To start off, I spoke with my racecar exhaust header welding buddy James about welding up my once-again-chopped-up left outboard exhaust pipe.  In between his  times being out on the road, he has a couple days back in his shop.  So the Plan is to get the pipe welded up this coming Thursday.

Before I jumped into the baffle seals, I did a little bit of cable management –investigation actually, to get an initial feel for how the bottom PMag spark plug, EGT and CHT wires would run to their respective starting points.  At this brief juncture I just focused on the spark plug wires.  I mounted the cylinder #3 wire into an Adel clamp, and then used zip ties to separate the spark plug wires as per the PMag manual, since these are not shielded cables.  I wasn’t overly happy with how the zip ties dug a little bit into the wire sheathing, so I figured I would try the T-Clips later.

On the right side I merely just mounted the cylinder #2 spark plug wire into hi-temp (white) Adel clamps at the bottom of the rocker covers on both cylinders #2 and #4. I plan on mounting a “K1000-3” platenut on the bottom baffle edge to mount a 3rd Adel clamp near the front corner, just keep the sharp edge of the baffling from gnawing through my spark plug wires.

Back on the aft bottom baffle seals, I started off by securing the middle reinforcement strip in place, determined the rivet spacing and then drilled the holes out for the rivets.

I then did this for both the left and right side reinforcement strips as well.  Obviously I have them tacked in place on the aft side of the aluminum baffles just so I can see them and the relationship of both edges.

This post covers 2 days worth of work, so at the end of the first evening I was on Fusion 360 CAD to make up these 0.032″ thick x 2″ long exhaust pipe sleeve mockups that will be a critical part of the Melvill-style exhaust pipe brackets.  After the ~2.5 hours it took for them to 3D print,  I then quickly set them in place for these shots… more work with them tomorrow/later.

Starting out on Day 2, I spoke with Trent at Emag Air to ensure I wasn’t missing any critical info regarding shortening the PMag spark plug leads (wires currently too long).  After confirming the process, Trent sent me a bunch of terminals for both ends of the spark plug wires.  I just had to pay shipping.

I also grabbed a few T-Clips from the house and tried those out on the spark plug wires, in lieu of the zip tie method… which I tried more out of curiosity, but also in case I run out of T-Clips.  Here’s a T-Clip securing the spark plug wires while also zip tied to the left front corner of the baffling.

Another shot of that from above.  Not bad, but I may very well opt for another Adel clamp here as well.  Assessing.

I then got back to work on the aft bottom “skirt” baffle seals.  After setting the middle baffle seal in place and using paper to create a template for the right side baffle seal (pic #1), I then cut out and test fitted that baffle seal (pic #2).

And then worked the right middle baffle seal and test fitted it in place as well.  Note that the outboard baffle seals on this bottom edge will actually be attached to the bottom exhaust pipe bracket to fill in the gap between this middle seal and the outboard corner.

I grabbed this shot to show how I’m securing the baffle seals with clecos while I fit them into place.

Here we have all the aft bottom baffle seals (minus the exhaust pipe bracket seals of course) test-fitted in place and ready for install.

I then gooped up the interfacing edge of the baffle seals to the aluminum baffle edge, added the reinforcement strips and riveted all the seals into place.

And here’s what that looks like on the inside with the reinforcement strips in place.

Tomorrow I will start work on constructing the left and right exhaust pipe brackets which will entail a lot of CAD work, some 3D printing of mockup pieces, and getting the plasma cutting table back online after its very long hiatus.  Clearly once the left and right exhaust pipe brackets are completed, I can officially finish off the last 2 segments of baffle seals.

Pressing forward!