O-300 is a Continental, and most of their engines have the camshaft below, making it less susceptible to corrosion compared to Lycomings having the cam up above.

 

[Surestick]

There's a winter kit for the airplane that blocks of part of the air intakes on the cowl to prevent over cooling the engine.
As stated above, it won't start without preheating anyway.
My flight school had a lower limit of -20C for flying and it does get colder here (Cold Lake, AB) with some week long spells below that.
Survival gear and knowledge at those temps, even on a short flight, becomes very important.