All but there to 1,800 hours. One of my initial estimates for completion ha!
The muffler is finally back. They screwed it up the first time round - got the angle of the end pipe all wrong. All sorted now, I'm happier with the quality of the welding here as it was TIG rather than MIG and done by another company.
After a bit of swearing and frustration I found that I needed to take the ECU cover off to get the engine cable attached. Just not enough room for my fat fingers when the cover is on to get in there and do it up.
Onto the oil hoses.
There are 9 to do in total. I did 5 on the Saturday and then the remaining 4 on Sunday. I ran out of firesleeve so I've ordered some more and a set of aviation snips to cut out the baffles for the cylinder cooling.
With the firesleeve - I follow Pete's practice of putting heatshrink on each end to seal the interior of the sleeve. If you don't do this the interior will suck up any oil or dirt and get contaminated.
Luckily my oil cooler mod has not presented any problems with the hoses coming form the firewall to the oil filter - they all fit okay and clear the muffler by miles.
I've made a start on one of the cylinder cooling baffles. Going very slow here to the get the right shape. Will wait till the snips arrive before completing this job.
I will be making a sealed plenum, with a carbon top to these, rather than using the useless sealing baffles that is the traditional way. I have read a NASA study that found that sealing baffles are hopelessly inefficient - even on a brand new certified Piper they found losses of 55%. A proper sealed plenum increases efficiency and keeps a big difference in pressures which is how a pressure cowl works in the first place. High pressure above the cylinders and low pressure everywhere else. You have to be fussy about making the two areas completely air tight from one another otherwise the air will take the easy route and raise the pressure in the lower part destroying efficiency.
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| Muffler back from the welders. They got the angle spot on. |
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| ECU all sorted now with both plugs in. P-clip to secure and protect them. |
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| These two oil hoses were a fiddle. Access is very limited so I took off the air filter while I did this job. |
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| As you can see things get intimate here with the alternator gear close by. |
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| Oil lines on starboard side. |
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| Ditto |
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| Port side - didn't like the 90 degree hose fitting at right so... |
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| I changed it to a 120 degrees. Much better now with good clearance to the muffler. Firesleeve to come on those 2 hoses and we're done. |
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| Oil cooler lines coming off the firewall. |
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| Another view of clearance over the muffler. |
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| Front view. |
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| Side view. |
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| And finally the mod oil line from the oil/air separator to the exhaust (to be burnt up). |
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| Trying out the port cooling baffle. |
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| Rough cut to size. |
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