Rotax 912 Preheat System

The Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) industry has been gathering momentum, and most of the LSA models use the Rotax 912. Although it is a good engine, it does not start well in cold weather because the electronic ignition system will not fire unless the starter cranks the engine at 240 rpm or more. In addition, a slow cranking speed can cause kickback, which damages the sprag clutch. The normal cranking speed is 300-350 rpm, but a cold, stiff engine will not crank fast enough, so preheating is mandatory. Our system has proven to be a convenient and inexpensive means to do this, and we have been selling a lot of them.

The system is installed on your engine so all you need to do is plug it in to a wall outlet with an extension cord for a few hours. Overnight is even better. Throw a blanket over the cowling to seal and insulate the engine compartment.

The standard system is 150 watts and includes a 100w HotStrip heater epoxied to the bottom of the crankcase, and a 50w HotBand clamped around the oil tank. A thermostat bonded to the oil tank limits the oil temp to about 150^oF. This system is sufficient for most conditions, but if necessary one or two extra 100w HotStrips can be added to the crankcase at additional cost.

A big advantage of our system is that it is non-invasive. All our parts are installed "on" the engine. Nothing is installed inside the engine, and you do not need to remove any Rotax parts or replace any Rotax parts with our parts. For example, one competitor's system replaces the Rotax intake manifold bolts and a crankcase bolt with their own heated bolts. These are simply hollowed out bolts with heating elements epoxied into the hollowed out core. As a general design philosophy we feel it is safer not to replace parts that were installed by the engine manufacturer, especially critical structural parts like bolts.

SYSTEM WATTS	120 VOLT	220 VOLT
150	$214	$267.50
250	$329	$411.25
350	$444	$555.00