Tonight I worked on the front baffles, including the air ramp. Dad had already made progress drilling and deburring parts, and installing nut plates. I picked up where he left off and completed a page of steps.
More Baffling
Aft Baffling Install
Today I installed the aft baffles on the engine. I started by picking up some high temp RTV from AutoZone. The RTV is used to provided a cushion for the baffling where it will vibrate against the engine. I masked up the aft baffling, roughed it up with sandpaper, cleaned it, and then smeared RTV in the specified locations. This was then left to dry for a few hours.
Later in the day I installed the aft baffles, and looked to areas where it was rubbing against the case. I found a few locations, and marked them with a sharpie. Then I uninstalled it all, filed down the offending areas, and then reinstalled for (hopefully) the final time.
Baffling – test fit
Tonight I test fit the aft baffling on the engine.
I found a couple of rivets that I had forgotten to set, so I went ahead and tried the aft baffling on the engine, and then took it off and set those rivets.
Trying the baffling on the engine was a little tricky. The instructions say to remove the oil return line from cylinder 3 to make it easier to install the right baffle. I can see why, it definitely gets in the way. But instead of undoing the fitting, just a gentle bend as it’s going on solves the problem. The much harder issue is the aft left baffle. It took me almost 30 minutes of trial and error to finally find a way to get it in. The trick is to insert it at about 45 degrees, getting the baffle under the engine mount bolt, then working it down into position. It also helps to angle it slightly forward.
I scratched a lot of engine paint off, and scratched the baffles, but was able to get them into position.
That’s when I realized another issue. I had installed the bracket on the wrong side of the case, and the holes were not even close to lining up.
I took it all off again… will fix it tomorrow.
Baffling
Tonight I continued working on the baffling. I had to drill out a few rivets and redo them, as they had tipped over too much. I also found a mistake where I’d used the wrong nut plates, so I replaced those.
With the riveting done, I installed the fittings on the top of the engine case. These help hold the baffling in place. I had to gently bend the fuel line out of the way to ensure enough clearance from the bracket.
Baffling
Today I made some more progress on baffling, deburring, dimpling, countersinking, step drilling and then riveting together parts. It’s been I while since I needed to use the compressor, but I needed to use the rivet gun in a few places. I almost always use the Main Squeeze hand-squeezer for rivets.
Baffling
I decided to take a break from wiring, and start back on the engine. Cracking open the baffling section, I made some progress on the first few steps, marking and trimming the doublers, and deburring parts.
Pitot Static
Tonight I installed t-connectors on the Pitot and Static pneumatic lines, and routed all lines to their respective ports on the G5 and ADAHRS unit.
With that done, the panel wiring is complete!
Well almost complete, I still need to:
– safety wire some more connectors
– throughly inspect all wiring and fix all potential chafe points
– route the firewall-forward wires up to and through the firewall
– upgrade the battery-vertical power wire from #8 to #6 AWG
Pitot Static
Tonight I installed a couple of adel clamps to hold the pitot static lines, keeping them clear of the sharp edges they pass near under the panel. The routing is a little weird because I don’t want to put too sharp of a bend in the tubes. The tubes come up out of the wiring channel, pass over the wiring frame I built, come out the bottom of the forward side of the sub panel, then up through a gap between the panel and sub panel. I plan to install t-connectors on the top of the shelf behind the PFD, sending air to both the G5 and the ADAHRS unit mounted on the back of the PFD..
I then mixed up some epoxy resin and glued some zip tie holders onto the shelf.
Panel Wiring
Over the last week I’ve been chipping away at the panel wiring in the evenings. It’s hard to measure progress sometimes because I’ve been spending a lot of time on very small tasks, and/or doing something one way only to do it again a different way.
The main accomplishment, however, has been installing the wiring channel that connects the center tunnel to the sub panel. This is a lightweight frame that allows the wiring and pitot static lines to neatly fit inside, keeping all the wiring out of sight and out of the way of the occupants. This was not as easy to install as I hoped. The problem is access to the rivets that attach the frame to the sub panel. On one side there is an existing frame, and on the other side are the many bundles of wiring. I ended up drilling out the rivets and removing the frame that was blocking my access. Then I set pop rivets in place, then reinstalled the frame I had removed.
Once I had that channel in place, I installed the cover and checked for clearance on all sides. I found the connector for the standby battery was just touching the connector for the CO detector. The standby battery is installed on a panel above the fuel pump, just forward of this wiring channel. The CO detector is installed on the backside of the cover that sits on the wiring channel.
To solve the issue I relocated the CO detector mount, moving it sideways and up. This required drilling out some rivets and making some new holes, but it was no big deal. It’s now in a position where the two connectors and their wiring runs are not contacting each other.
With all that work done, the whole area is looking much cleaner and tidier.
Panel Wiring
Over the course of the last week, I’ve spent time installing the wiring frame between the sub panel and firewall, and the slowly working to zip tie and secure the various wiring bundles onto the frame. Lots of time spent on my back with my head under the panel making slow but steady progress.
There has been plenty of trial and error as I’ve tried to secure the bundles, and simultaneously untangle things. Most the the antenna cables ended up unplugged, re-routed, and then plugged back in again. I experimented with gluing zip tie holders onto the sub panel, but ended up removing most of those, as I found it better to use clamps and/or to secure the zip tie around or through a piece of aluminum. The zip ties are good for keeping the bundles together.
It’s finally starting to look a bit more tidy now.
