Frank T Caruso with his Highlander with Jabiru 3300 LCH conversion.
From: Frank T Caruso [mailto:caruso.ft@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 17 April 2012 5:08 AM
To: rotecadmin@bigpond.com
Subject: Rotec Aerosport InquiryI just wanted to update you with regard to what I believe is the first Rotec Liquid Cooled Heads on a USA Jabiru engined aircraft. Although my heads arrived mid-2011, because of a backlog of kit production at the Just Aircraft Co. (the people who designed and helped build my Highlander), the retrofit was not actually started by them until the end of the year. I finally picked up my light sport airplane in early February and have now had the opportunity to do 25 hours of flying with it. And, yes, I have seen an average of 100 degrees shaved off of the cylinder head operating temperatures. Although we are still in our “winter” season here in South Florida (daytime temps are in the mid to upper 80’s F) my head temps range between a low of 225 F and a high of 268 F. with about 240 being the average. I have never been even close to 300 deg. F, yet before the change out to the LCH’s, 330’s were the normal average. My oil temperature has also dropped by about 25 degrees, now remaining 175-180 F. During our upcoming hot summer weather (daytime temps around the 100 deg. F. range) I would expect that I might see a slight increase in these numbers, but right now I am more than happy with the initial results. It is a pleasure making my flights without having to constantly worry about the engine temperatures and so far everything has been working as advertised. I am planning to change my oil this week, (now that I have put 25 hours on the engine) and was wondering if I should do a re-check of the torque of the cylinder head bolts? I know that this is not a required regular procedure but should I do it at least this one time since my annual inspection won’t be until next January?
Thanks for making my flying so much more enjoyable and worry free.
Frank T Caruso
N122ET
