Hung engine
Yee Haw! The engine is mounted. Ok, before we get to that, I did some other stuff too.
I was looking at the fuel hose input into the fuel pump. I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with the straight fitting and hose that are prescribed per the FFW kit. The hose will be tricky to get threaded on straight and will rest pretty tightly up against the accessory case. They aren’t moving in relation to each other, but this just feels like a “situation” waiting to occur. I have seen other very reputable builders accept this condition. I’m thinking about putting a 45degree fitting on the fuel pump input to create a better hose fit. We’ll see.
I installed the oil temperature sensor in the back of the oil filter adapter. Then I moved on to fitting the prop governor. I had to remove all of the safety wire and loosen the rear of the case in order to re-clock the position of the actuator. Then re-safety the screws. I used Fuel-Lube to prep the gasket and installed the governor and bracket. I would sure prefer to not be messing with this with the engine on the plane.
I was waiting on some steel oil fittings for the accessory case, so I moved on to assembling the wheels. This provided a full evening of enjoyment. I packed the bearings like a good builder and got to work on the tubes and tires. Vans says to remove the nut and washer on the tubes before installation. I did this, but as you fully inflate the tube, the hole is so big in the wheel that it pushes the base of the stem almost through to the center of the wheel, thereby deflecting the tip of the stem almost all the way to the rim. This just didn’t look reasonable. I disassembled the wheels and tried it with the nut and washer and didn’t get near the deflection of the stem which I like better. I think the hole in the wheel is even so big that the nut on the stem passes through it. I think maybe a larger washer might be needed on the base of the stem to keep it from pushing so far into the wheel. Then maybe we could do without the nut. I have them all assembled, but I’m still thinking about it.
The large (-8) steel 45 degree fittings that I ordered for the oil cooler fittings on the accessory case arrived (fedex overnight) and I installed them prior to mounting the engine. I made my best guess as to their rotational position. If I have to change them after the engine is mounted, I’ll have to fully remove them to reseal the threads but I figured I would at least give it a shot. I also picked up some cheap crows foot wrenches from Harbor Freight. These are a life saver when working on the back of the engine.
With all that, it was time to put this thing on the front of the fuselage. I had the engine hoist from Jeff and gave David a call to get some helping hands and moral support. Mounting went pretty much as described by many others before me. There was really nothing too stressful about it, but it did take a couple of hours just because I was going slow and careful. I did the bottom bolts first. I think this worked well.
- Bottom right bolt, two washers, tightened it down all the way
- Bottom left bolt, pretty easy to get in, tightened down most of the way
- top right bolt took some pushing and prodding, kinda’ friction threaded it in some of the way until I could get a nut on it.
- Then the top left bolt. Yep, that one took at least 45 minutes while we played with the other bolts to try to find the alignment we needed.
I think I should be able to do it in about 30 minutes next time. It is very cool to see that pretty engine just hanging there for the first time. Definite progress.
