Engine Dehydration

Hints for building an engine dehydration solution

• VAF Discussion
• YouTube Video of making a solution
• 3D-printed oil plug adapter
• another 3D-printed oil plug adapter, CAD source
• Dave Barker's DIY desiccant based instructions

Fully automatic Dehydration

• Drybot
  See also BuildFlyGo's Video
• Black Max Engine Saver
  Black Max Hints

Accessories

• Inline Humidity Measurement
  • Hygrometer
  • Container for Hygrometer
  • 3/16” Thru-Bulkhead Plastic Hose Barb Fittings
  • 5/32" Silicone tube
    
• Commercial temperature / humidity sensors
  • Lascar
• BuildFlyGo's Temperature / Humidity Logging Project
  
  This project allows logging temperature and humidity at four places. The data is sent via Wifi to a site that allows viewing the data as graphs remotely.
  YouTube Video
  Live Day Graph
  Live Weekly Graph
• Martin's Temperature / Humidity Logging Project
  
  This project allows logging temperature and humidity at two places plus the temperature of the engine dryer's Peltier element. The data along with the time is written to a .csv file on an SD-card. The temperature is +/- 0.4C, the humidity is +/- 3%. The microprocessor does have Wifi on board but the software isn't making anything available online right now.
  The microprocessor uses the standard I2C port for one of the sensors and the realtime clock. A secondary I2C port is used for the second sensor. The standard SPI port is used internally by the display. A secondary SPI port is used to talk to the SD-card. The split allows faster communication. The microprocessor's pins in use are therefore: 2 pins for power, 2 pins each for I2C 1 and 2, and 4 pins for SPI2. Additionally, analog input A6 is used for the Peltier temperature sensor (Im61).
  • Microprocessor ESP32-S2 Feather with TFT
  • SD-Card / Realtime clock
  • CR1220 Coin Battery for clock (hard to get locally)
  • Si7021 Temperature / Humidity Sensor
  • Schematic V3 (pdf)
  • Software
• Desiccant Plugs
  • Spruce Desiccant Plugs (change desiccant to orange type before use)
  • Desiccant, white with orange indicator beads (blue desiccant is very poisonous)
  • 18mm die (Plastic threads of Spruce desiccant plugs are not conformant, makes it very hard to screw into engine, this die allows fixing the threads)
  • Toaster Oven for drying desiccant ($30, works great on lowest temperature setting, however only a 15 min timer, needs to be jammed to stop turning)