Cylinder Head Temperature CHT Guage
Westach makes a number of real groovy
airplane instruments. One of them uses a thermocouple ring around a spark plug
to measure the temperature of the cylinder head (CHT). They have a variety of
styles available. I was looking at the 2inch gauge with the bullet shaped enclosure
and pipe frame mount. I think it cost under a hundred bucks.
I read about these things while reading up on ultralight aircraft. Apparently, typical
twin cylinder 2-stroke air cooled snow-mobile (ski-doo to our Canadian friends) engine
has a tendency to 'cold-seize' under certain sets of circumstance. For example, imagine
flying your ultralight at cruising altitude for some time, then reducing throttle to slowly go
down as you near the runway, then hit the gas for a powered landing and oops---cold
seizure. The piston temperature got out of whack with the cylinder temperature.
So airplane people like to know what their head temp is. They also like to know what
their Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) is with a simliar set up. In fact, we can buy
dual EGT/CHT guages from Westach.
Would something like this be practical and useful?
What say you?
