Friends,
Here is a big chunk of information on Gold oil systems. I have been making these parts for 6 years now, and they are on nearly all of the new flying Corvair powered planes and they have been retrofitted to a large number of engines built before 2006. The information here is a mixture of new comments, but a lot of it is directly off our Flycorvair.com website, which is best understood as our library of Corvair information, while this site, Flycorvair.net, is our newspaper of the Corvair movement. There is a tremendous amount of information on .com, all best accessible through the search box at the bottom of its main page. At Oshkosh this year I actually had a guy complain that there was “too much information” on Flycorvair.com. Yes there are about 1,200 pages of it, and it isn’t perfectly organized, but I think most builders prefer that I publish extensive information rather than less about Corvair flight engines.
The Filter housing, and the optional Sandwich adaptor and HD oil cooler make up the ‘top oil group.’ It serves many more functions than relocating the oil filter. This system is specifically designed to have an oil temperature monitoring port at the place in the engine where oil temperature is highest. Additionally, the oil pressure ports are positioned to measure oil pressure at the lowest pressure in the engine. Having these measurements taken at these locations offers flyers the most accurate information.
Above, several views of the Gold oil filter housing. It can also be clearly seen on the 3,000 cc Corvair photo on the previous post on Intakes.
There are many more pages of information on these housings on our products page on Flycorvair.com at this link:
http://www.flycorvair.com/goldoilsystem.html
For builders who are not yet well versed in the layout of flight engine oil systems, I wrote a long piece on the best 6 possible combinations. I wrote this in 2007, and it is at the link below. It gives a good over view with photos. Looking at the dates shows how long we have been working with Corvairs. I made the prototype Gold housing in 2005, yet in the big picture, this is one of our later developments. These systems are on at least 250 running engines. Old and proven is more important than new and exciting if you are actually planning on flying.
http://www.flycorvair.com/hangar1007.html
Our main mission is teaching people to build engines. An integral part of our system is that I must have some way to monitor from a remote location how well the builder did. Our system for this is elegantly simple. When a builder completes his engine and installs a known propeller such as a Warp Drive, he can perform a full power run-up and tell me what the full static rpm of the engine is and what the oil temperature and pressure is. Because of the standardized propeller, I will know if his engine is correctly assembled and making its full rated power by the RPM that it turns. Additionally, I will be able to tell a lot about the internal health of his engine by knowing the temperature and pressure of the oil. This is only possible if he is taking these temperature and pressure measurements at a standard, known location. This is the true nature of the gold oil filter housing, FlyCorvair.com/goldoilsystem.html, and why I consider it an indispensable part of any engine conversion.
Above, a 3100 cc Corvair I built which we installed on a 750 airframe at a West Coast College in 2009. This engine has a 45 amp alternator sitting where the oil cooler normally goes. We built and flight tested this Charging system on a 601XL in early 2009. It means that the oil cooler must be relocated to the firewall and fed with a scat hose. This has been well proven, but it isn’t where we headed today. This shot clearly shows the Housing and sandwich adaptor in place. There are videos of us getting this aircraft running that day on You Tube.
In the past, many people would call up and offer data like “my oil temperature is 230°”. If this temperature is after the cooler, it’s a bit too high. If this temperature is before the cooler, it’s just fine. In plumbing unique oil systems, many early builders were unsure whether their temperature measurement was before or after the cooler. A lot of erroneous or inapplicable data was tossed around by people running engines and reporting the results on the Internet. The gold oil filter housing with its integrated instrumentation ports has simultaneously eliminated poor data and allowed us to confirm that builders have done an excellent job with their own engine.
Above, the layout that I much prefer: The Cooler mounted on the engine with the alternator up front. This has been shown to work in the hottest environments, and has a clean simple installation, even with a HD oil cooler. 22 amp alternators work on every plane we have tested, modern electronics use no power by comparison to traditional stuff. Braided hoses work great, but we are investigating having CNC robotically bent stainless hard lines made by an aerospace manufacturer. Since the engine and cooler are fixed to each other, hard lines are an option. Dan and I are currently testing the rear alternator seen on the Panther prototype 3,000 cc engine. It will be able to be integrated into the system seen above. We will have it on display at Corvair College #24. The above photo is also a good look at the inside of an Electronic/points distributor. The baffling kits on both of the engines shown are from Jim and Rhonda Weseman at JSWeseman.com.
Additionally, the housing takes a modern, light weight, high quality, replaceable filter that is readily available. The most frequently misunderstood part of the assembly is the unwarranted worry which some builders have that the system will spill oil when it is being changed. The filter we use is a modern design that contains an internal check valve that prevents it from spilling oil as it is spun off. Holding a small rag underneath it while unscrewing it is all that it takes to prevent a mess.
To the tiny minority of potential builders who still have trouble imagining touching an oily rag, I suggest that they await the development of electric aircraft that will not require them to have a single masculine moment in aviation.
We offer two different versions of the gold oil filter housing. The standard version points the filter out over the harmonic balancer. The reverse housing places the oil filter over the top cover of the engine. Either of these systems works with our heavy-duty oil cooling system. Almost all aircraft take the standard housing.
