lower baffles and oil filler safety wired
This is kind of cool. I’m doing all the stuff that you try to leave off until the end… Time to secure the lower baffles with safety wire. The plastic brake tubing is used as an anti chaffing cover. I just couldn’t resist heat testing this material. It is going to be right up next to some of the hottest parts of the engine, and it would seem like it would just melt away if it isn’t some super duper stuff. I Cut a little length of it for some low tech heat testing. I hit it with the heat gun for about five minutes at about 320 degrees. It did not seem like it was anywhere near going to melt. It didn’t even get very soft, just a little more pliable. Not being content with this result, I took the Mythbusters approach. Now that I am comfortable with the application, just how much heat would this stuff take. So I got out a micro torch and kept bringing the heat up. I shall not reveal how I was measuring the temperature for fear of spousal abuse, but I assure you it was very accurate until the torch came into play. This tubing will take a lot of heat, but it can be melted :).
Now that I was happy with the materials (time will tell), I used .041 safety wire and pre-twisted the center section to a length about 3/8″ shorter than the distance between the front and back baffle flanges to be secured together. I slid that through a cut length of tubing (use the heat gun to straighten out the tubing coil). I cut both ends of the safety wire so I didn’t have to mess with twisting the center section in place under the engine. Actually, I don’t even really see the absolute need to twist the span, but I did anyway. Once in place, I used a steel washer just to provide a little more pull through protection and secured both ends.
It was now time to reinstall the oil filler tube that I took off a long time ago for improved access in that area. Way back when I installed the engine, I was resistant to taking the tube off, and I installed the engine with it on. Don’t kid yourself, it is way easier to take it off early in order to be able to get to all the stuff that goes on down there. As I was putting the oil filler tube back on, it quickly became clear that my ignition wire routing was in almost direct conflict. Bummer. I rerouted the wires in a slightly less desirable way, but all is well.
