Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

I spent some more time trimming, grinding, and sanding on the top cowl rear edge at the firewall. I found, as expected, that I would need to seriously reconstruct the aft edge of the honeycomb layup (thick part) to clear the camloc attach strip at the firewall. After trimming the aft edge of the top cowl, I got out the die grinder and chucked a 1.5″ sanding drum. I used this to grind away about .5″ of the honeycomb to clear at the back. I’ll have to do a glass layup to stiffen the remaining flange back up. There isn’t nearly as much glass thickness under the honeycomb as there is on the solid flange. I almost have the aft edge worked out and just have one or two more passes with the sanding block left to get to the correct, even, gap at the firewall. Not many pictures of this process since it is a total mess with all this fiberglass dust.

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

I finally think I have a real plan of attack for the cowl. I spent half the day yesterday trying to figure out how to get started. This evening, I got to work hacking on it with the cutoff wheel in the angle grinder and the dremel. The very first order of business is to get the spinner ring at the front of the cowl (top and bottom halves) to fit reasonably well and round using the spinner as a guide. In order to do this, I set both halves upright on the floor, with the bottom sides overlapping the top. From there, I just started cutting a little at a time around the inlets and spinner ring. I didn’t cut much on the outside sides of the inlets or anything down the sides. This is indeed much less stressful than canopy work as you can very easily put material back (with a fiberglass layup) if you cut too much off. So, I’m just slowly sneaking up on getting the front of this thing to fit together, not worrying about the sides or back at all right now. Then I’ll move on to aligning the top half on the plane and trimming the aft edge.

I received an order that I placed with Builder’s Bookstore that included an overhaul manual and parts catalog for my engine. These are two pretty critical pieces of documentation that are needed. Thanks Jim for the tip. I decided to take a look at what I was going to do about the crankcase breather. Some people swear by an air/oil separator, others not. I’m going to build it without a filter (per the plans) and see how it works out. I figured out that the spring tubing benders could be used to adjust some of the bends in the breather tube. The tricky part of my setup is the fact that I have an angle adapter for my oil filter that is directly in the way of the breather port.
I got out the engine control cables and completed the rigging of the prop cable. Definitely tight back there behind the engine. I’m quite happy with the way my control quadrant has turned out so far. Then I put the carburetor on, not forgetting to take a quick picture of its data plate for future reference.
Time to do the spinner backplate. I’m using a Hartzell constant speed prop, so the spinner bulkhead mounts directly to the back of the prop hub. The doubler is pre-punched and is used as a cutting template for the bulkhead. The pneumatic body saw worked great to cutout the center of the bulkhead after marking it with the doubler. I had the full shape cutout very close to the line in all of three minutes. The doubler gets riveted to the bulkhead and that assembly bolted to the back of the prop hub. Tanya came out and helped me bolt the prop to the engine. Very cool.
Time to start messing with the cowl. Yep, I’ve been avoiding it long enough. But, wow, where to start. The two halves certainly don’t fit together at all and the shape of these things sure aren’t very accurate. I cut some spacer blocks for the back of the spinner plate and glued them on. This will (hopefully) set the distance of the front of the cowl from the back of the spinner. Next I’ll try to figure out the alignment of the top cowl.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

After we got the engine mounted, I worked out the positioning of the bolts and castle nuts and installed the cotter pins. Installing the cotter pins was really pretty easy with some very long needle nose pliers. I took some pictures of the data plates on the engine and starter just for reference.
I removed and reinstalled the oil pressure fitting because I had it pointed down way too far. The oil pressure hose would just barely clear the p-mag connector. I was concerned with clearing the engine mount (before it was installed) when I first put the fitting on. On this particular engine and mount setup, there is plenty of clearance to mess with the pressure port after the engine is mounted. I understand that isn’t the case with some other configurations. So I adjusted the fitting to point much more off to the right. Way better.
I have roughed in most of the wires and figured out most of the wire routing. I’m using adel clamps on the engine mount to route all wires. Then I moved on to the exhaust system. The Vetterman exhaust from Vans (very nice stuff) is made to fit an O-360 which is apparently 1-1/8″ wider than the O-320 that I have. Vetterman marks the two cross pipes where you need to cut them to fit the O-320. I chopped those two pipes with the hack saw and cleaned up the edge. They fit perfect. Installing the exhaust system takes all of five minutes to just roughly get it in place. Torquing some of the bolts will take some patience I’m sure. Then I’ve been working on getting the exhaust hangers worked out. These support the tail pipes. All of the exhaust will probably come back off a time or two during the firewall forward process.

Last thing to talk about here: Before we installed the engine, I removed the oil filter. It is a good thing I did since the Kelly filter that was on it doesn’t have enough clearance from the engine mount to get it on and off. I found this out after the engine was mounted and I went to spin the filter on. Nope, didn’t clear the engine mount. I had a temporary “holy crap” moment. I did some research and contacted Mattituck about the possibility of a slightly shorter filter that would clear the mount. Sure enough, Mahlon said this is a known condition and that he would send me a Champion filter that had slightly different dimensions. The Champion filter is perfect. I’m very relieved.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Big news! News flash! Sound the horn! Ring the bell! Listen up! Tanya became a pilot yesterday. She completed all of her training and took her practical exam (flight with the FAA examiner) and passed. She is now a pilot too. I’m super proud of her. Good job Tanya!