I applied a couple more layers of glass to the inlet ears of the plenum for stiffness. That was one evening. The next evening was an “RV Dinner” that was a success. I’ll get something real done this weekend.
I broke out the second tube of RTV to fill a few more holes around the baffling and engine. Then I got out all of the ignition wires to start figuring out how I was going to route them. It is worth noting that I’m doing dual P-mags with aircraft plugs. The ignition wires that emagair ships are not shielded as are “normal” aircraft ignition wires. As such, they need to be installed in such a way to keep them separated from each other in parallel runs. This is pretty easily done as shown in the instructions but it is a bit more time consuming than just bundling them together. I got out my overhaul manual to see what the normal wire to mag routing schematic looked like.
While the baffles were off, I riveted on the spacer block that I made for the part behind cylinder #4. I think I was giving some RTV time to setup before I handled the baffles for final installation so I went to the local mom&pop hardware store to get some brass 1/8″NTP fittings for the gascolator quick drain extension. Worked out great.
Back to the baffles… They went back on the engine for the last time and I proceeded to fill most of the gaps with more RTV. I used some cut firesleeve around the prop governor oil line to fill the majority of the hole in the baffle. I did a wrap of safety wire to hold it there and finished off with more RTV. I’m quite pleased with how that came out. Finally I figured I might as well install the oil cooler. The next thing is routing and installation of oil cooler hoses and ignition wires. This actually feels like progress. Soon, I’ll do a little more trimming of the plenum and see if I want to put any more layers of glass on the inlet ears that I made.
Trimming of the plenum continued with the use of a new cheap sander. I think this is the first of many “duplicate” tools that will be going to the hangar. Once I had enough of sanding for now, I decided to go ahead an do the glass layup to reconstruct the outboard ears on the inlets that I had to chop off. Once that had setup enough (next day), I popped the plenum back off and began the task of drilling for about 35-40 nutplates around the top flange. Whoever said that building an RV was perfectly enjoyable without a #8 nutplate jig must have been crazy. I wouldn’t want to build without one.
Finally, I took all of the baffles off for final adjustments and installation of the plenum nutplates. Before they went back on, I filled most of the part fit gaps with high temp RTV. I used the small head NAS?? rivets for all of the nutplates. Just a little tiny machine countersink on each hole with a deburring bit and you’re ready to squeeze.
I started trimming the plenum top. This is definitely not like working with any other glass on this build. It doesn’t cut very well with a cutoff wheel like everything else. I ended up having to trim the edges with some metal shears which tends to delaminate the layup. So I tried to cut just outside the line so I could sand to the line and hopefully end up with a reasonable edge. I also drilled the rest of the holes in the top to #30 with a plexi bit. I’ll open these up further for screws when I am done fitting. The cleco holes are just a lot easier to work with when doing a lot of off and on fitting.
