Engine preheaters

[Doug Johnson 1]

This should have been posted last fall.

It only caught my eye because of he Helio picture.

And to top that off I went with an enhanced Tanis Heater on my plane.

but this does look kind of interesting   https://aerothermheaters.com/

Remember it under engine preheater if you live were it gets below freezing.

[paullapoint]

Hi,
  Wondering what everyone uses for oil pan pre-heaters ? It looks like Rieff and Tanis both have stc'd models for a GO-435 ?
                  Thanks, Paul

[Kevin Dunn]

The Tanis that Doug installed is still there. Haven't had to use it much as the hangar doesn't get under about 40 degrees during the winter.

Kevin

[Doug Johnson]

I was remebering that preheater, interesting it is still there on c/n 1233, 25 yrs later. I bought the complete kit with heater probes that went into a port in the head as well as a heater pad for the oil pan and a heater pad for each battery (I had two, one on each side to get 24 volts). I also mounted a 120v 600 watt cabin heater under the cowl and had a good engine cover. I believe I intended to add the bands that go around the cylinders made by Rieff, but I met my goal of being able to bring the engine up to starting temp in a little over half an hour, so if I remember right, I never put the Reiff cylinder heater bands on, although I still thought it might be a good idea to heat the engine up more evenly then using the Tanis head heater.

I also think I remember having to use those ports in the head because I wanted to use J style engine analyzer thermocouples in both the exhaust and head temps and having to covert to the heater washers that go under the sparkplugs, maybe it was the other way around. At that time I remember thinking I should have used the Rieff system, to start with because I couldn't see any difference in the oil pan heater.

I just had another thought was that port I used for the J type thermocouple on the engine analyzer, the port for fuel injection? If so you would need to use the K style thermocouple under the spark plug for the engine analyzer head temp, so it might be better to use the Reiff heater system, so if you ever wanted to convert to to the H-295B fuel injection you would have the injector ports open for what they are intended.

I also seem to remember neeeding a 20 amp extension cord because the 15 amp cord was melting grooves in the Ice and adding the Rieff heaters might have required a second extension cord, but if you removed the Tanis head heaters and replaced them with Reiff cyclinder heater bands maybe not.

All of that was 25 years ago.

[airshiptv]

We’ve used the oil pan heaters for years.  With a good cover they get oil temp off the peg and if heated overnight warm up the block and cylinders. Seems to work well into the low teens.  Haven’t been in sub zero so I can’t comment on those temps.