I started off today by trimming the glass and shaping the flox on the small gap fill I did on the left wing inboard trailing edge, where it interfaces with the aft left TE of the top cowling.  Once I shaped the wing side, I then mounted the top cowling to check the gap… which obviously looks way better now that it’s filled.

I then removed the bottom cowling, pulled the peel ply off the 1 ply CF tape layup that I did to secure the outboard side of the left armpit intake inboard wall.  I then razor trimmed and cleaned up the cured layup.

After some more trimming of the left side intake inboard wall to allow better clearances with the cold air induction tubes, I then laid up a 1-ply CF tape on the inside of the left side air intake wall.

I then peel plied the layup.

I had to run out to do some errands for a good part of the day, and upon returning early evening I mounted the bottom cowling back onto the plane and got to work on the right armpit air intake inboard wall.  I spent a good 45 minutes trimming the inboard wall and finally got to a point where it was ready to install.

With the cylinders on the right side of the engine offset forward as compared to those on the left, it made the initial layup of the single ply CF tape significantly more challenging than the left side.  Another minor issue I had was actually securing the inboard wall in place while I glassed it.  For this reason I actually did NOT peel ply this layup as I wanted to minimize any added disturbance of the inboard wall… since I really had to do some contortions to get my hands in there to get this layup completed.

With this challenging layup under my belt, I called it a night.  Tomorrow I plan on laying up the CF tape on the other side of the right side inboard wall to finish securing it.  I also want to start work on getting the air inlet ramps installed as well.

I started off today doing a few sideline tasks as I waited for the top cowl cross rib baffle to cure with the top cowl mounted in place for at least 24 hours, since I used Pro-Set epoxy for the final cross rib baffle layup.

I grabbed the Aft nose/avionics cover and pulled all the surrounding overspray paper off before taking the cover outside and first lightly sanding it with 220 grit before then wet sanding it with 350 grit.  This knocked off quite a few nibs but also exposed some underlying colors in the process, such as white dots now appearing in the black squares, which I’ll simply touch up.  However, it made a huge difference in smoothness that I could tell just by running my hand across the painted surfaces.

I’ll carve an hour or two here and there out over the next month to attack each color at a time with touchups and let those cure at least 48 hours before going onto the next color. When all 3 colors have been touched up and cured, I’ll then clear coat the panel.

Although I could clearly fly without either the above or this next task being completed, personally I don’t want have a dozen nice-to-do projects staring me in the face after I get this thing flying.  Especially since I’m sure I’ll have more important mods to tend to such as ramp vane/engine cooling adjustments, avionics configuration tweaks, etc.

Since I decided to copy Chris Randall’s method of running my fuel vents out the sides of the Turtledeck, it’s clearly made the area surrounding the GIB headrest/engine electronics compartment pretty gnarly and industrial looking.

I took about 45 minutes to create a cardboard template that surrounds the GIB headrest and fills the gap between it and the outer Turtledeck shell to hide those unsightly fuel vent lines.  However, I will have to do a few rounds of extra layups on this cover mod to allow for the electronics cooling intake and exhaust fans that are at roughly the 4 and 10 o’clock positions when looking at the front face of the engine electronics bay.

I have a cut OSB (“plywood”) mold that I used for the shape of the GIB headrest that I’ve kept since I made the headrest/electronics bay wall.

Ironically, as I was looking for it out under the carport that hangs off my shop, I ran across the very dirty extracted 2-ply UNI piece of exterior fuselage skin that I cut away to expose the area that I would create the depression for the landing brake on the bottom of the bird.  Unlike the plans process, here I taped up the area of the landing brake before glassing the outside of the fuselage… thus was able to simply cut and pull this piece of fiberglass off the bird without all the foam and gunk attached to it.

As I was pondering how to glass this GIB headrest surround cover, I was thinking it would be nice to have a starting substrate, preferably one that was all in one piece… clearly I had an Aha! moment and went and retrieved this very flimsy panel of fiberglass I’ve kept around for over 10 years now.  I cleaned it up with Simple Green and the hose before sanding it down on the exterior (non-tape facing) side and pressed it into service.

Since this panel is only 2 plies of UNI thick, I wanted to make it just a bit stronger as I add a kink to the lower left side (right facing camera) for the air intake fan.  Moreover, my plan is to get the final shape and kinks dialed in and then do one final layup on it with CF as the outboard facing surface… yep, fancy!

I taped my cardboard mockup template to the back side of the UNI panel and then outlined it with a thick black Sharpie.  Since I could see right through it that allowed me to do my initial added ply of BID layup on the front without worrying about messing up my marked line, which just isn’t my layup perimeter, but also my cut line.  I then peel plied the 1-ply BID layup (I used West epoxy here with fast 205 hardener).

By this point I was past my 24-hour cure time on the top cowl cross rib baffle, so I removed the cowling, marked my trim line on the peel ply and trimmed the layup with my Fein saw.  I then removed the peel ply and cleaned up the layup.

Of course I then quickly remounted the top cowling to check the fit and clearances of the top cowl cross rib baffle.  It’s a bit close to the actual front baffle wall, so at some point in the future I may trim the cross rib baffle down a bit more… especially if it interferes at all with the rivets that secure the baffle seam.

With the top cowling off I then had access to the armpit inlets.  I sanded the rough edges of the intake inboard walls, and then spent about 20 minutes dialing in the shape of the left side inboard wall.

After another half hour of fine-tuning the shape, clearance and positioning of the left intake inboard wall, I pulled the trigger and secured it in place with a 1-ply CF tape in the intersecting corner on the outboard side.

I then spent another good little bit reaching in there to peel ply the layup.

Tomorrow I’ll pull the bottom cowling off and layup the inside corner to finish securing the left intake inboard wall.  I already know that I need to do a bit more trimming on the aft side as well.

I had just a bit of epoxy left in the cup (par usual!) so I decided that my last task of the evening would be to layup a ply of UNI and a ply of BID overhanging the left wing inboard TE by about 1/4″.  I then added a blob of flox on the aft TE corner pressed into the now overhanging glass above it.  I then peel plied the layup.

This layup with flox is to remedy the noticeable gap that I have —obviously on the wing side— between the left wing TE and the top cowling left TE.

Tomorrow my main goal is to get the right inlet inboard wall shaped, positioned and “glassed” (CF) in place.  From there I’ll start working the inlet ramp installs.

Pressing forward.

I started out today by taking the armpit inlet inboard wall layups outside and cutting the walls out.  They’re still in the rough just-cut state and I’ll sand down the edges tomorrow.

I then got to work on the top cowl cross rib baffle front side 2-ply CF layup by first pulling the peel ply (after taking the top cowling off the bird) and then cleaning that up.

I then pulled the wood form and cleaned all the hot glue off.  Remaining was the initial peel ply that I put on before laying up the center front 2-ply CF (pic 1).  I then pulled the peel ply off and cleaned that up as well (pic 2).   I then prepped the entire aft side of the top cowl cross rib baffle and —don’t forget!— stiffener for the aft side layup.

I had some single strands of CF UNI left over from a long time ago, and decided to use those as filler at the base of the front layup to fill the resulting bottom gap (corner radius) and create a bit of a fillet as well.  I have to say, it worked pretty darn well.

I then added in 2 plies of 1″ wide UNI to help strengthen this cross rib baffle and stiffener, in addition I added an extra ply of CF to make it 3 total on this layup, 5 total for the cross rib baffle/stiffener.  Here’s all the CF and UNI laid up.

I then peel plied the layup.  All in all it took well over 3 hours just to prep and do this layup, but I think it turned out PDG.

I then left the layup to cure… and just like last night I’ll let it cure for a good 4-6 hours to set up and then mount the top cowling back onto the bird to have the final cure happen “in situ.”  Tomorrow I plan to start working the armpit inlet walls and ramps full bore.

Today was a much warmer day than it has been in the last few weeks, and I had promised Jess if we had another nice warm day we’d either take the boat or the bike out.  I didn’t want to mess with prepping the boat or making an entire day of going out, so we just hopped on the ‘ol Harley and cruised out for a few hours.

Before Jess came over for our scoot, I wanted to get something knocked out on the plane build.  I decided to add the first of two reinforcement plates for the aft right baffle Melvill-style bracket.  I of course had some VAN’s baffle kit right angled brackets on hand so I repurposed one of those and pressed it into service as a reinforcement plate.

After lining up the new bracket plate on the front edge of the “Melvill” bracket I drilled a hole and then installed a Cleco to secure it.  Then another hole and another Cleco.  All told I drilled 4 rivet holes.  In addition, if you look at the bottom front corner you can see where I marked the Melvill bracket for trimming since there is no engine surface behind the bracket in that area.

I then trimmed the Melvill bracket, the reinforcement bracket, countersunk the rivet holes and riveted the repurposed bracket (I guess these are both repurposed eh?) into place.

Here’s the final product for this first reinforcement plate on the Melvill bracket.  The aft reinforcement will also go upwards but also aft and will look a bit like a reverse ‘L’ or ⌋ shape.

Although I plan on letting them cure fully until tomorrow before cutting out the armpit inlet inboard walls, I also went ahead and pulled the peel ply off of those layups.

After getting back from our ride where we hit a little coffee joint out on the beach, I then got back into the shop to work the top cowl cross rib baffle.

Here we have the outboard segments of the top cowl cross rib baffle with the peel ply pulled.

I then removed the wood forms, pulled the aft side peel ply and cleaned everything up for the left outboard side (pic 1) and right outboard side (pic 2) segments of the top cowl cross rib baffle.

I then spent about half an hour dialing in my initial cardboard template to the shape of the center area of the upper top cowl… after remeasuring the width of the cowl as it was installed in place on the plane.

Apparently my installed cowl-width measurement was much better this time around (And I was a bit over 1/2″ off the last time from this measurement) as when I test fitted the cowl with the top cowl cross rib baffle cardboard template in place, the fit was spot on.

I then outlined the cardboard template onto the plywood top lid for the metal brake crate.

I then cut a new wood form for the top cowl cross rib baffle center section, and after a couple minor tweaks it fit right into place between the 2 outboard segments.

I then double checked my wood form fit by taping it into place and remounting the cowl…

And installing nearly all the CAMLOCs around the perimeter.  All looked good this time around!

I then cut 2 plies of CF and the initial peel ply that matched the shape of the wood form.  I then added duct tape as a mold release to the front of the wood form and hot glued it into place, again between the existing outboard segments of the top cowl cross rib baffle.

I then laid up the first ply of CF, after I wet out the peel ply that covered just the taped portion of the wood form (not any on the cowling).  Not wanting to add any more forward surface depth of the top cowl cross rib baffle, I only overlapped this first ply onto the existing outboard segments by about an inch each side.

The second CF ply was shorter in width and did not overlap onto the existing segments as the first ply did, but was just pretty much the shape of the wood form on the vertical side.

I then peel plied the 2-ply CF layup.

I used Pro-Set epoxy to give me a fairly long cure time, so first thing in the morning I’ll mount the top cowling into place so that the final cure of this center top cowl cross rib baffle section will set with the top cowling secured into place with all the CAMLOCs installed.

I started off today by pulling the peel ply and trimming the sides of both outboard 2-ply CF layups for the top cowl cross rib baffle/stiffener.  I then mounted the top cowling back on the bird to check for any possible clearance or obstruction issues, but all was good (no pics).  I of course meant to do the next round of layups on the cross rib baffle later in the evening to let it cure overnight… but ran out of time.

Before I mounted the bottom cowling to work on the armpit inlet inboard walls, I wanted to get another smallish task knocked out: the engine ground strap attachment.  I discussed different engine ground strap attach points with B&C Electronics and was “cleared hot” by them to mount it to the front right corner edge of the oil sump.  The only issue is that when I ordered this ground strap from them years ago, each end was meant to attach to a 5/16″ bolt.  Now this end is attaching to a 1/4″ bolt.

In the recent past I had looked around for a small insert to use but didn’t have any, and honestly couldn’t find any anywhere online.  I ended up ordering some raw stock from McMaster-Carr and since I don’t have my Lathe CNC finalized yet, decided to simply trim a width off of it that is as thick as the ring terminal: ~1/16″.  I then spent less than 10 minutes filing the insert to final thickness and to remove the Dremel cut marks.

I then removed the front right bolt from the oil sump lip.  Now, I had originally planned to mount the grounding strap on the top of the oil sump lip, but it was too close to the engine mount ring when pointed in the direction it needed to be to reach the firewall post, and stretched too tight if I kicked it out in different position… so I mounted it on the bottom of the oil sump lip.  I then added some blue Loctite to the bolt threads, applied some Dielectric grease to the ring terminal, replaced the star washer and then torqued the nut back to 96 in-lbs.  I then did a continuity check from the far unattached end of the ground strap to the bolt stud on the starter and it rang out nice and loud.

Voila! Engine ground strap installed on the engine side.

I then mounted the bottom cowling and spent a good half hour finalizing the shape of the left side armpit inlet inboard wall.  I then used the cardboard template to cut out a ply of Lantor Soric filler material, with some minor mods (I didn’t want to have to remake a whole new template).

I then used the Lantor Soric to cut out a ply of CF for the left side (I explain below how these are used).

I then spent nearly 45 minutes working the right side template for the armpit intake inboard wall.  I don’t show Mike Melvill’s original template here, but just like the left side template mine is significantly different than his.

I then did the same thing with the right template by using it to cut a ply of Lantor Soric, and then using the Lantor Soric to cut a ply of CF.  I then cut peel ply for both side layups (pic 1).

Now, included with the Mike Melvill cowlings from Feather Light was a large flat piece of 3-ply (I’m assuming?) CF.  It’s a bit too thin and flexible (emphasis on thin) for how I want to employ it, which is a bit more outboard than Mike had his (it appears my ramps are a tad narrower than how Mike Melvill’s ended up… which is fine).  I kept going back and forth but eventually decided I wanted these inboard walls just a bit thicker, thus the Lantor Soric getting added to the 3-ply CF sheet with another ply of CF over the Lantor Soric… as you can see that’s exactly how I laid it up (pic 2).

I then of course peel plied both layups and since I used Pro-Set epoxy I set them aside to cure overnight.

I was heading out for a later dinner with Jess so I decided to simply knock out a couple more baffle tasks since I wouldn’t have enough time to make a new top cowl cross rib middle template/form and then do a layup.

Again, I have a couple rivet holes remaining on the left side front baffle that are not in an area that will simply allow me to cover them with baffle seam material.  As I did on the right I trimmed the length of the front side stiffener way down and then cleaned it up, final drilled the #30 holes and mounted the stiffener with 2 rivets.

My next baffle task entailed a bit more machinations.  First off, while the bottom cowling was off I took a good look to assess the run of the crankcase vent hose.  In the vicinity of the lower right front baffle/cylinder 4 corner is where a 5/8″ aluminum tube will get secured inside the hose to then run along the exhaust pipes so anything coming out of the hose/tube will get burned off at the exhaust exit.

You can see in the pic below that the crankcase vent hose is secured upstream to the engine mount frame with an Adel clamp, and I need another one at the bottom front corner of the baffling to again secure the hose.

Whether the Adel clamp gets secured directly to the bottom corner or maybe with an intermediate angled tab, I need to be able to bolt either to the bottom corner of the baffle.  I drilled out the bottom rivet hole to 3/16″ and then grabbed a scrap square of 0.040″ thick 2024 aluminum as a reinforcement doubler and cleaned it up.  I then mounted an AN3 platenute just to the side cylinder 4 baffle segment with countersunk rivets.

I then reassembled the front right corner baffle segments and threaded in an AN3 sized bolt.  Again, I may need to make up a small tab to secure and angle the Adel clamp in the correct orientation, but the hardpoint for attaching all that is now in place.

I was expecting to receive the cylinder baffle forms by today, but I haven’t gotten them yet.  If I don’t receive them by Tuesday I’ll ping my contact to see what’s going on.  I plan on finishing up the top cowl cross rib baffle over the next couple of days and add some reinforcement brackets to the “Melvill” baffle bracket on the aft right side.  After that, I may add some baffle seal material around the front and side baffles a bit, but I can’t really do any more on the baffles and will roll into working the exhaust pipes and prepping for micro finishing the remaining parts of the bird.

I started off today with the goal of getting both the top cowl cross rib baffle front half glassed as well as the bottom cowl inlet inboard wall shapes finalized and glassed.  They say if you’re reaching all your goals then you’re not setting them high enough… I’d say I’m ok in that department! ha

I did have one planned baffle task to do in support of prepping for the top cowl cross rib baffle, and that was to mount the front baffle wall center support bracket that attaches to the center engine crankcase bolts (see below).  The unplanned baffle task I got caught up in is that as I was doing some mental inventory on what is left to be done on the front/left/right baffle sides, I noted the pre-drilled holes in the front side baffles for the included stiffeners in the VAN’s baffle kit.

As I was pondering how to fill those holes, I figured I would just throw a rivet in each hole and call them sealed.  Then I thought, well, why not make them useful?  I set the right side stiffener in place and realized I could simply use it in its shortened state… who knows, it might prove useful in providing an Adel clamp mounting tab in the future?

I shortened the stiffener using my Dremel tool then riveted it into place.  Clearly I wanted to ensure it wouldn’t interfere with the baffle seal material mounting.

I did add one more rivet towards the front side, and here you can see that more clearly from the inside of the baffles (note: I’ll assess and most likely install the left side stiffener within the next few days).

I then mounted the center bracket to secure the front baffle wall.  I have to say overall I’m quite impressed with the VAN’s baffle kit since they even include new star lock washers to replace the ones I removed when I temporarily removed the crankcase bolts to mount the bracket.  I then retorqued the crankcase bolts to 96 in-lbs.

There were pre-drilled bolt holes in the vertical tabs of the bracket but not surprisingly no holes in the front baffle panels, so I drilled those out for an AN3-sized screw.  Note since these baffles are for RV tractor aircraft that they are a tad too short in the middle to reach to within a half inch of the inside top cowling…. clearly at the flat part.

I had been thinking about making a forward stiffener in the top cowl after a discussion with Marco months ago how he noted in some videos he took while flying that his Long-EZ’s top cowling was distorting a decent bit while in flight.  My thought on combining the top cowl forward stiffener with a forward cross rib baffle (like the side rib baffles, only 90° to those) was re-confirmed in a response to my COBA baffle question from Klaus Savier who said his cowling rib baffles also serve a dual purpose as cowl stiffeners.

Thus, in lieu of messing around with heightening the front baffle wall in the center to get it close enough to the top cowling, I would simply make a combo cross rib baffle/cowl stiffener and call it good.  Plus, the slightly lower profile center front baffle wall will give me a slightly better visual when swapping out the oil filter.

I took measurements of the front baffle wall to different spots along the front edge line of the top cowling, and then put the top cowling back in place.  I then drilled very small diameter holes at those measurements.  I then inserted a straight dental pick into the drilled holes to determine my distance from the front baffle wall and annotated any corrections onto tape at each hole.

I made my fore/aft assessment of the distance from drilled hole to front baffle by either looking into the oil check door or from the aft end of the cowling with a light (pic 1).  Also, I verified the gap from the center of the front baffle wall to inside top cowling as just over 1″.  To be clear, if I wasn’t looking to specifically install a top cowl stiffener I probably would not have proceeded with installing a top cowl cross rib baffle.

I taped the top cowling on the outside with the duct tape taut and did an eyeball top cowl width measurement with my tape measure.  I then removed the top cowl and flipped it over and taped across the bottom to bring the outboard tape taut and at the distance of my eyeball measurement.  I also made my corrected cross rib baffle line across the cowl using the drilled holes as references (pic 1).

I then made up a cardboard template for the cross rib baffle (pic 2).  Now, I should have taped the template in place and put the cowling back on to ensure my template was tracking the inside surface of the top cowl when it was mounted in place.  But I didn’t, since mentally I guess I had already captured the “mounted cowl position.”  This proved to be a significant error.

I then used the template to cut out a plywood form.  Again, it all appeared well as I test fit my form inside the top cowling.

I then taped up the front side of my form and hot glued it into place.

When I went to mount the top cowl into place I could tell I was about a good 1/2″ off my cross measurement, as the sides were in just a bit too much to mount the top cowl back in place.  After messing around with it for a while, I realized my lack of due diligence in checking the cardboard template had brought me to a point of having to call NO JOY on the plywood form… at least, a fair bit of it.

I decided to get some CF curing and simply lopped off the low “threat” flatter sides and hot glued those back into place. I then remounted the cowling to check their fit and all was good.

I then cut and laid up 2 plies of CF on each side.

And peel plied the 2-ply CF layups.

After nearly 2 hours of curing, right before I went to bed, I went back out to the shop and mounted the top cowl into place to ensure the top cowl would be in its normal mounted state as these layups went into final cure.

Thus, instead of a one-time layup for the front side, clearly this will be yet another iterative process with a few layup cycles (oh, well… pressing forward).

Today I wanted to knock out a bunch of small little tasks remaining on the baffles to get those off the to-do plate.

Once again, some of these tasks involved a good little bit of both research and decision making, which are both time burners.

I’ll start by covering a couple of early on tasks that I didn’t get any pics of:  #1 was determining spacing and then drilling rivet holes in the front right corner where the front outboard baffle meets the front side (cylinder #4) baffle.  This corner is left essentially rivet hole free in case an RV builder wants the option of mounting the oil cooler on the front (their aft) baffle wall.  “Undocumented” task #2 was the final shaping & deburring of the top centerline crankcase bracket for the front baffle wall (again no pics).

In keeping with my 1/2″ spacing between the aluminum side baffle walls and the top cowling, this left the decent-sized oval port —for spark plug wrench access— in place on the forward side baffle segments.  Clearly I needed to determine how I was going to seal up these ports, whether with the baffle seals themselves, or the hardware that was included in the VAN’s baffle kit [sidenote: the hardware to seal these ports in the kit is unusable… must have been leftover from a previous baffle design?].

I felt I needed to do some sideline research to see if there was any standards or guidance on how much of the baffle seal gets attached to the aluminum baffle wall, and what distance from the baffle edge should the mounting rivets be placed?  Well, after a good bit of looking in the plans, in both Tony Bingelis’ engine books, and online the only consistent standard I could find was to place the baffle seal securing rivets every 1-1/2″ to 2″…. all other install requirements were absent.  No joy there.

Moreover, I had to make a decision on whether to install and use the front side baffle reinforcement stiffeners that were included in the VAN’s kit.  Clearly with the shape of my top cowling, and thus my side baffles, a good portion of these stiffeners would have to be trimmed off.  Plus, how would they interface with the baffle sealing material? (clearly no issue on RVs since their side baffles are much taller than our pusher aircraft).  Finally, besides the designed U-notch to allow access to the spark plug port, how would these stiffeners work with accessing and using that port?

I spent a good hour going through different options on how to incorporate these stiffeners into the mix… I mean I have a row of rivet holes on the front side baffle segments, so I might as well use them if possible, eh?  In the meantime, based on my baffle configurations, I decided that I would mount the baffle seals overlapping onto the baffle walls by 0.9″ with the rivets equidistant from edge of baffle to lower edge of seal at 0.45″.

After discovering that the included VAN’s spark plug access port sealing hardware was simply not going to work, I started working on my own solution, with a bit more simplicity and elegance being a requirement.  Moreover, as I worked through various machinations and tested out different designs, I concluded that the VAN’s reinforcement stiffeners were a no-go and dumped them.  My best option came into view after I test fitted an AN970-3 wide washer to see if that would cover the spark plug access port.  It did.

I then used some scrap baffle material to make up a couple of port filler pieces to simply fill in the middle area between the inside and outside AN970-3 washers: a glorified washer itself if you will, and here are the results.

And also a closer shot of the size of this spark plug access port filler piece (sorry for the pic quality).

I then drilled a hole in the center of each filler piece to accept an AN3 sized bolt/screw.

And then test fitted my new spark plug access port sealing hardware setup: an AN970-3 washer on each side, with the filler piece in the middle to support clamping pressure, and voila… EZ-PZ!  Here is a look at the inside…

And the outside.  Most likely I’ll just simply make an access hole in the baffle seal material as well to allow me to remove these port seals whenever I need to install or remove a front spark plug (And yes, way too much time spent on these things… and even explaining it all.  But they’re done now!).

Moving on.

To help minimize vibration and chaffing, but still allow movement between the front and aft cylinder/baffle on each side, the VAN’s baffle kit includes these little side clips that get mounted on the outside of the seam between front and aft side baffle segments.

Normally, these are mounted just above the beginning of the split (lower) since there is more baffle material with sides higher in an RV installation.  For me, with much lower baffle side walls, I am using them both as a securing clip for the baffle seams, but also to secure the baffle seal in place since I don’t have enough room to mount it just on the aluminum surface.

I drilled out #40 holes for the 2 securing rivets (pic 1), and then countersunk the holes on the inboard side of the baffle wall (pic 2).  The left side is shown.

I then did the same thing on the right side.  Clearly these clips won’t get installed until the baffle seals are installed.

One minor issue that I ran across was my aft top doubler plate on the right side baffle at cylinder #2.  When I drew my line to denote the baffle seal attachment area on the right side baffle segments, that line crossed the top of the doubler.  Since I want to minimize any chances of air leaks with the baffle seals, I didn’t want any differences in elevation on the side wall… in short I needed to trim the top of the doubler off to allow the baffle seal material to sit as flat as possible.

I drilled out the 3 rivets, then removed and trimmed the doubler . . .

And then re-riveted the doubler in place.  Another minor, but needed, baffle task completed.

As yesterday, I had a bunch more tasks on my to-do list for today, but after a bit later dinner and some household stuff I needed to tend to, I never made it back out to the shop other than to lock it up.  With these niggling, low-hanging fruit baffle tasks done, tomorrow I plan to press forward with the final top cowl front baffle cross rib & stiffener as well as the bottom cowling inlet walls and ramps.

On 3 sides: front, left and right…

But first, I started out today wanting to get a task knocked out that his been literally staring me in the face (sitting on my coffee table!) for a couple of months: the brazing of a 1/2″ brass tube into the brass 1/2-NPT 45° street elbow that will be my new oil heat oil sump fitting with standpipe to replace the massive 90° steel standpipe that is jamming up my SCEET tube underneath the engine.

A couple of months ago I had called literally about a dozen welders to see who could braze brass stuff… well, of course I started locally and moved out geographically.  The welder that I went to today is about 45 minutes from my house, so I figured I would go for a little drive this morning and get this thing done.  The good news is that they did it while I waited, after a discussion of exactly what my requirements were.  I wanted it brazed because A) I don’t have the Oxy-Acetylene torch kit to do it, and B) I’ve never done it before (if I had A than I would forge ahead and disregard B).

I told them exactly what it was for since their initial guess was that it was for fuel… fuel of course typically being cool.  Nope, this is for oil gents and it’s an oil fitting with standpipe inside an oil pan feeding an oil heat exchanger via a pump.  Of course the only thing I was purposefully vague on was that it was going into an airplane… any homebuilder knows how that conversation can turn out.

Well, they came out of the shop and asked me if the length was critical because they blew out the sidewall of the tube (I guess I’m not the only one who does stuff like that!).  I said no, I had plenty there.  They told me that the brazing rod they had was too big, and they had to find some smaller stuff.  Then the boss handed over my project to one of the minions, who peppered me with questions so we went over the specs and requirements again.  I was out front BS’ing with the owner and another customer… when, after over half an hour later out comes my pipe and street elbow joined as I had wanted.  However, it didn’t look like it was brazed, but rather soldered.  Hmmm?  I asked him if it was brazed or soldered, and he said it was a high temp solder since they didn’t have (or couldn’t locate) any smaller diameter brazing rod.  I responded that I was highly skeptical since I hadn’t heard of that, and he assured me it would meet my requirements… I thought maybe I had learned something new, but spoiler alert: it doesn’t meet my requirements.

When I got home I heated up my stove to 400° F and put the fitting/standpipe in there for almost an hour.  I pulled the combo out with oven mitts and could easily pull the joint apart.  Now, while it was baking I did some research on how hot it gets inside a Lycoming engine.  I couldn’t find any actual data on that, but Lycoming does state that the oil temp isn’t supposed to get over around 235° F, but I want my components to be able to withstand at least 350° F, with a safety margin… thus the 400º F.  I don’t know if I’m being too stringent, but I know that a brazed part and definitely a welded part would have no issues with my required temp tolerances.

So, alas, I will have to do this myself!

My first task out in the shop was to rewire the oil level tube to ensure it stays nice and snug in its place…

I then marked the top cowl rib baffles at just over 1/2″ high on the peel ply, which gave me some contrast to see my cut line.  Here’s the left side.

I then trimmed the rib baffles with my Fein saw.  Again, here’s the left side.

I also trimmed off each end, forward and aft, of the rib baffle on both the left and right sides.  I then cleaned up the cut edges with a sanding block to finish them off.  And here are my rib baffles, which I now consider merely an adjunct to my baffle setup.  As I told Mike Beasley, I’m pioneering a new “Hybrid Baffling System” … ha!

I then did a trial fit of the top cowling to see if I had any clearance issues with the rib baffles while setting the cowling into place, which I didn’t.  I then looked up inside to see how the rib baffles were positioned in relation to the actual baffles, and all looked good.  Again, I do have that minor kick-out inboard for the last aft few inches on the right side, but besides that they looked really good.

I then marked, removed, and did a final trim on all the baffle segments to dial in about a 1/2″ gap between baffle wall and inside top cowling all the way around.  The only segment that did not need trimming was the aft right baffle around cylinder #2.

Although I had a lot more on my to-do list to get done today than I actually did, one such task was to get the top spark plug wire baffle seals configured on the front baffle wall segments.  I made up a cardboard template and then assessed different access points for the Electroair spark plug wires to traverse the front baffle walls.

As you can see, I decided to put them equidistant from the engine centerline and cant them at an angle.  After marking up their respective locations I drilled the outer AN3-sized holes for each seal, then used a 3/4″ hole saw to drill the center “figure eight” holes.  I will note that these seals are for mags which have 5mm diameter spark plug wires, whereas my Electroair spark plug wires are 8mm in diameter… yep, nothing standard and even another required mod in drilling these suckers out!

Tomorrow really will be centered more on the bottom cowl intake ramps, which I’ll work over the next few days as I then will roll into working the exhaust pipes… and start prepping to do some major sanding and micro fill on this bird.  At this point I can’t really do a whole lot more with the baffles since I need the CF inner baffles in place to do the final positioning of at least the front baffle segments (I’ll construct the aft shelf and skirt around the inner baffles), and I’m still waiting to receive the form set for the inner baffles.

I started out this morning by pulling the peel ply and cleaning up the 2-ply CF layups on both the left and right top cowl rib baffles.

I then mounted the top cowling back onto the plane to check the clearances between the newly “glassed” top cowling rib baffles and the side baffle walls.  The left side looked good and evenly gapped all the way down (as far as I could tell… pic 1) while the right side looked good as well, but had a noticeably wider gap on the aft few inches (pic 2).

I then finalized the cleanup of the inboard sides of the rib baffles in prep for laying up the 2-ply CF plies, that you can see I cut and are awaiting laying up.

Using Pro-Set epoxy, I then laid up the 2 plies of CF on each inboard top cowl rib baffle.

I then peel plied the layups, first the left (pic 1), then the right side (pic 2).

Here’s a final shot of the final 2-ply CF layups to create the top cowl rib baffles.

Perhaps I should have waited another day or two before pressing forward?  They say hind sight is 20/20.  Well, here is what David Orr (aka Beagle) just posted to my COBA forum question as I was getting ready to hit Publish on this post:

“I’ve gone through the Section IIL plans more recently and annotated what we have edited from the race group experience; hardly a page remains untouched – Library 23DO1.   The baffles shown are way too far from the top cowl in the sketch – it seems lighter to trim the baffles to within 1/2″ of the top cowl and let the baffle seal do the job alone.  What bothers me about these ribs is how difficult getting the top cowl to the right place when placing them back on the engine, and the wear and tear on them…with a longer baffle, the baffle seal will take a set and jams right up against the top cowl, no ribs needed.”

Not that I’m all experienced in the operations of a Long-EZ, or the intricacies of its engine, but I tend to agree with David.  I think it’s much easier just to have a 1/2″ gap and longer baffle seals —sans ribs— than with ribs and trying to get the baffles aligned just right with those ribs.  Since I’ve already glassed these ribs in and incurred a few ounce weight penalty, they’ll be staying… but they’ll only be around a 1/2″ high to take up that gap to merely be a preventative failsafe to ensure that no baffle seal gets blown the wrong direction (inward).

I finished my shop tasks for the day by swapping out the desiccant in the top spark plug desiccant plugs.  As I was doing that, I grabbed these pics to show how the forward baffle spark plug access holes work to install/remove plugs with a socket:

Finally, I had about 20 minutes to spare before I needed to head into the house and get ready, so I installed the lower left engine mount bolt’s cotter pin that I just recently received in an ACS order.  Strike that off the to-do list.  Admittedly, I safety wired the oil level/dipstick tube as well but I didn’t like the quality of my wiring job so that will be redone (sorry, no pics on these).

I then closed up shop early to get ready for a night out with Jess.

Pressing forward . . . slowly!

I was attempting to do my due diligence in researching the pro’s and con’s of the IIL plans top cowl rib baffle, which I did a good couple hours worth before heading out to the shop.  I even posted a question on the COBA forum and within minutes had the first canardian reply that he never installed them, yet his cooling has been fine.  The next builder replied that if I didn’t install them that certain nasty cooling gremlins would inhabit my engine compartment and be ready to invade at first engine startup.  My polling then was reaffirmed at about a perfect 50/50 split for use/non-use of the top cowl rib baffles.

As I was hoping a lively, informative conversation would ensue on my COBA forum post, I decided to lean forward on the rib baffles and went ahead and traced out my cardboard templates onto some scrap 1/4″ thick OSB (chipboard) and cut those out.

I used my saber saw to cut out the forms and on the edge that interfaces the inside top cowling I angled it 15° on each OSB template… or technically now a form at this point. Since OSB doesn’t have the smoothest surface I covered the outboard side with 1 ply of gray duct tape, followed by another thicker ply of black Gorilla duct tape.

I also installed the top cowling and reached up inside and marked a line just a hair inboard of the right side baffles over the cylinders (pic 1).  I then set the right side rib baffle form in place (after I shortened it a couple of inches… pic 2).

I also checked the fit of the left side rib baffle as well.  Clearly the 15° angled cut is to allow for the angle of the top cowling so I would get as good and flush of a grip possible when I set the forms in place with hot glue.

My plan for the day was to do the outboard top cowl rib layups later in the evening and let the layups cure overnight.  Since it was very early evening at this point I decided to make some noise.

I started out by making up the left side engine bracket that will secure the left aft baffle shelf and skirt.  For this I used Mike’s “Beasley Baffles” template he had for this bracket.  Mike Melvill calls for using 1/16″ (0.063″) aluminum here, but I figured for this small of bracket that 0.040″ 2024 will do just fine… plus it’s much easier to bend these smaller tabs on 0.040″ thick stock.

I first cut out the bracket using my band saw.

And then used the metal brake to bend the top tab and then the old school wood & vise to bend the vertical tab.  I then took a little bit of time to ensure that my bolt hole was at the correct height and position before drilling it out.

And here is my hot-off-the-press… er, brake, aft left inboard shelf & skirt mounting bracket test installed in place.

I then finalized the install of the above bracket’s counterpart on the right aft side of the engine: the Melvill-spec’d bracket.  I used my cardboard template to first decide and then narrow the width of the bracket front-to-back, and then finalized the position to allow the giant engine bolt to peek through.  I then transferred those bolt & clearance dimensions from my cardboard template to the bracket and drilled out the holes.

Here’s the result.  Not bad.  I’ll note that since this is 0.032″ 2024 that I’ll be adding a couple of reinforcement tabs onto this bracket when I go live with mounting the right side shelf and skirt.

I had some interaction on the question I posted on the COBA forum regarding the top cowling rib baffles, as I was deciding whether I actually needed them or not.  On one hand I want to optimize my cooling, and on the other I’m trying to abide by Burt’s overarching edict of, “If you throw it up in the air and it comes down, leave it out of the plane.”

With no actionable intel coming across the COBA comms channel, and way more activity on a question of ‘How old can fiberglass get before it degrades?‘, the project manager in me kicked in and I realized it would be much easier to slap these rib baffles in now than to try to add them later on.  Decision made.

I added a couple of strips of protective painters tape from the inside of the baffles going inboard over the cylinder heads to protect them from any errant hot glue.  I then added 3 plies of Gorilla duct tape over a thin piece of cardboard on the front and aft top inboard edge of the baffles.  In the middle, where there is a joggle where the baffles overlap, I added 3 plies of Gorilla duct tape.  To be clear, these added plies of duct tape on the inside top edge of the side baffles are to create a standoff, so that when I press the rib baffle form up against the baffle there is an inherent narrow gap created between rib baffle and actual baffle.

I then set my LED shop light up on top of the engine so I could see and hot glued the top edge of the form to the underside of the top cowling as I lightly pressed the rib baffle form up against the inboard edge of the side baffles.  With the Sharpie hash mark I made as to denote where the rib baffle starts on the aft end, I was able to set the rib baffle form in close to the exact spot front-aft where it needed to be.  Clearly I did this on both sides, while I just have a shot of the left side here.

I started prepping for the layups as I gave the hot glue well over 10 minutes to cure fully.  I then pulled the top cowling off the bird, flipped it over and hit the forms with a few more dollops of hot glue on the inboard edge of each form.

I then spent about 10 minutes per side removing all the hot glue that had squeezed out on the outboard side of each form, where my layups are going in this round (you can see the cut CF at the top of the pics).  Here is the outboard edge of the left rib baffle form (pic 1) and the right one (pic 2).

I then whipped up some MGS 285 epoxy and laid in a ply of peel ply along the vertical outboard edge of the form (on the black Gorilla duct tape) before laying up the 2 plies of CF.  Here we have the left side layup… I failed to get a shot of the right side.

I then peel plied the layups.  As much of a pain as it was to create and moreover, attach, these forms, I have to say I’m quite pleased with how these layups turned out.

Here’s a shot of both layups on their respective forms on the inside of the top cowling.

Tomorrow evening will be another date night out for me and Jess, so it will be another light build day.  I do however intend to get the other half of these top cowling rib baffle layups knocked out before we head out for the evening.