Great deduction on the air in the system, liked the clear tubing to verify problem, sweet! . Would look into a little bigger heat exchanger or dual exchanger to keep the oil temps down.
I think your right about maybe adding an oil cooler. Maybe a small one, although you may need to cut another hole in your cowl. That way you can keep up with the Flying Cowboys over in the desert. You can hang the cooler in front of the coolant radiator.
Great progress! I believe you will have the air problem solved with your upcoming coolant pressure tank and surge tank modification. 20 year automotive professional here, lots of small engine experience too. Including your Yamaha powerplant. I love the videos. I'm a newer private pilot. Experimental bush flying in my future I hope. Cheers from Sacramento!
Get yourself a vacuum coolant fill kit. It's a life saver the eliminates the need to bleed and burp the system. I've got a Subaru powered RV7 at Yolo and I've spent many hours cursing air bubbles till I used the vacuum kit.
Love the video. The really help a lot of people who are considering an apec build. A lot of people in general. You really did an amazing job on your aircraft. What a treasure you have. Thanks again. I really look forward to your videos and learn so much.
Why wouldn’t you run the bleeder line to the coolant expansion tank like many modern engines. This allows the engine to constantly bleed air if needed.
If you did it this way, you wouldn't have to do anything besides weld a fitting to the expansion tank, change nothing else besides connecting the bleeder to the expansion tank. PROBLEM SOLVED. There is a reason this method is now standard on nearly every water-cooled engine.
go for it --- I have never regretted the last 30 years of flying. if you are young and not independently wealthy a recommendation is put the money you think it will cost in a new bank account, continue to feed it and only use it for aviation. I had to start and stop a couple times due to time/ money equation -- never having enough of both at the same time. Good luck
Watching you for a while build this, 💘. Awesome. I'm gonna throw a dart at this temp "issue". New engine. Tight Tolerances on a lot of parts bottom & top end. IMO, I think after 50 or so hours break in, the friction will be less as the machine parts smooth and settle. Maybe someone with more experience than my E2-C Hawkeye mechanic in the Navy could chime in. Congrats on those stall numbers. Steve Henry I'm sure is watching you.
Good to hear you have solved the cooling temp issue. That is a satisfying feeling. Thanks for sharing the details of your efforts. Enjoy flying your new aircraft.
Believe Indy car expansion tanks, (not sure if oil or air) use a round tank and spiral the fluid to help remove the air. So the inlet and outlet need to be configured to flow coolant around the side wall of tank...just an idea .
It's got a short ground roll that's for sure! Wondering, wouldn't you want to run coolant through the throttle body heating passages for icing conditions though?
congrats on the successful diagnosis and fix. interested in results with new expansion tank and possibly oranges/oranges prop pitch comparison. for some reason your video had me googling "merits of an air-cooled engine". (ha).
very cool great diagnostics your almost there its been a hard journey for you but hard work and determination got you there congats sir its a great airplane!!!!!
It’s got a totally different sound then before I think??? Is that possible????engine is quiet but higher pitched…. so that a different prop also?? I need to finish listening to whole video lol you prob fixed it all already! You have good mechanical sense obviously! Do I sorry forgot to earlier comments:-) just hope you get her going so u can enjoy her you did a beautiful job such a good looking bushplane plane Taildragger…. Lol
Nice job finding the issue and confirming it before flight. I agree with your assessment on possibly needing an aux oil cooler. The engine mounted units have limited capacity for sure.
Does the cooling system not function like an automotive one? If it does then you would want the tank with the radiator cap to be full. When the coolant expands it should push into the plastic tank and the as it cools off it should draw the coolant back into the system.
Sort of, the tank is an expansion tank so it is designed to be filled about a 1/4 full leaving room for the coolant expansion. I’m sure there is a formal for the volume of coolant in the system and the volume need to allow expansion.
Actually you may have started a new trend clear lines for your coolant so you can see how cool it looks if it’s got air in it and it’s got a new color to it looks pretty cool if you can get a higher rating of heat I would look cool
Now that you have this awesome STOL aircraft, you really need a fast, efficient, capable cross country machine. I suggest an Arion Lighting or maybe a Skystar Pulsar III like mine. Choose to motivate it with another Apex from the lessons learned here. I'll be following along to see how to improve mine 😎
Your problem with the air being trapped at the high point this is a typical problem with hot water heating systems. In the trades we use a automatic air vent mounted on the top of the run of a tee taking the outlet out of the bullhead of the tee back to the radiator or tank. The air vent can be hooked up to the vent tank.
If you put a tube in the overflow tank that extends to bottom it will act as an expansion tank. So as it cools coolant will be drawn back into the system. A tube that extends from the bottom of the cap. If that makes sense.
Another great video been following since the beginning. Have you looked into Evans waterless coolant. There is next to no expansion since there is no water. Been running it in several cars with no issues. Pretty sure Viking is using it also in their Honda conversion engines.
Because of the lack of water, Evans has a lower ability to transfer heat than glycol/water coolant. Also, the two types are incompatible and the system would require a *very* thorough flush to change between them.
Awesome to see you're getting the little bugs worked out. Bound to be a couple with such a new installation, but you're doing a great job troubleshooting and finding solutions. Question: what size iPad are you using, and which mount did you install? I like that setup. Might want to use it in my Series 5. Thanks!
Considering your boot cowl fastener dilemna. Have you thought about Hysol'ing a nutplate onto the backside of your tubing? Also, how's the airflow over your oil cooler?
66 degrees is winter temps in Redding. It cant only get hotter 115 is not unusual. In other words if you are having temperatures problems now , it could get worse...
Top Rivnut could you not dremel a circular portion that would allow for the crimp of the rivnut and then the windshield would be flush/flat to the frame?
Hey Brian been watching all you videos and wow learning a lot you have experience and flew a Kitfox before when u went to Idaho did you sell that plane and built new one??! Also hope your getting everything figured out on your apex I’ve been getting my flight hours in a piper Cherokee but would love to get your advice on quite a few things I want to build a 7 series Kitfox but I like the turbo Honda from Viking now you and Mike Patey are some of the people are best suited that I know of! I know there is prob more!! But But can you give me any advice on what would you do about Engines I know you got the Apex Yamaha I have a good mechanical background etc. I do a lot of things in my life military paramedic etc. just trying to get some ideas and some comments from people who have that experience what would you recommend as far as planes have a tail dragger and engines and cloth and kind of everything if you have a time you don’t mind thank you Brian appreciate it!! Sincerely Ray Love your group StolRats……:-)
I did sell the old Kitfox. I’ll be able to share the experience with the APEX as I continue the phase 1 testing. It is too early to recommend it, but it has impressive performance.
@@BowenAero I was thinking about the Viking 195 turbo engine I’m not sure about the weight center of gravity do you know anything about that and kudos to you and glad things are going great with your engine move watching all the details that helps a lot thank you very much
Never could understand the sense of coolant oil coolers. If your engine temp rises for some reason it will exacerbate your oil temp problem so you lose both ways.
Hi Brian, I fly a Mazda 13B engine in my Wag-Aero 2+2 and use an expansion tank similar to yours. You're right about that Tank needing space at the top. I use my expansion tank to remove air from the cooling system automatically. That hose you use for a bleeder can be connected to your NEW Expansion Tank but put a restrictor in it about 1/8" max and connect the line to the bottom of your Expansion Tank. Any air trapped in the top of you engine will now find its way to the highest point - which will be the air gap at the top of the Expansion Tank. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fozMJo_bXlE.html
@@BowenAero We are putting one into a wag-a-bond and after seeing your video instead of replacing the tail light we thought we'd put it inside where it's less likely to be damaged. I could just see someone running into it, maybe they should make it like the old hood ornaments spring loaded so it doesn't get broke if you bump into it. ...anyway great video, it'll be helpful to others too I'm sure.
Is there a way to contact you. I found a series 5 kit forsale. Its your fault you published these video hahaha that i would even look at a kitfox. I need some opinions.
Personally I always fill my cooling system using an Airlift or other similar vacuum fill system to avoid trapped air. Also, may be a good piece of mind to check for exhaust gasses in you coolant.
I think it was head gasket or exhaust leak either have a vacuum or milky oil problem If heads don’t know a tough one! But I thankI think he’ll figure it out eventually between everybody, using their own thoughts and the bars and everything off everybody else I think will come to some kind of conclusion!!! Let’s hope Wrote what about the other guy who runs the Apex engine what does he do
@@BowenAero is it automotive oil or powersport oil? Automotive oil foams at that high of RPM and will hold heat. I'd try AMSOIL metric powersport oil. See if that helps any.
Regarding the rivnut / windshield interference issue, do you have enough room for a press-in / clinch nut like www.biscoind.com/pem-pennengineering-sp-632-0/p?idsku=8895544&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyYaw6e-78AIVVRitBh14Rw1WEAQYAyABEgI3evD_BwE. I recognize these may not be an acceptable airframe bit of hardware.
This engine setup seems very complex, with the need for a reduction gearbox, and sophisticated liquid cooling system, a high revving engine to achieve more power. all leads to premature failure. Sorry to be critical, but I do not see the advantages of this engine over air cooled in terms of longevity and reliability.
Lighter weight and more powerful. It’s all a trade off. I had a Lycoming on my previous Kitfox and found the weight and lack of power was limiting. It’s experimental so might as well experiment.
I get what you’re saying. I’m an A&P and am used to conventional direct drive air cooled engines BUT... Look at Rotax, by running half as big an engine faster and turning the prop slower they make much better STOL performance. The engine can be designed to turn up to that rpm and the reduction gears haven’t proved to be a weak link. A 100 hp Continental on a Kitfox makes it wimpy vs a Rotax.
@@BowenAero Brian, I have nothing but respect for your amazing build of this Kitfox, and have watched every episode keenly. I liked the comment ' Its experimental so might as well experiment" Good point!
Please move your content to Rumble I've had enough and I am deleting my RU-vid account due to RU-vid silencing those who do not support leftist, anarchists’ and Biden voters. Please put your great channel on Rumble where the 1st Amendment is honoured and I can still watch your excellent content.
