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The Boo

Engine/Prop 2

8/31/04 Wanted to get some of the stuff on the motor tonight like the exhaust.  It makes sense to place the permanent items like the exhaust on the engine early because everything else will have to route around those immoveable objects.  Well we tried and tried but the damn things just would not fit, not even close.  Called the manufacturer and confirmed that these are not the proper exhaust.  Further inspection revealed that Vans had sent me the exhaust for an Angle Valve 200 hp engine!  Crap.

Ok, lets keep busy.  How about checking out the engine baffling.  Guess what, No fricken go here either.  Again, baffling for an Angle Valve engine.  Jeese, come on Vans.  I guess it's my fault for not taking inventory but that would not have stopped them from screwing up my order in the first place...would it.

Ok, do something on this plane.  How about mounting the oil lines.  Ok, easy, done.  How about the fuel pump to intake line.  Again, it doesn't fit.  Doesn't Vans know what I ordered?  It fits in backwards but it's rubbing pretty hard on the engine mount.  I wonder if I bond the two together real good here...  The issue is that this line has a 90 degree fitting on it.  Here it's ass-backwards but it fits a hell of a lot better this way.  Unfortunately, this is exactly where the exhaust will run.

No real progress.  In fact I'm going in reverse.

9/5/04 Ran fire sleeve over all control cables and placed the one hole eyeball firewall pass-through in the firewall.  I haven't safety wired the fire sleeve yet.  This is the prop governor cable on the right, bending to the left and the mixture on the left.

Here's a shot of the throttle cable and the cable mount, safety wired into place.

Couple of shots of the mixture bracket Vans supplies.  It fits pretty well and I am able to get full travel and the mixture control knob in the cabin is about 1/8" from the panel when it's full in.  Some of the castle nuts are not tightened yet.

I *think* I'll be able to get the oil breather vent line on here, once it gets here.  It wasn't in the kit and I don't want the hassle of calling Vans, so I just ordered another elbow.  I suppose I could have gone to Pep Boys and got one, oh well.  It's just easier to order on the web.

Cabin heat line is mounted.  This is the business end.

Shot of the controls in place and the mounting of the control lines on the sub-panel.  Since my panel is 2 inches deeper there is a considerable amount of upturn to the lines.  But they still operate smoothly.

Combined all the shielding of the Whelen cables onto a local ground.  I'm not too happy with this and I may change the way it's all connected.  Looks cheesy.

I plan on routing a considerable amount of my wires using these Click-Bond wire-tie holders.  They work great, weigh practically nothing and seem very durable.  I'm not using the glue which comes with the connectors.  I'm using some stuff called E6000 Industrial Strength Craft Adhesive.  It's the same stuff Bob Knuckolls sends whey you purchase his glue-on screw tabs.  I've not been able to remove one of these things yet.  I have them all over the airplane.

9/7/04 My replacement exhaust and baffling came from Vans today, so why not mount it?  I figure that you should get the permanent, non-moveable parts on the engine first before running wires etc.  The exhaust went on without a hitch this time.  Unfortunately some of the nuts on each cylinder are very hard to reach.  I was able to get a wrench and even the torque wrench on all of them with some adaptors.  Here's a shot of the exhaust just finger tightened.

And a shot of the tougher nuts to reach

There is a clearance issue with the exhaust and the throttle cable.  I'll have to place a heat shield here.

A shot of attawayair.com stainless wheel pant brackets.  These are so much stronger than the aluminum ones Vans sells.  I'm really pleased with these.  I'll mount them tomorrow.  And here's a shot of the bent one that we had a slight mishap with.

Final thing for the night was to install the CHT probes.  I purchased some anti-seize from Pep Boys tonight and installed the receptors into the cylinder heads with a liberal coating.  I also did this with the exhaust when I torque them up as well.

Well I'm already having Pops withdrawal.  Dad left on Saturday, bummer.  I really could have used his help tonight.  I had to do a test fit of the canopy with the rear window.  David stopped by to help, but it's not the same thing as having Dad around.  On top of that, there's some dirty laundry and dirty dishes in the sink (the laundry is not in the sink).  That would never happen if Pops were here.  Fortunately he and Mom will be back in January when my cousin from France, her husband and child come for a couple of weeks.  I'm really looking forward to that.  Thanks Pops for all your help the past month!  I can't say how much I love you and mom.

9/9/04 EGT probes installed.  I have them one inch down from the flange on the exhaust.  I've read lately that 2 to 3 inches is better.  I guess the only drawback is a burned out probe a bit faster than usual.  We'll see...  The holes were drilled with a #30 bit.

9/12/04 Received my expensive order for a 60 and 20 amp externally regulated alternators from B&C.  Geesh these are expensive.  I hope I never have to replace them.

I temporarily fit the 60 amp alternator to check it's fit with the supplied belt.  It's perfect.

9/14/04 If I had one word to describe how hard it is to install the last bolt on the stand-by 20 amp B&C alternator it would not be fit for print.  I spent 4 hours trying to get the last nut on.  I finally decided that new tools had to be made for this installation.

You can't get a hand under the alternator to get the bolt closest to the Oil filter and on the bottom.  It's really really really really really a pain in the Ass.  I hope that for as long as I own this airplane that I never never never never never never ever have to take this off.  If I do, then I will let a certified A&P have his day and I will gladly pay him whatever he chooses to ask in the form of payment.  I am glad this is over.

10/23/04 I finally got the brass Tees I ordered from McMasterCarr.  I'm using these to plumb the manifold pressure tubing.  I need to tee off the line for the LASAR ignition and for the EIS4000 manifold pressure sender.  Trouble is that the LASAR is on the forward side of the firewall and the EIS mp sender is on the cabin side of the firewall.  So I ran the line with a restrictor fitting off the port on cylinder 3.  The fitting on the cylinder is a hose barb fitting.  Ran that a bit to the engine mount then placed the brass tee, again hose barb fittings.  One side of the tee goes to the barb fitting on the LASAR box and the other goes to a barb fitting on the firewall.  All the barb fittings are 1/4".

10/28/04 Well I'm still waiting on electrical supplies so nothing to do but mount the prop!  What's nice about this prop is that you don't need a hoist for it.  It's light as a feather compared to the Hartzell.  A true one man job.  But tightening 6 bolts 1/8 of a turn at a time is a drag.  I'm putting this on now because the next job is the cowling.  Finally, almost done with the wiring.

11/6/04

Since I'm still 6 months away (just guessing, it could be next Wednesday) I want to preserve the engine as best as I can.  It's been sitting here for 5 months :(.  Here's what I bought.  I intend to spray it as best as I can in each top spark plug hole, oil filler and oil filter.

I also bought this from some gardening store to spray it into the engine.  The sprayer end was bent at a 30 degree angle so I straightened it so I could spray down the oil filler tube.

I bought four of these little suckers to suck any moisture out of the cylinders.  They turn pink when they've absorbed any moisture.  You simply bake them in the oven to evaporate the moisture and return them in place on the engine afterwards.

3/13/05 I have already mounted the exhaust hangers but really did not take any good pictures of how they are installed.  I've been asked by some folks for examples of how they are installed so here you go, pictures a la mode.

View looking from the right side of the plane, how they are attached to the exhausts and each other.

How the hangers are attached to the engine.

Left side.

 

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Last updated: 07/06/05.