Chapter 23 – Light brackets & oil pre-heater

I started off today by placing a strong LED light under the engine and searching for gaps in the CF inner baffles… I then slowly and carefully filled any gaps I found at the seams of the CF inner baffles.  With this task complete, it finalizes the install of the CF inner baffles.

Last night I worked a good bit on adding hexagons to the sides of the wing light mounting bracket…

Today, after finishing the gap sealing on the CF inner baffles, I then got back to work on finishing up the addition (in CAD) of the hexagon grids on the ends of the wing light mounting bracket.  The hexagon grids around the perimeter of the mounting bracket are not only for lessening the weight, but for air flow as well to aid in heat dissipation.

I then 3D printed the wing light mounting bracket.

Here we have a couple more shots of the wing light mounting bracket with the new hexagon grids added to each end.

I then test fitted the actual light unit into the wing light mounting bracket . . .

and it fit very nicely.

Now, with all that work done on the 3D printed wing light mounting bracket, there was one final check I needed to make: weight.  Here I checked the weight of the 3D printed wing light mounting bracket (15g) vs the 2024 aluminum wing light mounting bracket (7g).  Clearly the ABS mounting bracket is twice as heavy as the aluminum one, so my plan going forward is to stick with the aluminum wing landing light mounting bracket.

In other news, I received the oil sump mounted oil pre-heater from Anti-splat Aero to help heat up the engine on those cold flying days.

Here is the spot where I will mount it: the front right corner of the oil sump on the vertical sump wall.  This spot is right at the lower corner of the oil sump so the heater will “hover” just over the bottom of the oil pan, which will be a great configuration for heating the oil up.

I plan on running the electrical cord up over the top of the engine to allow me to gain access to the plug through the oil dipstick door.

Tomorrow I plan on jumping back on the aluminum engine baffles to get those knocked out.

Pressing forward!

Chapter 23 – CF baffles installed!

I started off today doing a good bit of research on my oil dipstick, to either buy one outright that would work or gather more info on making one myself.  In my research I stumbled upon a post on the VANs air force forum that contained information about a billet aluminum knurled oil dipstick cap with the thread size and pitch that I need (my old Lycoming dipstick won’t work since the thread size is incorrect for the new Superior oil level tube).

With this cap being WAY cheaper than buying a Lycoming or Superior dipstick outright, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on it.  Moreover, with its low profile design this oil dipstick cap already works much better in my configuration in regards to required clearance with the top cowl/oil check door than the taller stock caps.  I’ll assess this cap after it’s delivered to see if it will work for me (some mods required!)… I’m cautiously optimistic that this thing will fit the bill.

I then spent a good little bit of time aligning and drilling the through-hole in the cross shaped left inboard inter-cylinder baffle before adding a grommet and then installing it.  As I did on the right side, I also installed the 90° right angled tab using both glue and the 1/4″ bolt that secures the fuel injection distribution “spider” bracket.  Also note that I did the final install of the -4 fuel line to the fuel spider.

Knocking out these left side inter-cylinder baffle pieces finishes off the installation of all the CF inner baffles.  I will have some minor gap fill tasks to complete, but for the most part I’ll be heading back to finish off the aluminum baffle installs.

I then knocked out a task I’ve had on my to-do list for quite awhile: machining the wing leading edge light mounting bracket, or at least a test bracket to check out both its weight and functionality.  I’ll also remind everyone out there that these wing light installs are a prerequisite task to micro-finishing the wings.

Here is the freshly machined wing leading edge landing light mounting bracket which I milled out of some scrap 0.032″ thick 2024 (from the aluminum baffles).  The aluminum stock wasn’t a perfect specimen size-wise (a hair short in width and on height at one corner), but definitely close enough to provide a good working test bracket.

Here is the cleaned up newly machined wing leading edge light mounting bracket along with the previous 3D printed initial test bracket.

Finally, here is the machined wing leading edge light mounting bracket with an LED landing/wig-wag light test fitted into the bracket.

Tomorrow I plan on starting on the lower aft aluminum engine baffles.  I’ll also be working on finalizing the trimming and final configuration of the exhaust pipes as well.

Chapter 23 – More CF baffle stuff

Well, I’m back from all my holiday travels.  Time to dispense with fun and frivolity, and get back to work on the bird!

As I was cleaning up the open browser tabs on my computer, I ran across a stainless steel bung that I had assessed for the compression style EGT probes.  It was a bit more expensive than the ones I purchased, and is a bit simpler in that it eliminates a component by combining the compression fitting with the threaded bung… essentially a compression fitting with a bung on one end for welding it to the exhaust pipe.

The vendor’s website thankfully included CAD drawings of their parts for sale, so I simply downloaded that and within minutes had 3D-printed a version of their EGT probe mounting compression fitting/bung (I didn’t 3D print the internal sleeve or cap).

This new EGT probe stainless steel mounting compression fitting/bung (right in pic) is considerably smaller than the compression fitting + stainless steel mounting bung combo that I currently have on hand.

One critical factor that I needed to check with both these EGT probe mounting bungs is the positional depth of the EGT probe inside the exhaust pipe.  Although there is a little wiggle room, I pretty much want the compression style EGT probe inserted fully into the compression fitting/bung… and this issue revealed itself while testing out the possible use of this new combined compression fitting/bung, as the EGT probe ends up nearly touching the opposite wall of the exhaust pipe (pic 1).  While my current compression fitting + mounting bung has the EGT probe positioned more in the center of the exhaust pipe.

Clearly this new combined EGT probe compression fitting/mounting bung was too small to allow for good internal exhaust pipe positioning of the EGT probe.  Thus my test was successful since it showed me that I simply need to press forward with what I have on hand, albeit still throw these rather chunky stainless steel bungs on the lathe for some needed weight reduction diameter wise, but leaving the height as is.

I then got busy with the somewhat tedious process of fine tuning the fit of my cardboard template for the cross shaped right side inboard inter-cylinder baffle.  After a good half hour of iterative fitting machinations, I finally had it in place with minimal daylight showing around its perimeter.

I then transferred the final shape of the template to the actual CF right cross shaped inboard inter-cylinder baffle and trimmed it up.  I then glued the CF cross shaped baffle into place and let it set with some slight weight on it for a couple of hours.

While the initial cure took place on the right side cross shaped baffle, I trimmed off the curved lower cylinder baffle wraps from the forward VAN’s aluminum wall baffle segments… since with the CF inner baffles in place these were now redundant (sorry, no pics yet).

I then removed the weight from the curing right side cross shaped CF inter-cylinder baffle —tacked at this point— and installed/glued in place the 90° right-angled tab that secures the cross shaped inter-cylinder baffle in place (since it clearly has a good amount of upward traveling air to retain).  I trimmed the top side of this right-angled tab in a pleasing curved shape and also added some Loctite to the screw before threading it into place.

With my “practice run” of getting the top inboard inter-cylinder baffle installed on the right side of the engine knocked out, tomorrow I’ll tackle the left side… which will be a bit more challenging given I have to account for the fuel line that travels from the fuel spider to the fuel injection servo.

Inching forward!

Chapter 22/23 – Threaded EGT bungs

I got a little bit done in the shop today as I’m getting ready to head out of town for Christmas and New Years.  I’ll be gone over a week.

I started off by removing the weights, wood and wedges off of the right top outboard inter-cylinder baffles.  That all came out pretty good.

I also grabbed some unhindered shots of the aft right baffle on cylinder #2… also not too bad!

In my “spare” time (usually later at night just before I hit the bed) I’ve been assessing my MGL clock in the upper left instrument panel corner as well as the Trutrak ADI, just to the right of the center EFIS.  Mind you I’m not looking at changing anything before first flight other than knowing what requirements may lie ahead in doing any instrument swaps.  I will want to modernize the TruTrak ADI spot to something that could give me a backup AI/PFD and an HSI tied directly to the GNS-480.

I discussed the uAvionix AV-30 a while back, which would be perfect… if it worked! Unfortunately it appears to need some major re-engineering to get some bugs out.  Especially if it is to be used as an IFR backup instrument.

The Garmin GI 275 looks promising as well —albeit expensive!— but comes in 3 different major flavors, the cheapest being the CDI/MFD combo that would tie in very well to the GNS-480 and provide a back-up CDI, but not an HSI.  Nor a PFD/AI.

After doing some hunting around on ACS and online, my first serious query was visiting my RV-driving cousins to see what they were up to in the world of back-up instruments… and found this little gem.  Apparently there is an engineer over in Slovakia that has made a whole line of some impressive avionics, a company called Kanardia (isn’t that fitting!).  This is their HORIS PFD.

Since I want a clock in the upper left corner of my panel (obviously since I have the MGL clock there currently) I could have the chrono function screen displaying as the standard screen and then flip over to the PFD/AI if I needed to bring that online as a backup.

Here we have the different function screens of the Kanardia HORIS PFD:

Again, I’m just spit-balling some ideas and brainstorming here, and honestly spending about as much time writing this up in this blog post as I did puttering about online finding out this info.  My initial thought is that if I do happen to go the Garmin GI 275 route, then I would still want a capable AI displaying somewhere on my panel.  It’s all about optimization and squeezing every drop of functionality into the small amount of panel space we are afforded in these Long-EZs.

On the Kanardia website they had 3D models of their stuff, so I simply downloaded the file for the 57mm (2-1/4″) HORIS PFD and spent a few minutes to kick off a 3D print (then headed out to the shop).  It took 2 rounds of 3D printing to have the basic outer shell of the HORIS PFD.  Here it is in comparison to the current MGL clock:

Note the MGL clock is made to either be mounted behind the instrument panel plate or on the front surface of the panel, as I have it configured on mine.  Moreover, note the HORIS PFD does note have the cylindrical body and is essentially a cube.

Another comparison shot of the HORIS PFD (top) vs the MGL clock.

The HORIS is a couple of millimeters wider and taller than the MGL clock, and doesn’t have quite as big of a chamfer on the corners (note my pointer in the pic).  One reason I surface mounted the MGL clock on the panel is due to the tight clearance on the front side of the panel with the slope of the nose.  Thus, my concern for ANY future swap out of this 2-1/4″ instrument is the internal/front side panel clearance at this position. Clearly better to remedy this now with NO avionics currently in the panel rather than later on down the road with a fully populated panel.

In other news, I received the stainless steel M8-1.0 threaded bungs for the compression fitting EGT probes.  These new bungs are much beefier than the 1/8-NPT I had picked up from McMaster-Carr, and weigh a good 1/2 ounce more… very noticeable when holding them in your hand.

Not only are the new threaded EGT bungs wider in diameter, but they’re a tad taller too.  I plan to throw them on the lathe for some mandatory weight reduction!

Clearly the good news side of all this is that the EGT probe compression fitting threads mate up fine with these new bungs!

I’ll be heading off on my holiday adventures tomorrow morning, so I’ll be back with more build shenanigans and reports in about 10 days.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Chapter 23 – Right mid baffle in place

Today I pulled all the dunnage and securing strap off the aft right baffle on cylinder #2… and of course didn’t think about grabbing a pic of that until after I had already taped up the weights (to ensure they didn’t topple over) that are securing the glued-in top outboard inter-cylinder baffles in place on the right side.

As par usual with these inner CF baffles, I had to engage in a bunch of crazy shenanigans to get the baffle completely set in place and secured during cure.

I also removed the securing strap, dunnage and wedges from the left baffle that I re-glued onto the aft side of cylinder #1.

Here we have a shot of all the currently installed left side CF inner baffles.  Now I just have the inboard cross-shaped baffle segments to install on each side, with an angle tab that will go in to help keep those secure in the face of the oncoming air.

And with that, I set up my requisite heat lamp underneath the engine and left the just-glued right side inter-cylinder baffle to cure overnight.

Chapter 23 – Baffle fin standoff supports

I headed out to the shop today to specifically get the cylinder #2 fin standoff supports made.

But as I was looking over the already installed CF inner cylinder baffles, I noticed some gaps on the aft left cylinder #1 baffle.  It just wasn’t fitting right.  I pulled the baffle off, cleaned up the glue and then went through a series of test fits.  I found the culprit being the first 2 outboard fins (note the pointer in the pic).  I trimmed about 1/16″ (0.060″) off the rounded corners of these fins and also angled them down on the outboard edge of each fin.  I also aggressively sanded the inside of the baffle at the mating area with these fins.

It’s hard to tell in this pic of course, but the baffle fit is MUCH better and sits significantly tighter on the cylinder.

With my unplanned and impromptu baffle redo out of the way, I then finally got around to machining the inboard fin standoff support for cylinder #2… out of some scrap 0.090″ thick 6061.

With the inboard standoff support (the larger of the two) complete, I then set up and milled the outboard standoff support.

Here we have the cylinder #2 outboard (top) and inboard (bottom) fin standoff supports ready for attaching to the aft cylinder wall.

And here are the cylinder #2 fin standoff supports glued in place.

I had to run into town to grab a few things at the store and stop by Jess’s place for a couple of items as well.  After a few hours time to let the standoff support glue setup I then glued the right aft baffle in place over and around the standoff supports.

Today’s tasks knocks out all the major front and aft CF inner baffle installs.  Tomorrow I plan on getting the right side top inter-cylinder baffle (the “Star Trek Enterprise baffles”) glued into place.  Then it will just be the top inboard inter-cylinder baffle pieces that need to be trimmed and set into place.

Trust me, if you’re tired of reading about these baffles… I’m tired of installing these darn things.  I want them DONE!

Pushing forward.

Chapter 23 – Left major baffles in

Well, yet another day and more goals NOT reached!

I had planned on getting the cylinder #2 standoff supports machined/cut out and glued on today, but too many holiday social planning and prep events filled my day.

I was able to remove the tape, weight and wedges off of the left top outboard inter-cylinder baffle, which is the completion of all the major inner CF baffle pieces on the left side of the engine.  I do still have an inter-cylinder piece (plus bracket) that needs to go in between the base baffles to fill that void (right around the orange fuel line).

Again, the weather has been pretty darn cold here as well, so that isn’t helping things.  I will try to get out to the shop tomorrow and get the cylinder #2 standoff supports made and glued in place…. but the way things have been playing out this holiday season, I ain’t promising anything!

Inching forward…

Chapter 23 – Left mid baffle in place

I’ve been doing a bunch of holiday prep since I’ll be heading out of town to spend Christmas with my daughter, son-in-law and grandkids.

My goal for the build today was to get the left side top outboard inter-cylinder baffle glued into place —including the crazy machinations in securing it in place during its cure!— and then move onto machining the right side cylinder #2 aft standoff supports and get those glued into place to allow me to then get the actual aft baffle attached tomorrow (after the 18 hour cure cycle).

Well, I did get the left side top outboard inter-cylinder baffle glued and secured into place.

Then, before I jumped into machining the cylinder #2 standoff supports, I cleaned up all the inner baffle forms, carefully packed them back up in the box they were sent to me in, and then ran downtown to send them back.  Clearly the chapter of this build involving these CF inner baffles is ever so slowly coming to a close.

Even a bit slower after the events that ensued upon my return to the shop.

I worked out the CAM post processing for the cylinder #2 aft standoff supports and prepped some 0.090″ 6061 to machine for the creation of the standoffs.  Not having used the milling machine in a few months, it required a good 45 minutes of TLC in cleaning and oiling before I got started.  I also forgot a couple of weeks ago I had a pressure line inside my compressor closet burst, which needs to be repaired… so I had rig up another compressor to handle those duties (my milling machine quick tool changer, chip removal mister and air blaster are all on one of these lines).

Once ready to go, I learned that my handy hack of using super glue and blue tape has its limits: a thicker material such as 0.090″ with a smaller footprint just can’t hold up against the pressure of the end mill biting into the corner as it cuts… I tried this method twice with no joy.

At this point in the evening is was late and after multiple iterations and all the required prep, I figured I will have to do some more Neanderthal machining by cutting these things out with my Dremel Tool.   Jess was due over in about an hour to make us a nice dinner, so I decided to kick this can down the road until tomorrow since I would most likely only get one of the two standoff supports manually cut out and shaped (I still have a thought on machining standoff #2 which I’ll attempt tomorrow).  Only gluing one of the two standoff supports into place clearly wouldn’t put me any more ahead with the cure cycles required.  So I called it a night…

Chapter 23 – Baffle install update

I had yet another very busy day in prep for my upcoming holiday adventures, again getting nearly nothing done in the shop.

I did carefully remove all the wood supports and straps that secured cylinder #1 and #4 baffles in place during glue cure.

First off though, here is a pic of the elusive frontside baffle on cylinder #3.  I finally remembered to grab a shot!

And here we have the baffle now secured to the aft side of cylinder #1.

Finally, here is the baffle for the front side of the cylinder #4.

That’s all I have to report for today.  I do plan on machining the standoff supports for the aft-side baffle on cylinder #2 ASAP to get that mounted.  Then it will back to the top center area on each side of the engine to get the inter-cylinder baffle pieces installed.

Chapter 23 – Outboard baffles install

I’ve been a bit busy prepping for Christmas and New Years as I’m heading out of town to my daughter’s for Christmas and then on to Nashville and the mountains of Tennessee to ring in the New Year with Jess.

Yes, between my non-build shenanigans and the cure time for the Toyota FPIG glue on the baffles, it’s taking a number of iterations to get these baffles on.  The current cold weather doesn’t help and the crazy machinations required to pin each individual baffle to its respective cylinder for cure is also somewhat of a gargantuan feat each round.

Case in point: Note the insane amount of dunnage required to both the secure the aft left baffle to cylinder #1 while at the same time ensuring that nothing on the engine gets damaged either.

Here’s a low-angle shot of the baffle (that is pretty much hidden from view from all the wood blocking) going onto the aft side of cylinder #1.

In the same manner, here is the baffle for the front side of cylinder #4 glued and secured in place.

And this is how that looks from the aft side of the engine.

I just simply didn’t have time to machine the cylinder #2 standoff supports yet, but will get to it my next major outing in the shop.  As par usual, after I grabbed these shots I set up a heat lamp under each side of the engine pointing up and then covered the top of the engine to keep the heat in during the baffle glue cure.

In addition, I did actually get the baffle installed on the front side of cylinder #3 last night.  I thought I had a pic of that but didn’t and consequently completely forgot about it in yesterday’s blog writeup.  I’ll get a pic of it for tomorrow’s post.

Pressing forward… slowly!