Snorkel fitting

Today I worked on fitting the snorkel, completing a few more steps.

With the fuel controller covered in plastic, I placed the snorkel on the flange, and then assessed the alignment at the air filter end, where it attaches to the baffling. The instructions warn that small changes at the fuel control unit can have a large impact on the alignment at the baffling. While true, I found that I needed to take a uniform amount off the fuel control end to get the other end to line up. In total, it was about 3/8 of an inch longer than it needed to be, and after carefully sanding it down, the alignment worked out well. I had to disconnect the oil return line to complete this step, and continually bend it out of the way to avoid interference with the snorkel. I’m hoping that the replacement line I ordered will clear the snorkel, because I’m proceeding with fitting the snorkel before I have the new line in-hand.

Once everything fit, I drilled alignment holes in the air filter end of the snorkel, clecoed them, then marked out the excess snorkel to trim. Then I could take the whole assembly off the airplane and trim the snorkel. I used a hack saw to cut about half an inch off the end of the snorkel, then carefully filed it down until it was flush with the shelf on the air filter holder.

I could then install it back on the airplane, and mix up some epoxy glue to seal the gap between the snorkel and the air filter holder.

Marking the fuel controller end of the snorkel for trimming
Checking the alignment of the snorkel against the fuel controller flange
Checking the alignment of the air filter end of the snorkel with the baffling. The goal is to eliminate any side loading on the baffling, by trimming the opposite end of the snorkel
Snorkel fit looks just about right
After drilling the alignment holes
After trimming the snorkel and carefully filing it to be flush
After sealing the gap around the snorkel with epoxy glue