Firewall Forward Photos
Main electrical system wiring. Bottom left is the alternator disconnect contactor. I had to replace this one with a unit from B&C because the Van's unit' coil is internally wired one pole of the contactore, and I needed to have the coil grounded.
You can see the 80 Amp ANL fuse and holder just to the right of the Gascolator. This position allows a bus-bar connection to the contactors above it.
This is my electric primer valve. It's installed up near the brake reservoir because I wanted a couple of rivets on the firewall stiffener angle, and this position was best.
This is NOT the Van's stock cabin heat box, it is a 100% stainless box from http://www.epm-avcorp.com/
I later swapped the steel bolts with CR (stainless) steel bolts.
The transducer manifold. The spacer is used to provide room for the oil pressure switch on the right, which drives an hourmeter.
Voltage regulator mount. Bottom lug is shared with main ground bus mounting. Top lug is mounted directly to firewall (no doubler plate, regulator is very light). The 'reversed' plate nut is actually an access hole from inside the fuselage that allows adjustment of the voltage regulator while the engine is operating. It is normally plugged with a #8 screw. Removing the screw allows a small screwdriver to pass through.
The voltage regulator showing the voltage adjustment potentiometer.
Well, lookie what the delivery man brought...
Aerosport o-320 A1AC2 (Superior roller-lifter crankcase, Lycoming crankshaft, ECI cylinders)
Hung engine solo, about 2 hours until the last cotter pin was in place. Started with lower mounts taped in place, started them then inserted top mounts and started them. Torqued everything up gradually, aligned bolts for cotter pins and pinned. I had to remove oil filter to insert top mounts, but if I'd taped them in place first, this could have been avoided.
Hidden hinge for oil door.
Baffles:
This series of photos are provided with minimal comments as an aid to those facing the challenge. They include my reinforcement of the oil cooler mount, relocation of the cabin heat inlet and other modifications.
Modified inlet ramps to allow a complete baffle seal. I cut down the original ones too much, but even so the 'tabs' are required for complete sealing. NOTE: The baffle plans pre-date inlet ramps, and are wrong! I made the 'mistake' of sealing to the cowling, not the ramps. Would have been fine, but not 'perfect'. Confirmed with Van's that the seal should be to the ramps.
Relocated cabin heat inlet... simplifies SCAT tube routing.
Notice bend lines needed to align to air inlet (right side). The plans are wrong... must be for an old cowlin design.
Plate nuts are used to allow for temperature risers to be screwed in later, if required.
Tough to see the bend lines, but they are there. Rows of rivets on front are because I trimmed too much and had to splice a piece back in.
Oil cooler reinforcement (more later).
This really stiffens up the oil cooler mount.
Two more angles on the aft side. Now I can hoist the engine from the cooler!
A series of photos of completed baffles. White 'thread' on some of the sealing strips is for stitching baffle segments together, where required. The shape of the front baffles is definitely not to plans, since they must fit to my extended cowl inlet ramps.
I found that abrupt changes need 'paddles' of baffle seal material overlapping (above and below).
Look at the details above and below for this tricky area. Works very well. The key is the extra 'paddle' stitched to the side baffle.
Engine priming system. I used the top inlets-- saves running primer lines in and around intake and exhaust.
Cowl fitting. The spinner disc was not planar, so built up with glass cloth and micro. Inlets did not match well, so did the same. Lots of sanding and filling. Trimmed upper cowl spinner disc downby about 1/16" and had to build up glass on the inside. Final disc sanding will have to wait until prop arrives.
Filtered air box (FAB) components riveted together. Primered/painted with Tremclad (Rustoleum) light grey.
FAB showing the filter bypass inlet. This is the result of much fiberglass work, but came out very well.
The FAB completed. I'm hoping the carb heat setup from Van's does the job.
I was worried that the FAB would interfere with the bottom cowling, so I sliced a section off, taped some plastic wrap on the inside, shrunk it with my heat gun and layed up a few layers of fiberglass.
Interior wias sanded, filled and painted. I also enlarged the large oval cutout to simplify installation around the air filter.
Engine install complete, right side.
Front.
Left side.
Top.
Gascolator extension to simplify fuel sampling. I drilled a hole in bottom cowling for access. Parts were purchased at local hardware store.
Spinner alignment.
Fiberglass layup on spinner. Waxed board pressed on to make everything coplanar.
Lower cowling with heat shields and foil thermal reflectors.
** Oct 3, 2007 New oil door ***
. After 155 hours, I finally got sick of my elephant-ear camloc oil door screw-downs, which replaced my original key-lock. The paint was peeling and the door weighed too much (4 oz). I found a deal on Camloc latches and fabricated a door out of 0.032 Aluminum.
The door fits perfectly and is very light.
"Under the hood". It's held open by a torsion spring installed on the hinge.
This is the strike plate that the latch clips onto. I already had a hardpoint in place from my original keylock design.
January 21, 2008. Second annual condition inspection. Decided to modify carb heat to increase heat flow to induction system:
Here' the bits to enclose the flange. notice cardboard templates in back, actual aluminum pieces in front.
Enclosed flange.
Two pieces of baffle material to help seal the area around the carb heat actuator.