Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0

Soob coolant manifold


3 posts in this topic

Posted (edited)

Hi all,

Well last week my buddy and I were going to make a flight over to a nearby airport, land and return. All was good until about 40 minutes into the flight. I noticed the coolant temp was a little warm, 200ish. I have a valve inline to radiator that can be adjusted for more or less cooling. The guy I bought plane from cautioned me about opening too much because temp never gets into the normal range. Anyway it was in the same position of last flight, difference was that flight didn't involve such a long sustained climb. Early morning takeoff and outside air was about 75 when things got interesting. Temp started climbing slowly past 210 so we set it down on dirt road on a ranch. Opened valve a bit (can't reach it in flight) but decided to pull top cowl just to make sure. I was tugging and poking around and found I could cause a copper elbow on the "manifold" to leak a bit. I gave it a pretty good tug and it came out! Looked like solder let go. So what was supposed to be a nice quick back in hangar by noon turned into an adventure involving trailer and not back to hangar until 1am.

My question is there a better setup for the EA81 coolant lines and fittings that someone has built? I'm thinking rebuild "manifold" with welded aluminum hard fittings and blue silicone hoses. The current system has an inline stat so not sure why the inline valve to control temp was needed? I'm also considering upgrading radiator to a new aluminum one but that will make for better cooling which seems to be the issue and need for the valve, too much cooling now? Also considering the "Thermal Bob" inline some are running.

Thanks for the input if you have any. I'm just glad we had a road to set down on before it got too hot. I'll attach some pics later.

Thanks

107865258_3507506179260594_9176807071157.jpg

110302901_3507495482594997_6300139242645.jpg

109779880_3507506535927225_2080979080970.jpg

Edited by Elkonastick
Typo

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

I am not sure what you have on your Soob; I ran a Stratus EA81 for over 650 hrs and it was absolutely reliable.  I used a BMW inline thermostat from a BMW 2002 that you can buy at most parts stores and didn't run any other valves on it.  I also ran dual aluminum radiators in the nose and never had any cooling issues but I would partially tape them off in the winter to keep the temps up.  I ran It down to temps of -20 degrees F.  I had several soldered copper fitting in my systems and none ever failed, so It looks like your failed fitting must have bee due to a poor solder job.  Attached a few pictures of my setup.  Let me know if I can help in any way.

Glad you were able to set it down with no damage to you or the plane; great job!

Randy

DSCN0542-1.jpg

DSCN0544-1.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

Hi Randy,

Same setup, Stratus EA81 but mine has the belly radiator. I took the complete cooling system off today. I'll have the copper fitting resoldered and thinking I'll replace all the hoses with the blue silicone and probably replace the old radiator with a new aluminum one from Williams. Thanks for the tip on the BMW inline stat. It has a Stant inline thermostat now with the bypass built into it, looks like a 180 degree. After taking it all off there were a few weak spots I found, mostly soft spots in hoses ends near clamps.

Thanks again

Darin

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0