With the engine back on the plane, I started off this morning by placing the top cowling in place and weighing down the corners to keep it pinned in place.

On the aft end I have the top cowling literally resting on the flywheel, so we know it’s as low as it can go for this test . . .

I then grabbed a shot of the newly installed 10.57″ long oil level tube with the dipstick cap mounted in the top.  As you can see, plenty of clearance with the cowling set in pretty much the lowest possible position… although this clearance is in line with my calculated measurements, I’m always very happy to see it confirmed in a real world fit check.

I’ll remind ya’ll that Mike M. made these cowlings to fit around an O-360, so there is a scooch more room (theoretically… not on the bottom side with my engine eh?).  Again, I’m very glad to see this new dipstick setup fitting nicely into the scheme of things.

Before pressing forward with my other tasks, I refreshed the desiccant in the top spark plug contraptions… this hot humid weather is burning through my desiccant!

In prep for installing the oil heat system oil pan feed fitting to dial in the standpipe collector flow, I did a quick check on the new dipstick length.  Since the new oil level tube is 4.2″ taller than the old one, I simply added 4.2″ to the raw stock 3/16″ dia. 6061 rod that will be my new dipstick.  I drew a Sharpie reference line at the top of the dipstick cap to keep track of the dipstick length.

Well, the dipstick bottomed out inside the engine and pushed the dipstick up about a 1/4″ when the cap was threaded all the way in.  My goal is to have just the end of the dipstick touching the top surface of the oil with 2 quarts in, and I wanted this ready to go when I added oil for the oil heat standpipe check.

I then removed the bottom plug from the oil pan where the oil heat standpipe fitting gets installed.  As the little bit of oil drained out, I gathered up the oil heat standpipe fitting and my tools in prep for installing it.  Since this is just a temp install, I used Teflon tape to keep the oil from leaking around the fitting.

I then installed the fitting into the bottom of the engine pan. Notice how massive this -8 90° elbow fitting is… unfortunately this sucker is too big and intrudes into the space of the air induction SCEET (orange) tubing.   More on that in a bit.

Back to the oil heat standpipe oil flow test.  I don’t even remember how or why at this point, but I know I calculated the height of the standpipe at 4.4″ to give me somewhere between 2.5 to 3 quarts of engine oil in the bottom of the oil pan before it starts flowing into the standpipe for the oil heat system.

This is obviously a failsafe to keep a leak in the oil heat system from causing a catastrophic engine failure due to engine oil depletion.  Lycomings are happy enough on 2.5-3 quarts of oil, thus my calculation.

Well, all these many years later I have to say I nailed it!  At 2.75 quarts in the oil started flowing out of the oil heat fitting.  I confirmed this by measuring the collected oil after putting 3 full quarts of oil into the engine, and the oil that flowed out was almost exactly 0.25 of a quart.

The issue now (I have to say, at this point I’m not surprised!) is of course the underside clearance between the oil heat fitting and the SCEET induction tube.  The induction tube is not moving, so that means I need a new solution for this oil heat fitting.

So just as I did with the Sniffle Valve, I ordered a 1/2-NPT brass street elbow and a length of brass tubing.  Since I now have a confirmed length on the required height of the heating oil collection standpipe, I can braze a brass tube to the street elbow and hopefully get the clearance required betwixt oil heat fitting and SCEET tube.

I then ran down to Harbor Freight and Lowe’s to grab some tools and materials I needed (in part) to install the oil plug on the aft side of the engine oil pan.  I will say that I had a steel plug here to replace the one that came out, but after reading an entry by Klaus on a W&B thread in the COBA forum, I have to say I was re-motivated to trim as much weight off as possible on this bird.

So I ordered some more aluminum fittings, including this plug, to save a bunch of ounces in the engine compartment.

In fact, also due to that forum post I recently went around weighing all my new/latest stuff and re-tweaking my overall estimated weight.  With the addition of an O₂ system (5+ lbs), the near-doubling of my estimated upholstery weight (13 to 25+ lbs), rounding up my estimated paint weight another 8 lbs, and including both the RAM air scoop and aft nose/avionics cover weights… I’m at 1050 lbs.  Remember, this includes the weight for the oil heat system as well and literally every single component going in the plane, plus a 10-pound padding just in case I missed something.

Tomorrow I plan on remounting the exhaust pipes and the lower cowling, and then cutting the exhaust pipes to fit the lower (and upper) cowling.

Today was all about finishing up a bunch of tidbit tasks to allow me to remount the engine to the fuselage.

The underlying reason my timeline for remounting the engine was hastened is in regards to my exhaust pipes.  After communicating with Clinton at Custom Aircraft Parts and sending him detailed pics, including ones of the left pipes’ immobilization, he told me that he was ready for me to send the pipes to him to get tweaked… one at a time.  Which makes sense since we’re doing this configuration tweaking remotely.

To be certain, after months of communicating on this back and forth, I am very appreciative that Clinton was going to do what he could to resolve these clearance issues.

However, Clinton’s caveat was that their current lead time on projects was 45-60 days. I totally understand shops being swamped with business, which is a good thing, but if we work these pipes one at a time, with the cost and time of shipping back and forth, this could be a rather costly endeavor that could potentially take 6-7 months longer.  That timeline is a No-Go for me… so I had to find another way.

Enter local race car header builder James R. … through talking to one person after the next, who knew this guy, etc. I finally got James on the horn.  His shop specializes in high end stainless steel exhaust systems for race cars, and he understands exacting tolerances… and more importantly: stainless steel.  No disrespect intended, but unlike Clinton and gang who do aircraft exhausts as their bread and butter, James seems to be looking forward to a slightly different challenge and helping out on something that is unique to his world.  Moreover, he’s 45 minutes away!

So here’s the plan: I am going to cut and set the pipes in place in-situ on my bird, tack weld them and then simply take them to James to have him weld one weld on each pipe and call it a day.  To be clear, in January I spent weeks looking for a “James” in the local area and nobody knew anybody who had the high level of knowledge and experience that I was looking for… I guess round 2 of my search proved more successful.

Bottom line is I’m pressing forward, and am cautiously optimistic that within the next 2-3 weeks this exhaust pipe clearance issue will be a thing of the past.

Ok, back to the current build.  I started off by digging a hex-shaped divot into the firewall to mount a bolt/screw to allow securing an Adel clamp inside the GIB headrest engine components compartment.  I floxed in the bolt, secured it on the other side and added a ply of BID over the bolt head.  And then peel plied it.

In assessing the “completed” fuel pump cooling shroud, there were 2 things I wanted to tweak.  Both involved the air inlet nozzle.  First, the CF at the joint between nozzle and body wasn’t as smooth as I wanted.  Which I could have just used some micro to clean that up.

But second, although the 2 plies of CF for the nozzle seemed stiff enough, since I was going to be applying clamping pressure to secure the SCAT tubing to the nozzle, I really wanted a 3rd, internal ply, of CF.  So I laid one up on the inside of the nozzle tube, which transitioned over the nozzle-to-body intersection as it overlapped onto the inside of the cooling shroud.  I then peel plied this internal CF layup.

Here’s what that looked like after I pulled the peel ply and cleaned up the layup a few hours later.

While that last CF layup was curing, I also epoxy wiped the fuel pump cooling shroud with 2 rounds of West epoxy.

The epoxy wipes were simply to fill in any pinholes, etc. on the surface of the shroud.  When I remove the engine next time I plan on wet sanding the excess epoxy off and either leave that if it looks fine, or maybe hit it with one final thin epoxy wipe or a coat of clear coat.

I’ll note that in its current state this fuel pump cooling shroud weighs in at a whopping 1.9 oz.

I also evaluated the SCAT tubing flow, both locally to the fuel pump cooling shroud and as part of the entire system beginning at the RAM air scoop-located NACA scoop.  I added an Adel clamp to secure this segment of the of the SCAT tubing near the cooling shroud.

I also installed a Clickbond on the firewall for another Adel clamp to secure the SCAT tubing coming up from the NACA scoop.

I am mentally creating the “Y” joint that will attach this SCAT tubing to the pair of 7/8″ diameter SCAT tubes that go to the fuel pump and PMag for cooling (I actually laid up and peel plied a 1.5″ ply of BID on the end of the aluminum tube that will get attached inside this SCAT tubing and have the “Y” tubes attached to it… not shown).

I had printed out wire heat shrink labels a long time ago when working on the P9 and P10 firewall electrical connectors, and I finally heat shrank those 5 labels onto the wires tonight.

I also remembered that my Oil Temp sensor was installed only hand tight, so after some quick research on that I installed it to its “torque” spec (actually rotation spec on this guy: 135° after hand tight to properly seat the crush ring).

I then safety wired both the OT sensor plug and the cover cap on the mechanical tach port (top center of pic, in-between the white oil filter and orange SD-8 b/u alternator).

I had planned on Jess helping me with remounting the engine, but she got tied up a bit helping her grandmother so I pressed forward on my own.  I figured since I may have to do it someday on my own anyway that this would be a good test of my abilities.

With the engine mount extrusions exactly the same distance apart as the engine mount nubs, I found the trick is to bring the engine down a hair low, angle it so the front is higher than the aft side and “hook” the lower nubs into the lower engine mounting extrusions.  Then with constant forward pressure on the engine, raise it up and seat the top nubs onto the upper extrusions.

That worked a treat and I really had the engine on and initially secured in about 15 minutes.  Add another 15 minutes to secure the hardware and I was done with the install.

I then checked the clearance between the fuel pump overflow fitting and the aileron torque tubes… a good 1/4″!  Again, that equates to a mile in Long-EZ specs! <wink>.

The same is true for the oil hoses, as I’m very happy with the clearance between those and the firewall as well.  These are the last items I need to be concerned about clearance-wise between engine and firewall… hoo-yah!

Tomorrow I plan on getting to work on the exhaust pipes and hopefully get those clearance issues taken care of ASAP.  As for now, Jess is making Keto-friendly tacos… time to sign off!

After a good overnight cure I pulled the CF/BID and its plug off the canopy sealing goop bottle…  I then trimmed all the edges of the layup to clean it up.

I then pulled the fuel pump cooling shroud off the plug…

And pulled the inside peel ply to go a few rounds in creating the slots for the fuel IN, fuel OUT and overflow fitting bosses.  I’ll note that this is another area where my roll-your-own design is different from Lycoming’s cooling shroud: theirs has holes that require the shroud to be mounted prior to connecting up all the hoses/fittings.

Here we have the last of the iterative test fits with the final trimming of the 3 slots complete.

I then did some test runs of the 7/8″ diameter SCAT tubing to figure out where the optimum placement for the tube attach nozzle should be on the cooling shroud.

I had thought about coming in at a lower angle, but here I figured I should follow Lycoming’s lead with the air blasting at and pointing towards the main body of the pump: to optimize the effect of the cooling air flow.  This required more of a 45° down entry into the cooling shroud… I’ll again point out that my tubing nozzle is about 180° out (port side) from Lycoming’s (starboard).

I used a length of thin-walled plastic pipe that I picked up in Germany for the plug to create the tubing nozzle.  For the hole I simply drilled a pilot hole then used a 7/8″ diameter hole saw.

Before glassing up the nozzle, I made a slit down the length of the plastic pipe so I could collapse it for removal after the tubing nozzle cured.  I then covered it with clear tape and peel ply before laying up 2 plies of carbon fiber.  I of course completed the layup with more peel ply.

Here is the nozzle trimmed about 4 hours later, with the fuel pump cooling shroud back on the fuel pump.

I then threw my SCAT tubing on the nozzle for a quick check and to show the configuration of my fuel pump cooling setup.

And with that, I called it a night.

I started off this morning by sanding the interfacing surfaces of the fuel pump cooling shroud layup plug before using some super glue and clamps to secure them together.

The tabs up top are all about securing the cooling shroud in place.  If you’ve seen the Lycoming shroud it has holes that go around (or under?) the fuel pump main mounting bolts.

Not wanting to mess with removing the bolts and re-safety wiring anything, let alone the fact that the Lycoming shroud is metal and I don’t want to have my fuel pump secured in place with a layer of composite in between, I chose to simply “surface” mount this thing.

I’ll do this by glassing in strong magnets upright in the back tabs to help secure the shroud to the fuel pump mounting bolt faces.  Then I’ll RTV the interior tabs to each side of the riser on the top middle of the pump.

It took a decent bit to tape up the plug… here it is in all its splendor.

I was using fast hardener in my MGS epoxy, and with the outside weather over 100° F I didn’t realize that the much “cooler” feeling shop was still nearly 80° F.  Thankfully I didn’t mix up much at first since I started with an internal application of peel ply over the tape.

I really hate wasting expensive composite materials, so the first ply of BID
[again, only because this shroud will be directly touching the aluminum body of the fuel pump… I don’t want any galvanic reactions going on between the CF & aluminum in a place I can’t easily inspect without pulling the engine off]
was 4 pieces of scraps, followed by the first layer of CF which was another cobbling together of scraps, followed by a single ply of CF.

As I was laying up my first ply of BID my cup of epoxy exothermed.  That’s when I found the thermometer that the rascally squirrels (they’re a total PITA!) had knocked over.  Ahh, it was much warmer than I thought in the shop.  It actually happened a bit later as well when I had barely any epoxy in the bottom of my cup, being pretty much done with the layup.

I did actually peel ply the layup after I finished, but didn’t grab a pic of it.  I had some friends that needed to borrow my trailer in a bit of a rush, so I was trying to get this thing knocked out in general, but to help them as well.

I finished the layup in late afternoon and then made some phone calls regarding the exhaust pipes.  I then got cleaned up and headed downtown to take Jess out to dinner… don’t want her feeling like a Long-EZ build widow!

I pulled the peel ply and grabbed these pics you see here after returning from dinner.

Tomorrow I’ll pull the plug off the bottle of canopy protective goop (that I never used… glad I got some use out of it!) and then trim it up.  Clearly after a trim and some judicious sanding it will look much more presentable!

Pressing forward.

My primary goal today was to produce a usable plug to use in glassing (mainly carbon fiber) a cooling shroud for the engine mechanical fuel pump.

As with many of my self-designed parts, this was definitely an iterative process.

This is the point I got to late last night as I kicked off the 3D print for this guy below.  That print took nearly 3 hours and it was still whirring away as I went to bed.

This morning I test fitted it.  Although I clearly thought I had nailed the side protrusion that allows the fuel pump overflow fitting boss to fit under the cooling shroud, I was off by about 0.12″ each side.

It took about 3 more prints to dial this in and then pretty much a remodel in CAD to get the final product.  I kicked this nearly 5-hour 3D print off early evening and made some much overdue phone calls (as well as dinner) while it printed out.

In all actuality, I designed, CAD modeled and printed the small top cap piece first since it only took about 30 minutes to print and then verify fit.  Then I kicked off the big mo-jamma plug.

The reason for the separate pieces is simply for ease of 3D printing.  The big plug is much easier to print with the flat top down and then simply have the sides build up.  The same too in the inverse for the top cap with the tabs that are sticking up.

I had wanted to get this piece glassed up tonight, but with the multiple versions and the long print time, it is what is.  My plan is to glass this first thing tomorrow and get on with other engine tasks.

Today I met my goal of getting all the hoses installed on the front of the engine (oil cooler connections will be the last no-kidding 2 hoses).

I started off by adding fire sleeves to the oil hoses I made up yesterday.  Here they are mounted on the front engine area (along with all the other hoses as well!).

To stack the deck in my favor in avoiding any leaks, I employed a little trick that I picked up from Nate Mullins: using DEL fitting seals —soft thin aluminum “caps”— in all the AN connections.

Rewinding the build tape just a bit, here’s a shot of the crankcase vent hose installed and secured… obviously with the oil filter off again to assist in both this task and the final install of the oil hose to the upper oil port.

I then took the old oil level tube (aka dipstick tube) off and spent a good little bit of time cleaning off the edge around the hole before then installing the new oil level tube.  I have to say, not only does that anodized aluminum look great, but I also gain an acceptable 1/4″ clearance between the tube and the engine mount.  I’d like just a skooch more, but even with a rowdy engine during startup I don’t see any damage going on here.

For my daily arts and crafts project, today I’m slowly designing what will be the plug for glassing up a cooling shroud for the engine mechanical fuel pump.  The plan thus far is to have one ply BID on the inside (since carbon fiber doesn’t play as well with aluminum) with 2 plies of CF on the exterior.

Again, this will have a port that is fed via SCAT tubing from the NACA scoop on the aft end of the RAM air scoop… that serves split duty specifically for cooling this fuel pump and the PMag ignition.

That being said, I’ll dial in this design over the next few days most likely before glassing it up… this below being the 3rd iteration of the design so far.  I also plan on adding to it and 3D printing a larger test piece overnight.

I’ll leave with you with a final pic of today’s work.

But first, to be specific, I’ll point out that I installed the 2 accessory oil lines from yesterday (IN/OUT), the crankcase vent hose, the oil heat oil return hose, the main fuel line on the OUT side of the fuel pump (feeds the fuel injection servo), the fuel feed line on the IN side of the fuel pump, the fuel pressure gauge hose, and the oil pressure gauge hose.  In addition, last night I terminated both ends of the -8 stainless steel hose with AN fittings in prep for connecting up the oil cooler (temp connected on the outboard side of the external vernatherm).  Besides the new oil level tube, I also installed the overflow port fitting on the front of the mechanical fuel pump.

This is the lion’s share of the work for the front side of the engine.  Tomorrow I’ll safety wire the oil filter and the oil level tube.  Besides the cooling shroud for the fuel pump, I also need to make one up (if I have the spec sheet) for the PMag.  In addition, I also need to work the install and configuration of the oil heat standpipe, which I plan to do concurrently with verifying and marking the new dipstick rod.

I started off this morning (in part) with a quick phone call to Brad at E-Mag Air Ignitions with a question on optimized PMag spark plug configuration (top, bottom, mixed… he said it really doesn’t matter: user preference) and to confirm I was cleared hot in sending in my PMag.  With clearance to land I finished packing up the box and sent out the ignition back to them.

Back in the shop I referred to my list of around a dozen major tasks that I need to knock out on the accessory case side… obviously the removal and sending back the PMag being the first one.

Next up was a very slight trim of the lower right engine mount arm to provide just a skooch more space for the titanium firewall cover with 1/16″ thick FiberFrax backing,

“I don’t normally highlight unfinished, free-handed cuts on an unsecured engine hanging from a hoist, but when I do I’m damn sure going to brag about it with a pic!” Ha!

I’ll note that before and during my phone call with E-Mag Air I kicked off a series of short 3D prints to test & confirm the thread pitch on the inside top (female) of the new oil level tube.  With the final one printing while I ran into town to send off the PMag.

Upon returning home, I spent about 15 minutes finalizing the design for my dipstick cap and fired that up while I did my Dremel Tool work above.  Here is the result: A low profile threaded oil level tube cap and dipstick rod holder (note the inside center hole in the subsequent pics).

I incorporated the little roundish side nubs in a star pattern to of course allow for better gripping of the cap.  I also designed a half-moon (side profile view) groove for a rubber O-ring to get a good seal.

I printed this in ABS plastic, which is good against heat but isn’t the best on details (in my experience) so the threads needed to be worked a bit to “cut” them in… almost as if I was using the oil level tube as a sort of tap.  But once I worked the cap threaded on a good half dozen times it seated well.  Here it is fully threaded in and sealed.

Again, this is just a prototype/proof-of-concept cap, but so far it looks very promising.  I’ll see how it fits under the top cowling and may make up a metal version of it.

Moving on in my engine “cleanup” tasks, one item high on my list was the top oil fitting on the accessory case that was clocked almost exactly 180° out in the wrong position. I need it facing in the general direction that I’m pointing using the red zip tie.

Note the lower fitting at the end of the zip tie that is facing in the direction I want for the upper fitting…. which would allow the oil hose to snake between the oil filter and the PMag.

I’m again pointing with a red zip tie to the lower oil port fitting on the engine accessory case.  In my initial assessment I had planned on swapping this out with a straight fitting, and since this one is clocked naturally with its final torque in about the same direction I need for the top port fitting, I’m going to swap this out and use it up top (plus it looks better!).

I’ll note that at this point one issue I had was that the engine was so full of oil that when I removed the red cap from this lower fitting, oil immediately began gushing out of the fitting… time to do some engine oil draining!

Which I did next.  I don’t really have a good airplane worthy oil drain container yet so in my rush to get this done I simply used two clean plastic gallon jugs to drain the oil.  And I needed 2 full gallon jugs because I had about 8 quarts of oil in this beast.  The quick oil drain fitting worked as advertised and started flowing oil with just the flip of the lever.

In addition to draining the oil, to get the top oil port fitting off I needed to remove the oil filter… which is probably good practice anyway for me to do it at least once while I have decent access to it before I do it when the engine is mounted on the plane.

I got the top oil port fitting off with minimal drama, and with the oil drained I could then move on to removing the bottom oil port fitting.

I then got the new top oil port fitting (the previous bottom fitting) installed. To finalize its clocked position I temporarily re-installed the oil filler.  Yes, it’s a tight fit… but again, what isn’t a tight fit on these birds??

And yes, my hoses and fittings were in my back rec room and the end of this hose was peaking out from the box and got sun-faded a bit.  This pink/formerly red part of the fitting will be 90% covered with fire-sleeve and I’m not chucking a $20 fitting simply because it has a little sun fade… cuz “I am not a rich man” (Forrest Gump voice).

I then finalized the hose flow and configuration assessment before terminating the other end with a straight fitting into the external vernatherm.

Since it has been awhile in discussing this: the external vernatherm is currently being used by Nick Ugolini to eliminate the need for any type of airflow control device on or around the oil cooler, to include taping off or covering part of it when flying during the cold winter months (for us “normal” people in the northern hemisphere <wink!>).  The external vernatherm is a “set it and forget it” component that simple keeps your oil temp at 180° all the time, all year round, with no further fuss or shenanigans.

Also in this pic below note my pre-staged/uninstalled straight fitting that I had planned on installing in the lower oil port.

Ahhh, but the best laid plans of mice and men!  Nope, after spending a good 45 minutes working the tight and odd configuration that is the norm on this bird: creative geometric machinations… and ready to have to pull the trigger on yet another esoteric 127.18473° fitting —or whatever!— component to make this thing work, ironically I circled right back around to…?  Yep, you guessed it!  The top 45° fitting (LOL as I write this).  You can’t make this stuff up.

The last bit of effort apparently was merely for aesthetics sake to swap out the top 45° fitting for the better looking bottom 45° fitting… ha!  At least their naturally clocking positions seemed better suited for hitting much closer to the torque specs.

Regardless, here is the end result.

The geometric gymnastics I was involved in was how to get the clearance between the crossing hoses while still simply just being able to make a minimal-stress hose connection between the engine accessory case lower oil port fitting and the lower external vernatherm fitting.  Apparently a 45° fitting combined with a 90° did the trick… and with NO sharp 90° fittings to boot! (let it be known however that if that had been the answer, I would have slapped a sharp 90° fitting onto this thing in a nanosecond if that would have solved this 5D chess problem… which I’ll note always looks simple enough after it’s successfully configured/installed!).

Here’s a slightly lower angle shot to better show the clearance between the 2 accessory case oil hoses.

With my oil hose configurations good to go, I then took them off the accessory case to pressure test each hose at 140 psi.  Thankfully they both passed the pressure test.

Here is the shorter oil OUT hose that connects to the lower oil port fitting.

And both ends of the oil IN fitting that goes to the upper oil port fitting.

And with that, I called it a night on this very long build day.  Tomorrow I plan to continue working the forward engine tasks to include hooking up all the hoses to the engine sensors.  I’ll also fire sleeve these 2 oil hoses after they’ve air dried overnight.

Today I received the new oil level tube.  It’s a beautiful piece of machining, but right out of the gate I found an issue: my dipstick threads don’t fit this tube!  Ugh… two steps forward, one step back.  So there may very well be some machining in my future because I’m not paying a small fortune for a dipstick!

Although I didn’t mention it in yesterday’s blog post, I had a good conversation with Clinton from Custom Aircraft Parts.  I had sent him a bunch of pics and he requested even more specific pics, which I sent out this morning.  He sounded very amenable in our discussion to tweaking the left exhaust pipes given how close they are to the cowling.

Part of our plan is to mimic what is in my cowling and on my engine when he connects up my pipes to an -320 motor he has.  To do this I needed to lock in the configuration of the two left exhaust pipes and essentially immobilize them… as you can see I did this with zip ties, hot glue and pieces of wood glued in place.

Moreover, I received an email back from Clinton late this afternoon stating we would plan on me shipping these out to him next week, so fingers crossed!

To take these pipes off —and the right side too— I took the bottom cowling off.

I then pulled the 90° sniffle valve and replaced it with the original design I tried out which keeps it off the SCEET tubing beneath it.

I also assessed the SCAT tubing coming up from the NACA scoop on the bottom side of the RAM air scoop.  This tube feeds cooling air that splits off to the 1) PMag and 2) the mechanical fuel pump.  I decided that for future engine removals I would have the tube disconnect between firewall and engine at about the spot where I’m pointing at with the screwdriver.

I also wanted to ensure that I had enough clearance between the PMag spark plug wire connectors (going into the main unit) and the firewall.  I taped a piece of the 1/4″ thick Birch plywood that is actually used for the firewall onto the firewall to check the clearance… as you can see there is plenty of room (tight, but in this bird that is PLENTY of room!).

I then cleared out a bunch of stuff on the bottom of the engine in prep for removing it.

I then connected up the engine hoist and removed all the engine mount bolts.

After a good 10 minutes of slowly and carefully easing the engine off the firewall, it came off without much hoopla (good!).

I then grabbed this shot of the accessory case, which was hard to see when the engine was on the floor stand.

I had already cracked the mounting bolts slightly loose on the PMag while the engine was secured on the firewall, which then allowed me to quickly remove the PMag in short order.  I plan on sending it back to EMag Air tomorrow for them to give it a firmware update and thorough check-over before I mount it back onto the engine.

Here’s the rather large hole remaining on the right side of the accessory case (the right “mag” hole) where the PMag was extracted from . . .

I looked around the shop and found the cap to the large cylindrical zip tie container and grabbed that to temporarily seal up the hole… it fit perfectly!

I grabbed one more shot of the engine off the bird.  Pardon the mess, I’m building an airplane!

And another shot showing the front side of the engine as well.

Although I sanded down and repainted red the aft nose/avionics cover “window” area prior to prepping and pulling the engine, I finally grabbed a shot of it before closing up the shop.  As you can see it turned out much, much nicer this go around.

The last noteworthy item to report is that I spoke with the ever-knowledgeable Mike Toomey yesterday about my hershey kiss spinner woes.  I got a lot of good info from him which enabled me to figure out a plan to modify the Catto “lamp shade” flow guide that will allow me to mount the original spinner I got from them. In short I’ll be turning my lamp shade flow guide into a flow guide much closer to what Klaus Xavier designed.

I even called Catto and will be getting the same carbon fiber they used on the spinner setup so that my mod will match the original.

Ok, very, very late here so I’m calling it a night!

I started off today with a final sanding of the inside of aft nose/avionics cover.  After cleaning up the dust I then epoxy wiped the micro/West 410 filled area with 3 rounds.

As I let the epoxy wipes cure on the aft nose/avionics cover, I then did a quick check on the charging status of my TCW Technologies Integrated Backup Battery System (IBBS). As this now is a little long in the tooth (I can relate!) anything between 13.5 and 14.5 volts is good, so I’ve very happy that the unit is reading 13.78 volts.  After taking this picture, I then put it back on the charger and will continue to monitor it to see if this voltage value goes up any.

After another visual review of Mike Melvill’s cowling configuration, I then marked the top cowling for a bit of a trim on the aft sides.  The flare out that you see is persona non gratis on Mike’s bird, so it will be on mine as well.  This area is actually just a sort of a rounded rectangle that makes up the aft opening of the cowling on Mike M’s Long-EZ.

I then also marked up the aft lower cowling for trimming as well . . .

Here’s one final look at the stock aft cowling sides before I trim them.

And here are the aft lower cowling sides trimmed up.  The sharp “trailing edge” of the cowling actually is on the upper cowling as it rests on the lower cowling and gets secured with a series of CAMLOCs.

And here is the upper cowling with its hind quarters trimmed a bit as well.  I’ll note that the top cowling looks a bit cleaner here since I spent a good bit of time hitting it with Simple Green, water, a 3M pad and even a wire brush to remove the PVA (mold release agent) from the surface.

Here’s a look at the aft hind quarters of the upper cowling and its current interface with the lower cowling.  I’ll of course continue to work this and dial it in, but a good amount of glasswork will most definitely be required and ensue in these areas.

I then got back to working the inside of the aft nose/avionics cover.  I sanded the cured epoxy wipes and cleaned up the area (there are some areas outside the immediate “window” that I wasn’t as thorough with currently).

I then taped and covered the surrounding surfaces around the immediate “window” area and then primed it with a few light coats.

Today –and tonight– was very hot and humid, and I’m guessing that it had something to do with my red paint turning out so blotchy and nasty.  I’ll sand it down and hit it with another couple coats tomorrow.

And with that folks, I called it a night!

I started out today by giving the inside of the aft nose/avionics cover “window” looking area a quick sanding to rough it up in prep for micro finish.

I then applied a decent layer of micro/West 410 on the “window” looking area of the inside surface of the aft nose/avionics cover.  I used fast hardener so that it would be cured by this evening, and then set it off to the side.

I then called the folks at Jet-Hot to discuss ceramic coatings for the exhaust pipes.  I had a very informative discussion with their sales rep Debbie for a good half hour while she went through the different types of coatings they offer.  I got off the call with a little bit of homework (research) to do, while they actually had some to do on their end as well.  Clinton from Custom Aircraft Parts (who I also emailed about the exhaust pipes) recommended these folks, and I have to say my initial impression of them is excellent.

After reviewing my notes on Mike Melvill’s engine, cowling, prop and exhaust pipe configurations, I then got back into the shop to figure out where the aft edge of the top and bottom cowlings needed to be.  After a number of machinations, checks and rechecks, a bit more research here and there, I finally got my numbers dialed in and a straight line drawn across the aft edge of the bottom cowling (note I’m using the screw- driver to point out the line).

Here’s a genera idea of what is coming off the aft edge of the cowling… I marked this line a few days ago on a swag of what this would look like.

I then removed the lower cowling, took it outside and prepped to trim it with my trusty Fein saw… which you can see I did in pic #2.  I then sanded the aft edge to ensure it was straight.

Back in the shop I remounted the lower cowling and then double-checked the aft edge with a yardstick to ensure it was straight… it is.  Looking pretty good!

Here’s a shot of the freshly trimmed aft edge of the lower cowling.

Alas… sadly the “lamp shade” flow guide on my Catto prop spinner assembly still doesn’t fit with the cowl set as it is.  This means I’m either going to have to modify the flow guide or simple sell the spinner assembly outright.  I’m leaning towards the former since I like the spinner and they’re hard to come by these days… and I seriously don’t want to take the time to make one myself.

I then went to dinner with Jess and after returning back home, I grabbed the aft nose/ avionics cover to sand down the now cured micro/West 410 finish.  Although it took a bit of elbow grease (doesn’t it always), it sanded out nicely.

Although I got most of it done, this was just the initial sanding to knock down all the high spots before it cured rock solid.  Tomorrow I’ll fine tune it and either do a few West 410 touchups, or just jump right into a couple rounds of epoxy wipes.

And with that, I called it a night!