Thermostatic oil control valve.

[Banbury GC]

At our Gliding Club we use a Eurofox for our towing operation. When we built the aircraft we fitted a thermostatic oil temp. control valve supplied by Conair to keep the oil temp under control during this demanding operation. It has had no effect on control of the temperature and we still have to monitor the temp and control it using the manual flap valve on the oil cooler duct entry. This works well, but its one more thing for the pilot to monitor when he busy enough in a crowded piece of sky. Has anyone had a similar experience and found a solution. I've taken the valve back twice and been assured it in good order.

Also I have found a German company named SILENT HEKTIK that produce a similar valve and their web page shows it fitted to a 912iS engine. Has anyone had any experience of this unit?

[G.Dawes]

I think that may be confused as to the purpose of the thermostatic valve, it is to allow the oil to bypass the oil cooler when it is cold and hence warm up to working temperature faster. IT DOES NOT allow the oil to be cooler, that is the purpose of the oil cooler radiator and if it is too hot then a bigger cooler may be needed, fitting a valve to an engine that gets too hot is wasting your money.