Heater thoughts?

[THE MACHINIST 35]

I want to add a heater to my plane and was wondering if anyone has had success with just capturing heat from behind the radiator and letting it into the cabin passively?

 

Thanks

 

Jamie

[1avidflyer 1983]

I never used just the radiator for heat.  Can't really say how well it would work, but the colder it is and the more you need heat, the harder time it will be for the water to be hot.  I did make a muffler shroud on the 582 muffler that put out lots of heat.  Especially after I put a scoop onto the back of one of the radiators to force air through the muffler shroud.  These pics are before I added the scoop on the radiator.  Also had to mount the muffler different, hung it off the firewall.  JImChuk

[THE MACHINIST 35]

Jim

 

That looks nice do you have any pictures of the scoop or how you vary the heat in the cabin. 

 

Thanks

 

jamie

[1avidflyer 1983]

I looked on my PC for the picture of how I ran a scoop off the back of the radiator to the muffler shroud, and didn't find one.  I did find an old post about heaters and found my picture there.  JImChuk

[1avidflyer 1983]

Forgot to mention how I controlled the heat into the cockpit.  I have little doors with spring loaded hinges on them that are either open or closed. If it got to warm on a flight, (ya right, it is northern Mn) I could open on of the window vents.  JImChuk

 

[THE MACHINIST 35]

Jim 

is that copper tubing you put on the ends of the aluminum as a sort of crush sleeve?

so on a 30 degree day what will it warm the cabin up to?

 

thanks

 

jamie

[1avidflyer 1983]

This heater was very adequate on a 30 degree day.  I cut some 6" stove pipe for the body of the shroud.  3/8" copper tubing at the ends to keep the shroud away from the muffler which makes room for the air to travel around the shroud and up to the outlets.  It's also easy to bend around in a circle  and close off the ends of the shroud.   JImChuk

[Fly-n-Low 181]

Mine has a duct off the port radiator in to a flip box where I can cut it down if needed. Haven't had a chance to use it yet. The fellow that built my plane said on really cold days you could restrict the airflow on the other radiator to build more heat. That would take some experimenting, but I don't think it I'll need it down here. I'll probably warm up the cabin with a 110 ceramic heater before I take off. Getting older and don't do cold that well.