Ive had an Engine Saver for my Cirrus SR-22 for about 2 years. I havent run any tests but I do keep it connected to my engine all the time. I have an Air Wolf Air/Oil separator so I cant use the breather tube on the bottom of the engine since it is disconnected. Instead, I pull out the oil dipstick and insert the tube from the Engine Saver into the oil fill port, pushing the supplied wider foam rubber grommet past the breather tube inside the oil filler. Seems to work well with the only downside being that I have to wait for the engine to cool so it wont melt the foam rubber grommet.

Excellent Service

I purchased this unit for my 182S Skylane. Living on the coast in NE obviously is a humid climate so I really needed to do something for my engine. Not everything fit (i.e., the wand for the oil breather tube - because the breather tube has two cut outs about 1 up from the exit port, in case of ice clogging it). With a 3 long piece of 1/2 flexible clear plastic tubing attached to the wand, and sticking it up about 2 ft into the oil breather tube, seemed to work well. But now I wanted to know exactly how the desiccant unit actually was doing!. So for $20 I bought on-line a humidity monitor (AcuRite 00611A3 Wireless Indoor/Outdoor Thermometer and Humidity Sensor) and rigged up a water bottle (to hold the outside temp/humid sensor inside) to the oil fill port - dip stick hole. Damn! The gizmo actually works. if the temp is 55 degrees, 45% humidity, the unit will drop it down to 19% humidity. Sooooo...the unit works and I feel confident the camshaft and other internal parts in this Lyc IO-540 are dry.

The Cardinal flyers recently reviewed engine dehydrators and data derived from humidity data loggers. Individuals ran tests using dehydrators that circulated ambient air thru a dehydrator, into an engine and out a vent. Others created a closed loop, recirculating air from the crankcase vent to the oil fill tube, which achieved RH as low as 5%. Others compared the effect of humidity on high-carbon steel strips cooked in various engine oils and corrosion inhibitors along with untreated steel. At 5% RH none of the strips corroded, including the bare steel. Visible corrosion began to appear at 15% RH and rapidly took over at 30% RH and above. Strips treated with various corrosion inhibitors and oils delayed corrosion with time, but none prevented it. The bottom line is that recirculating air thru a dessicant produces the driest air inside the engine, and the drier the air, the less things corrode. All corrosion inhibitors and oils fail with time because they drain off or oxidize.

I have not yet used the Engine Saver on my engine. I decided to test it first. I ran the device for three days in a 60% humidity environment. I placed the outlet tube (which is designed to be placed in the engine breather tube ) in a sealed plastic garbage bag. The low pressure air ultimately inflated the bag as would be expected. Inside the bag I had placed a remote wireless hydrometer so that I could get a readout on the humidity levels inside the bag. Over the course of 2 days the humidity was reduced to 24%. After 2.5-3 days humidity was reduced to 16%. I ran the Engine Saver in this configuration with the inflated bag for a fourth day. The humidity level stabilized at 16%. I would say It works!. This should be a marked improvement over letting my aircrafts engine sit cold-soaked in a humid environment. Now to try it on the engine. I give the Engine Saver a tentative 4 stars for now awaiting a real world test.

The instructions dont have any pictures, and even though it came mostly assembled, I had some confusion reading them. I had to go to the Aircraft Spruce website to look at the picture of the product, which was only partly helpful since its not shown completely assembled. The motor is supposed to turn on an off automatically based on relative humidity and temperature, to be effective without unnecessarily saturating the desiccant. So far it has been fairly cold and dry where I am. I would think that would make for dry air, but every time Im in the hangar the pump has been running. I do feel much better about the time my aircraft has to be parked. Hopefully this device will extend engine life. Its comparatively cheap insurance if it helps.

Easy and complete install time will tell on the performance. My airplane is in a very moist environment.

I was encouraged by the other reviews which tested the output and confirmed that it really blows dry air, so I did not try to prove that to myself. The device has a bit of a home-made feel to it, and seems a bit expensive for what it is, but if it really reduces the likelihood of corrosion, its well worth it to me. The instructions are a little amateurish and an illustration would help. Connecting the hard clear nylon tube to the soft clear plastic tube by just forcing one inside the other seems a bit clunky compared with the other hose connections, but that appears to be whats intended. Overall, I hope the next version is slightly more professional, but if this one works as intended, Im happy.

So far Im not impressed. It looks rather home made. Ill know better in 1000 hours.

Ive had the engine saver for about 18 months. It works very well. I use it as advertised, sending the dry air up the breather tube. With fresh desiccant, relative humidity will drop to 30% or less which is great. A key issue is to make sure the foam rings which surround the tubing and create a snug seal with the breather tube are inserted past the ice hole. Otherwise you are not pumping dry air into the engine - your dry air will leak out the ice hole otherwise. One question is how to replace those foam rings? They get chewed up from the ice hole and Im now at a point where I need to replace them.