Why preheat your aircraft engine?

Go here for Magazine Articles about preheating

• Preheating can save you big money by reducing the damage caused by cold starts, by extending your engine's life and reducing your expense at overhaul time.  If you extend the life of your $20-30,000 engine just 10% our system will have paid for itself several times.

But of course, we're biased. So don't take our word for it...look what some experts have to say:

Al Beech, Director of Engineering Service Programs, Teledyne Continental Motors:

"Significant engine wear can occur at startup, because the oil circulation system has not had a chance to pump oil to the engine parts. The thicker the oil, the longer this will take, resulting in less oil on running surfaces during the startup sequence. Preheating during extremely cold temperatures is one of those "ounces of prevention" that can keep cold starts from damaging your engine. Cold temperatures not only slow the initial movement of the oil but the differential thermal expansion of engine materials (aluminum and steel) decreases engine clearances, creating the potential for more accelerated wear during cold startups." <From American Bonanza Society Magazine, Nov. 1997>

Ben Visser, Staff Research Engineer, Shell Oil:

"Preheating your engine makes a world of difference. It heats the oil so the oil is thin enough to flow through the engine and properly lubricate all of the critical wear surfaces. Preheating also heats the metal parts in the engine. That's important because aluminum crankcases have a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than iron crankshafts. This means as your engine cools down, the clearance is reduced. And as a result, you may not have sufficient oil film thickness for proper hydrodynamic lubrication at very cold temperatures. In other words, the wear rate is going up. If you're using [an electric] heater, make sure it's a system that heats the whole engine, not just the oil." <From Shell Oil advertisement>

Harold Tucker, Director of Technical Information and Training, ConocoPhillips Commercial Lubricants:

"It is generally accepted that a cold startup is considered to be anything below 60 F. However, an engine at rest is always cold relative to its normal operating temperatures; therefore, the oil is also thick relative to its designed operating viscosity." <From Aircraft Maintenance Technology magazine, Sept 2008>

• Lycoming and Continental Operator's Manuals mandate preheating at cold temperatures: "WARNING - Failure to properly pre-heat a cold-soaked engine could result in oil congealing within the engine, oil hoses and oil cooler with subsequent loss of oil pressure, possible internal damage to the engine and subsequent engine failure." (from Continental IO-550 manual).  Operation contrary to their instructions may also void the warranty. 

• Increased safety.  Cold starting and inadequate preheating can and has caused in-flight engine failures!

• Often preheating is the only way to get a cold engine started, because cold engines are stiff, cold fuel doesn't vaporize well, and spark plugs frost.

• Easier starting saves your starter and battery.

• Reduces costly warm-up and run-up time, which wastes your engine and fuel.

• Increased utility of your airplane during cold winter months. You don't have to put your expensive airplane into hibernation during the winter. An easy to use, effective engine heater allows you to enjoy winter flying.

"Why won't this @$#! thing start... I should have installed a Reiff Preheat System!!"

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Last updated 1/9/09