2-stroke? Keep doing that and you’ll either cold seize the engine or gall the barrels. Lord knows I’ve done that a few times, but in general comparing a 2-stroke to an aircraft engine is apples and oranges. My 4-stroke sled? Preheat is required any time it gets near or below zero F. With 0-30 oil it isn’t resistance to spinning, its how cold cylinders don’t like to fire with available fuel. That that’s the same as with airplanes. Cold temps require a lot of gas. Frosting plugs is common. I’ve got lots of sled experience down to -50F. Riding in those temps isn’t fun. Breaking down is less fun.
4 stroke.
Actually as mentioned above, turbocharged 3 cylinder 4 stroke. I have had a lot of cars, pickups, planes, motorbikes, snowmobiles, and more, have yet to see an engine problem with any of them. The only engine failure I personally have had, was a used lawnmower I bought when 18 years old from a garage sale. About a decade after buying it the motor quit, and I instantly knew why, since I was mowing a really rough area of the yard and it hit a pile of dirt. I took the the cover off, and got to the flywheel, sure enough it had broken the timing key. I made a new key from some scrap aluminum by filing it down to the right size, loosening the flywheel and turning it back until the slots were again lined up, using my homemade key, put it in and put it back together, it fired right up and ran again. It was my rough area mower after I moved to an acreage about 5 years after buying it, and buying a rider for the big lawns. I finally after owning it about 15 years, and remember it was used when I bought it, gave it away to a family down on their luck, and they needed a mower that ran
Most engines are a lot tougher than people give them credit for.
And GA piston engines are an extremely simple design, very low rpm, and low power output for their large cubic inch size. If any engine should live a long happy life its a GA engine. A 520 cubic inch engine in a car or pickup would be making about 2 to 3 times the power, started up cold and just driven away harshly, rarely serviced, no fancy oil changed every 50 hours, asked to spin to 6k plus rpm regularly, and yet it will pile on thousands and thousands of miles, year after year. My motorcycles get started up, idle while i put on my helmet, and off I go, I spin them to 10k or 12k rpm seconds after leaving my driveway, yet years and years later, they run like new. Change the oil twice a year, new spark plugs every 3 years, clean the air filter annually, change tires/chains/sprockets/brakes when worn out. An airplanes gutless for it size, coddled in use engine if that delicate, should be tossed in the garbage and replaced with a better design IMO.
By the way my planes engines all make TBO plus, my current plane is past TBO and flown on condition now, so did everyone I have owned. Yesterday we flew to 100 Mile House, landed, didn't do anything to it except throw on the control lock, and lock the door, then we walked into downtown and had lunch, shopped some, walked back to it, and the temperature was -6C, it had now sat for a few hours, I didn't hesitate to just start it right up, no need for preheating it. I bumped the throttle up to about 1000 rpm so it would warm up quicker, did my checks, at 1500 rpm i did mag checks and cycled the prop twice, radioed traffic and my intent, nothing but silence, i taxied the 100 feet to the runway, again radioed my intention to take off and again silence, so I just fire walled it and gone. I treat this 520 like this every year all year, and it is totally problem free. I don't hand prop it, or even own a cowl cover. You guys are going to have a heart attack due to stress if you keep worrying about nothing.
.
