Tonight I finished installed the remaining fuel lines, torquing them and marking with torque seal. With that, the fuel system is plumbed from the wing root, through the fuselage, firewall, engine-driven fuel pump, fuel transducer, fuel control, fuel spider, and out to each injector. Once the wings are installed, the final piece is the short connection from the wing root to the fuel tank.
This felt like a bit of a milestone, so I took a selfie from under the engine.
Tonight I installed the rubber extension tube on the breather line, zip tying it to the tab that attaches to the exhaust. This endures any oil that escapes from the breather line drips down onto the exhaust and is vaporized in flight.
Tonight I cut the oil breather line to length and installed in the airplane.
Tonight I cut the EGT and CHT wiring to length and installed ring terminals on each wire. Then using the hardware from the CHT and EGT kits I connected all the wires and covered with the provided fiberglass sleeves.
Tonight I installed the Cylinder Heat Temperature (CHT) probes. These screw into ports near the cylinder heads and measure temperatures. I used some copper-based anti-seize on the threads before installing.
Tonight I installed the Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) probes. Despite the instructions claiming they would fit snuggly in a reamed #30 hole, there was no way that was happening. After unsuccessful attempts to install, using calipers, I could tell I’d need to go up a couple of drill sizes. I think I ended up drilling #28 holes, and then I was able to get the probe through. The fit was still fairly tight, so hopefully these won’t leak gasses.
Today we test fit the cowling, just a couple of hours before my parents headed off. The fit was much better and easier than I anticipated, but there was still something not quite sitting right. Later in the day I came back to troubleshoot and found one baffle seal that had flipped and was holding the two halves of the cowling apart. With that fixed, I was able to safely install all 4 of the screws around the air inlets.
Today we installed the oil door, and I riveted on the canopy latch bottom bracket. We also started on the gear leg fairing.
Today we worked on the oil door, more sanding on the cowling, and the exhaust system.
After a lot of sanding and filling and sanding and filling, the cowling is basically done. In addition to all the sanding, Dad drilled holes, countersunk them, and installed nut plates while I supervised and learned. The inlets are nicely aligned now, and the baffle seals around the inlets are installed and ready to be test-fit. I’m curious to see how the bottom cowl will fit, as there is almost no room to maneuver behind the spinner plate. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to try to fit the whole thing together before mum and dad leave town.
We have also been working on the oil door, and have the nut plates installed on the top cowling. I primed the aluminum parts before wrapping it up for the day.
The air ramps looked good this morning, and Dad got busy sanding them flush. Once the sanding was completed, he added a few strips of glass to strengthen the air inlets, particularly on the inside edge of the outboard sides of the air inlets. A lot of the glass layers in this area have been sanded away in the process of fairing the inlet opening.
In parallel, I continued working on the exhaust system, finishing the heat muffs and connecting the various cabin heat components with scat tubing. I trimmed a little bit off one end of one section of hose, but everything else fit perfectly.
