The first thing I did this building session was remove the prop governor base and remove the studs and replace them with longer studs. The new hartzell governor needed longer studs than the old one that came with the engine. I had the right studs that I had taken out of the Superior Sump so I used them.
I then installed the prop cable and then installed the governor to the base. Torqued everything after adjusting the travel. I spent 1295 for the governor but the old one just wasn't going to fit in the short recess. I saved a couple of pounds with the new one.
I found a injector line with a cracked nut on one end so I just ordered and installed all new injector lines. I moved the fuel divider to the right side of the engine after reworking the mount.
I installed the red cube on the firewall and installed all the fuel lines. At first I had decided to mount the red cube between the servo and spider but decided later to put it on the firewall as many others have done. There is less heat there and certainly less vibration.
Next, I installed the throttle and mixture cables on the panel and support bracket on the sub panel.
I installed the fuel servo and throttle linkage.
Then the mixture linkage. The plans call for the mixture cable to come over the top and utilize the bell crank that vans supplies. This reverses the direction of the mixture so the servo arm has to point up. When I was contemplating this realized the arm would interfere with the starter. After researching what other builders had done, I decided to route the mixture underneath the sump and eliminate the bell crank. The 4-pipe Vetterman exhaust system enabled this as I had no cross over pipes. To make Vans longest mixture cable reach, I had to order a 5" extension from ACS. I wanted to stay with Vans stock cables as they are much cheaper than special order lengths. I am sure these will need to be replaced in the future and it will be much easier and cheaper to utilize Vans stock cables.
To make this all work, I had to build a special throttle/mixture bracket out of mild steel the same thickness as Vans brackets. This bracket had to be bolted to the rear of the sump because of the extensions I used on the mixture and throttle cables.
Here is a clear picture of the throttle and mixture linkage installed. The bracket works good and the throws on both linkages are perfect! Mixture goes from full rich stop to the full lean stop. As you can see here, I have also installed my sniffle valve and oil quick drain. I also installed the fuel pump overflow line using tygon tubing (not pictured).
I ran into a real issue with my exhaust hangars and my heat muffler scat tubing. Finally, I shortened the hangars and ran the 2" scat tubing just above. I flared the end of the hangar tubing so it will not slip. My worry here is in time heat will harden high temp hose used in the hangar so I may have to replace the hose at every annual inspection. After reading on the forums about ways to attach the tubing to the motor mount to prevent rubbing, I decided to try the RTV method. I basically "glued" the tubing to the mount providing a 1/4" gap between the two. I left enough slack to provide plenty of flex in the tubing. The RTV set up and seems to be very strong. Time will tell. The 2-pipe heat muffler leaves no room for adjustment as I want to be able to inspect the weld just in front of the assembly from time to time. Also seen in this picture is my "Anti-Splat" oil separator valve installed on the left inside exhaust pipe and attached to the blue silicone hose. The slop from the separator will hopefully wind up deposited into the exhaust pipe and be burned and not wind up on the belly making a mess. This valve in angled in the pipe so to create negative crankcase pressure. This is claimed to stop oil seeps and even boost engine horsepower. I'll be satisfied if it will keep the belly clean!
I then went to work and installed the starter cable, engine ground, and alternator wiring.Then the Dynon CHT probes and the EGT probes. I will come back after the baffling and cowl is finished and wire these up.
About this time I got a package from the UPS man! This baby put a real dent in my budget! You know when you spend this much on a propeller, it reminds me there is no turning back on this little project! I unpacked it and started reading the 300 or so page owners manual!
I realized, that before I can start the baffles, the cowl must be fitted. For the cowl to be fitted, I need to mount the prop. To mount the prop, first I need to install the spinner bulkhead. Guess what? My project came with a fixed pitch prop spinner kit! I was able to use the bulkhead but will need to order the doubler, front bulkhead, and a new spinner as this one has already been cutout for a fixed pitch prop. I considered patching up the spinner but I will probably just buy the whole spinner kit from Vans. I cut out the rear spinner bulkhead and mounted it on the prop. Then I mounted the prop. I did not torque the prop bolts as I will probably remove the prop to install the baffles and finish wiring up the engine.
After mounting the prop, I filled the engine with 6 quarts of Aeroshell 100, installed the oil filter, removed the top plugs, and loosened the oil pressure fitting at the manifold. It has been about a year since this engine has been run and I wanted to pre oil it now so it would be well lubricated moving the prop around. (Mostly I just wanted to hear it crank and test out all my wiring!) I hit the ACS ignition switch and it cranked beautifully! After about three or four 5 second bursts, the oil pressure line started leaking oil. I torqued it up and cranked it again. The oil pressure jumped to 45 psi on the Skyview. All this time the uninstalled left mag wires were firing like crazy! I dont have a differential compression tester yet so I screwed in the simple tester I use on my Rotax 503 and checked the compression on all the cylinders. They were all around 160-170 psi. I installed the plugs and pulled the engine thru all the cylinders by hand and it has great cold compression. I thought seriously about tearing this engine down but after talking to a A&P mechanic, I decided not to. The engine only had 75 hrs SMOH by a very reputable company with a new cam installed and even though I had a A&P inspect it before I purchased it, I still worry about buying a used engine.
I started playing with the cowl. The previous builder had mounted nut plates on the firewall and drilled the cowl for screws and nut plate attachment on the firewall and horizontally between the cowl halves. The easy way would have been to simply use his nut plate install but the holes in the cowl were drilled and I didnt have the needed 1/4" gape between the cowl font and spinner bulkhead. I could have glassed in the holes and drilled new ones but that would have been to easy. I struggled several days trying to decide how I wanted that cowl mounted. Nut plates, Skybolt, or the Vans method of using hinges. I opened my folder of 300 or so finished RV pictures I have been saving off the internet and for the first time really looked at the cowl installations. The Skybolt or screws looked ok but the clean look of the hinges caught my attention! After looking at the pics several times I realized that I really loved the clean hinge look! I fought it because I knew it was going to be a lot more work. I also new that mounting those hinges on the side of the firewall was going to be a pain with the engine mount already installed but I couldnt get over how nice the clean hinge looks. Funny, I thought one of my best traits was looking and planning ahead but I really goofed on this cowl business! I should have decided this long before I mounted that engine mount. I decided for the hinges everywhere but the bottom. It will be nutplates on the bottom where you don't see them. I drilled out all the rivets on the sides and installed the hinges.
I had to build a bucking bar to rivet the hinges on the lower firewall where the motor mount gets too close to the flange. This was built out of a solid piece of square bar (John Deere scrap) welded to a piece of angle 1/4" thick then ground down after many trial fits. The home made bucking has to be inserted between the engine mount and
flange and pulled to set the rivet. It's not easy and I had to drill out
one rivet twice and had to replace it with a oversize shank rivet. I still had to use a cherry max pull rivet on the very bottom hole. No pics of the hinge as I am trying to forget it.
This all looks like a lot of progress but to be truthful, there is a ton of fiberglass work to do on the cowl and I still have to finish the spinner assembly. This will conclude this two week session and on my next days off I will have a lot of farming to do so I will not count on a lot of progress. Overall I am pleased because I have a definite direction for the cowl installation that I have been worrying about in the back of my head for some time. Sometimes making the decision on which way to do something is harder than actually doing it. I always feel a sense of relief when I figure out how something goes together. If you are reading this and have not mounted your engine mount yet, you better plan out how your going to attach that cowl!
Hours 76
Total Hours 927
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