Author: Neal

Today my friend Simon came over and we hung the engine on the airplane! It was a big day, and it all went according to plan.

I borrowed an engine hoist from my neighbor, and it worked out well. The engine was still encased in its foam shipping crate, and was sitting on a 4×8 foot dolly I had built with wheels. That allowed us to roll everything around and position things easily. Before we started, I printed and studied the document here which is very helpful. I copied the Vans diagram from the plans and taped it to the side of the plane. I arranged the hardware in a cardboard box to ensure we had the right bolts, washers, and orientation on the rubber mounts for each bolt.

I also leveled the plane by raising the tail and resting on a saw-horse. To make sure we didn’t have a balance issue, I slung 40 pounds of weight below the saw-horse, and strapped the plane down onto the horse. Then I chocked the main wheels to keep it all steady.

We started by lifting the engine clear of the packaging, then carefully rolling the engine into position. A little adjustment in height and some side-to-side movement and we had it in the right spot. Following the instructions, we started with the top right bolt, which was fairly easy. The second bolt was the top left, and also fairly easy, as the engine could still be moved around a little. The third bolt was bottom right, and took some more manipulation than the others. The final bolt took the most effort. We tried all options of changing the torque on other bolts, and lifting and lowering the engine, to arrive at the optimal alignment. We were able to get it started into the hole by hand, but had to screw it into the hole to get all the way through. It didn’t take much torque, perhaps a couple of foot pounds at most.

Once all four bolts were in, we torqued up all of the bolts to 40 inch pounds, then disconnected the hoist. I need to check my math on the torque values to get it right, but the hard part is done! It feels like a huge step forward to have the engine on, and that much closer to being a real airplane.

Update, after doing some research, I’m going to torque the bolts to 42 foot pounds. This allows for a couple foot-pounds of torque drag (I measured between 1 and 4 foot-pounds when rotating the bolts), and still being in the target 37.5 to 41.7 range.

Tonight I installed the remaining engine fluid fittinga on the back of the engine, at least those that need to be installed before the engine is hung. The only exception was the fuel pump overflow, where the fitting is on, but the clear tube isn’t. I’m waiting on parts from Vans before I can do that step.

I also installed the ground strap, and the governor and governor bracket, bending the fuel line out of the way, and clocking the governor lever to the right position.

Tonight I made the governor bracket, and test fit the governor. The bracket was trivial, and once it was completed I primed it with some spray can primer. I took the cover off the governor mounting pad, cleaned it up, then test fit the governor. Everything was fine, although I need to buy some lock washers.

Today I installed the sender mount onto the firewall, then I spent time unboxing the engine and installing various fluid fittings.

The sender mount was simple. I elected to keep the third port because I’m going to use the Aircraft Speciality P-Mag mod that uses the third port.

Unboxing the engine was exciting, and a bit messy. I pulled away the cardboard box, and then broke down the foam surrounding the engine. I only went as far as I needed to access the various fluid fittings on the back of the engine. I got most of the fittings installed, hopefully I can finish installing the last couple tomorrow.

Tonight I installed the master relay and started solenoid, wiring it up and torquing all the bolts and nut’s appropriately.

I emailed Vans and on their advice switched from the split washers shipped with these components to stainless internal tooth star washers. They are slightly thinner and allow more threads to show through after torquing the nuts. With the original washers, there were not enough threads showing where WH-P769 attaches to the master relay. With the new washer, it’s still not ideal, but seems ok.

The firewall is starting to look a little more crowded now.

Tonight, after several weeks break, I finally did some more work on the plane. I installed a few components onto the firewall; the manifold pressure sensor, the master relay and starter solenoid. the manifold pressure sensor isn’t actually installed yet, I had to prime the mount, but I located the parts and got them ready to go.

Tonight I installed the battery. Just a couple of steps was all I had time for tonight. I finished fabricating the battery bar, installed it, then installed the little grommet that sits on the side of the box.

Tonight I read through the firewall forward plans and then got started on step 1, making the battery box cover. I trimmed the seal to size then deburred and primed the cover.