Today I got all the remaining outside cylinder (fore & aft) base baffles glued onto the engine cylinders.  I thought I would show one of the baffles here with the Toyota glue applied just before it went onto the cylinder.

Here we have the 4 final cylinder base baffles glued and secured in place, starting clockwise from top left: Aft left/cylinder #1, aft right/cylinder #2, front left/cylinder #3, and front right/cylinder #4.

You can see I employed everything but the kitchen sink to secure these base baffles in place during cure, each cylinder/baffle combo clearly being completely unique as compared to the other ones.  It took about 45 minutes per baffle to prep, create and dry run the securing accoutrements.

In addition, the Toyota glue needs 15-18 hours to set up for final cure, so I left them to cure and pressed on with some Neanderthal machining.

I made up templates (one shown below) for the different sized inboard and outboard fin dip filler tabs since the inboard is a bit bigger than the outboard.  I tried to put these into F360 CAD but it was being finicky (or I was) so I punted and just went ol’ skool using the bandsaw and the Dremel with a cutoff wheel to get them cut out.

I didn’t grab a shot of the 4 outboard fin dip filler tabs before I glued them into place on the respective cylinders, the left shown here.

I used 0.050″ thick aluminum on the outboard because the fin at this point is the same thickness as all the other fins, around 0.080″.  The final inboard fin on the cylinder head is the thickest of all the fins, nearly 1/8″ thick.  Because I had some scrap that fit the bill in not having to cut into any fresh stock, I used 0.090″ thick aluminum on these inboard fin dip filler tabs.  Here they’re shown with the template I made up.  The marks are again from my Neanderthal machining where I had to use vice grips to hold the tabs while shaping them… these inboard tabs especially are not cosmetic, so I’m not overly concerned about these “tooling marks.”

On a few fins, both inboard and outboard, I had to account for paint buildup globs and actually create a divot in the mating edge of the filler tab to allow it to fit flush with remaining dip surface edge.

Here we have both inboard and outboard fin dip filler tabs glued in place (Toyota FPIG) on the left cylinders (pic 1) and on the right cylinders (pic 2).

This shot shows the thicknesses of the inboard vs outboard fin dip filler tabs.

Finally, I’ll remind everyone that these filler tabs are my blatant copying of Dave Adams’ same efforts that he wrote-up in a COBA Canard Aviation article.

Tonight was again a very cold night, with frost already forming late in the evening.  I put heat lamps under the engine pointing upwards and covered the top of the engine just to ensure there was decent temps for the glue to cure.  Tomorrow I plan on installing more baffle segments while also machining the 2 each cylinder #2 fin/baffle standoff supports.  At this pace it will be at least another 2 days before all the inner baffles are installed.

I had to do a bunch of running around today so didn’t get into the shop until mid-evening.  My goal was to get at least 4 baffle segments installed and I’m happy to report I accomplished that… in my effort of doing so it felt the same to me as a video I saw where a kid juggled Rubik’s cubes while solving them.

First, I removed all the aluminum outer front and side baffle walls to ensure I could get the placement down on the front cylinders’ base baffles.

To get the 3x glue swaths in the correct spots and then get these internal baffles set into place was definitely quite the puzzle, unique on each one.  On the aft side of the forward cylinder I actually applied the glue to the cylinder fins and only actually applied the glue to the baffle at the center.  That baffle went on first.

On the forward side of the aft cylinder I applied the glue to the center and top, then slowly and careful wove the baffle in under the push-rod tubes before setting the top and middle in place.  Both Mike Beasley and Steve Beert said they used wood wedges and tape to wrangle the baffles and keep them in place during cure.  Me being me, I went a slightly different route and found that the dense foam that comes in shipping boxes worked a treat for securing the baffles in place.

Once I got the aft inside baffle top and center secured in place, I got underneath the engine and used a pick to pull down the bottom edge of the baffle just enough to use a stir stick to apply the bottom swath of glue.  After the bottom swath of glue was applied, by pushing the center larger piece of foam all the way down in between the cylinders, it served to press the bottom aft baffle edge up against the cylinder for cure.

On the underside, for the forward baffle on the aft side of the front cylinder, I employed the cylinder oil return lines to secure wood blocks and some foam strips to add just enough pressure to keep the baffle in place.  Note the installed outboard inter-cylinder baffle that I glued in place last night.

I then did the same thing on the right side.

Now, let’s discuss baffle angles and airflow through these base baffles.  As you may have noted the forward and aft base baffle sets do NOT have the same air entry and exit angles: for a couple of different reasons (Also, let me point out here that I am focusing on FUNCTION over FORM and am looking to optimize airflow for cooling… not the goal of having standardized looking baffles).

First, the air coming off the ramps are significantly different in the angle at which they come into the cowling via the armpit air scoop.  The air hitting the inlet ramps for the front cylinders turn almost directly upwards —or at least at a much sharper angle— as compared to the more shallow angle the air on the aft ramps is directed.  This obviously means direct air flow needs to be more vertical, or slightly angled aft, on the front cylinders vs the aft cylinders (clearly there is a HUGE pressure component to how our engines are cooled, but I’m not getting into that here).

Next is a matter of simple space… or more specifically clearance.  Even if my goal was to make the front and aft base baffle entry and exit points the same, the oil return lines under the cylinders would require major trimming of the bottom flange on the forward baffle.  There’s just very little space on the bottom side of the forward cylinders.  That being said, I will need to create a half-moon notch on the bottom tab of the aft right side base baffle (not installed at this time) to account for the cylinder #2 oil return line.

Here’s an underside shot of the right inter-cylinder base baffles glued and secured in place.  Again, note the tape and wood shims removed from the bottom outboard inter-cylinder baffle (I discussed in yesterday’s post how the form for these outboard baffles is not perfectly true, which makes them set a little wonky when in place).

The pictures don’t do the amount of effort in planning, dry runs and execution justice to get these 4 inter-cylinder base baffles glued in place.  All in all I spent nearly 4 hours on getting these baffles alone glued into place and secured for cure.  Tomorrow I plan on knocking out another good chunk of the inner CF baffle installs as well.

Today was all about finishing the trimming, shaping and creation of the top outboard inter-cylinder baffles that I micro’d together last night.

I did a good bit of research today to ensure I knew what the heck I was doing because I wasn’t completely understanding the configuration of these specific baffles, even though Steve Beert sent me another conformational pic.  What was confusing me was why was there no baffle coverage on the fins in between the 2 cylinders?

I went back to Andreas Christou’s document, Design for optimal cooling efficiency, and therein lied the answer!  Things are a bit different from our smaller cousin, the O-235, than they are for O-320/360s… read on:

“The Lycoming O-235-L2C Cylinder head… has less fin depth at the sides, and some attempt has been made to increase cooling on the exhaust valve side of the cylinder. The fin depth next to the exhaust valve is slightly more than on the intake valve side. There is enough fin depth to justify using Bid/RTV baffle material between the cylinders so that the flow of cooling air is divided into two sets of fin tubes. This will distribute more cooling air to the exhaust valve side and will also keep hotter air from the exhaust side from heating up the intake side and consequently raising the temperature of the incoming fuel air charge.”

[Note the red line in between the cylinders denoting a baffle]

Andreas then went on to state this about the O-320/360 motors:

“Placing Bid/RTV baffle material between the fins of the cylinder heads would do more harm than good. Any inter-cylinder baffle material would block the flow of air past the intake side of the cylinder.”

[Note there is NO red line in between the cylinders denoting a baffle]

Eureka!

This would also explain why my buddy Marco found issues on his O-320 Long-EZ because when Terry Lamp built it everyone else was installing O-235s.  The baffling in that Long-EZ’s O-320 was per the O-235 IIL plans and caused some significant heat issues. I’m not calling Terry out nor being critical of him… that is an outstanding bird, and the poor guy had only the guidance for the O-235 to follow at the time!

With the above foundational info in hand, I then got to work on what Steve Beert calls the “Starship Enterprise” baffles.  First, here’s a shot of the separate baffle segments micro’d together to make one baffle piece per side.

I then marked the bottom edge of the top inter-cylinder baffles for trimming…

And then trimmed them up.

After another round of confirming the shape and configuration of these baffles, I then trimmed them up even more to their final shape on the lower side.  Here’s Side A:

And here’s side B.  I also final trimmed the top sides as well including the curly Q’s.

I had thought about and even mentioned spray painting the micro black with hi-temp spray paint, but then just decided to use the Toyota glue to add just a hair more depth, fill some gaps around the edges and of course cover up the white micro.  In addition, this allowed me to use the Toyota glue (RTV? Whatever it is!) and get a feel for how it could be applied and manipulated.  It’s not the sexiest looking stuff here, but it’s done, and remember: these are on an engine!

With my mastery of the Toyota glue complete (haha!) I decided to knock out some low hanging fruit: attaching the bottom outboard inter-cylinder baffles.  I figured these are pretty low-vis baffles and if I really got messy with the glue while slapping these things into place then they wouldn’t be very noticeable, eh?

I started on the left side and applied the Toyota glue in 2 strips across each face of the somewhat Λ shaped baffle and then taped it in place.  I will note that when I cut the baffle on the imprinted edge that the form created, it came out about 0.030″ narrow on each side.  Each edge is still on the respective outside fin, just not fully all the way around… it’s just a tiny hair off kilter so each side was a task of getting the best coverage possible with a slightly askew and every-so slightly narrow baffle.

On the right side the tape wasn’t holding at all… and it was quite the melee getting it on and set in place.  As you can see I used wood and cardboard to wedge it into place.  Here’s a shot from the inboard looking out…

And a shot from outboard looking in.  I can definitely say I’m glad that this small but crazy baffle is in place!

In other news: I forgot about these 3D printed standoff supports which I actually printed out yesterday and just got around to taping them in place on the aft side of cylinder #2.

I then test fit the cylinder #2 aft baffle in place.  Both standoff supports need some very minor tweaking, with the inboard standoff (shown) needing a bit more added to the depth while the outboard standoff needs just the opposite.

And with that I double checked the bottom outboard inter-cylinder baffles and called it a night.

I started out today by focusing on trimming up the remaining engine inner baffles that I had not gotten to yet, which were primarily the top outboard inter-cylinder baffles.  Knowing that Steve Beert is The Godfather of CF inner baffles I sent him a quick message asking him a few questions specifically regarding these inter-cylinder baffles… in fact, I sent him this pic below to clarify exactly which ones we were discussing.  We had quite an exchange over text on installing the baffles.

Then a bit later Steve called me with yet even more information, tips and builder tricks on these inner baffles.  We spoke for a good 45 minutes, where he also went over some of the background of the design (Terry Crouch having done the airflow math and primary design with a lot of input by Gary Hertzler) of this style of inner cylinder CF baffles.  I sent this pic below as well of the bottom-side outboard inter-cylinder baffle with a question to clarify some info Steve have presented to me.

After talking to Steve, with now a bunch of informational arrows in my quiver, it was time to get to work.  I finished trimming and cleaning up the top outboard inter-cylinder baffles, or the baffles that Steve nicknamed: “The Starship Enterprise” and set them into place between the cylinders each side.  Note the taped popsicle sticks on each end to keep the separate baffle segments both in the proper left-right position on their respective cylinders, and also pressed firmly against each cylinder… the intent here is not to create a gap between the baffle segments, but to account for these two previous mentioned factors.

I then followed Steve’s construction sequence by whipping up some micro with the high temp HTR-212 epoxy.   This was a bit tricky both in access to the gap (on a step ladder leaning over the top of the engine) but since I didn’t want to make a mess on the lower internal fins of each cylinder (or the floor, etc.), I had to ensure that the micro wasn’t too runny… thus the medium thickness micro —with emphasis on the thicker— was a bit trickier to stuff down in that narrow gap without it wanting to come back out with whatever implement was being used to get it in there (a variety of thicknesses of stir sticks).  Patience won over though and I finally got a good bead of micro in on each side.

I’ll note that Steve used West’s black dye in his micro in this application, but since I didn’t have any on hand I will simply paint the white micro with hi-temp black spray paint.

Although the weather isn’t as freezing cold this evening as it has been off and on lately, I set up a heat lamp under each side of the engine pointing upwards and covered the cylinder areas with some aluminum foil covered insulation pieces to keep the curing micro from getting too cool overnight.  And with that I called it a night and left these micro’d inter-cylinder baffles to cure overnight.

To start off with, I’ll note that I don’t like bashing smaller companies who are putting out products for the experimental aircraft world… it’s great to have choices.  But enough is enough.  GRT really gets a bad grade this round (D-) with my order on their compression style EGT probes.

As par usual, there were zero issues with the mechanical process of ordering these EGT probes.  Call them up to ensure they have in stock, order two of them, card info, confirm address… 5 minutes and done.  On my porch a few days later.  EZ-PZ.

GRT’s Achilles heel, and biggest negative, is their product information and documentation.  I had a conversation with Nick Ugolini on this a while back, and he told me as an engineering tech writer he offered to write their manuals for them… for free!  They refused.  I asked another buddy of mine who uses GRT if he would go that route again with any future aircraft… he said no.  Why?  Not because of the quality or the functionality of their products —which is excellent— but again, with no robust documentation you spend way too much time on the phone with them and/or hunting for information that should be right at your fingertips.

Case in point.  I called GRT to get info on their compression style EGT probes because, once again, there is literally ZERO information on these on their website.  I asked about any recommended processes I should know for mounting these into the exhaust pipes? How does the configuration work exactly?  Do they sell the threaded mounting bungs? (no);  Any preferred vendors or sources of supply for the threaded mounting bungs? (no); Now, admittedly this last one I’m fuzzy on, but I swore I confirmed that the required mounting bung threads were 1/8-NPT.  Apparently not.  Neither was that information provided (via product info sheet) nor offered when I was clearly asking every question I could think of regarding the install of these compression style EGT probes.

Well, when my 1/8-NPT threaded stainless steel mounting bungs arrived today from McMaster-Carr, I quickly noted that they were not the correct size.  But what was the correct size?  After 15 minutes of no joy in trying to figure out this odd thread size, I punted and called GRT, leaving my message to have them call me back later as the standard process goes.  And a half hour later got my answer: M8 with 1.0 pitch.  Yes, being in the good ‘ol US of A we tend to use ASI vs metric, but I do use metric hardware enough to know that the standard pitch for an M8 thread is 1.25, not 1.0.  Hmmm?

After a good 30 minutes of searching in vane on the Internet for a vendor that sells a stainless steel M8-1.0 threaded mounting bung, I gave up and finally went to the only source of supply I could think of that would have such an item: Ebay… well, China to be even more exact.  Yep, there they were!  Less than 20 bucks for 3 of them shipped from Shanghai and only a month to get here.  Thanks again GRT!

In other news . . .

Today I finally finished the trimming and shaping of the majority of inner CF baffles. Over the past few days I’ve done a few redo layups since using tape on the forms there were few quality issues I had with some of the baffles. Thus the redoes.

With the glossy surface the lights blanket out some of the CF print, so I grabbed these lower angle shots to show different perspectives on the CF.

And as a reminder, the aft inner baffles are the same print as prop spinner and flow guide.

Overall I’m very happy with how the CF inner baffles turned out, and plan to start mounting them to the engine… after I get the aluminum fin standoffs made up and mounted to the cylinders first.

I started off today by calling GRT to order 2 of their compression fitting style EGT probes.  Knowing what I know now and the much improved clearance that these will provide I figured the time is right to get them installed.  Plus I confirmed with James that he would be able to weld on the required 1/8-NPT threaded bungs onto the exhaust pipes.  I’ll simply hold the other ones as backups for my other 2 hose-clamp mounted probes.

Out in the shop I started off by pulling all the tape and plastic off the cylinder #2 aft baffle with the fin standoff support bump now integrated into it (pic 1).  I then trimmed the CF around the edges a bit, removed the protective tape off the cylinder, and set the aft baffle back in place for a test fit (pic 2).

Here we have a shot from the side to show the cylinder #2 aft baffle with the fin standoff support bump integrated into the baffle (note: the baffle is about 1/8″ low so it’s not fitted to the cylinder in this pic).

I’ll remind everyone that this fin standoff support bump in the baffle is to allow for these standoff supports as Dave Adams did on his #2 cylinder as well.

I took a couple hours to cut some more CF and lay up a few spares of the inner baffle segments in case I ever run into trouble or just need them in general… before I send the inner baffle molds back.

I’ll also note that the Toyota RTV —that is apparently the cat’s meow for mounting these CF inner baffles— was delivered today.  Now I have no excuse not to get these baffles trimmed up and installed on the engine!

Which I plan on doing over the next few days.

I started off this morning by pulling the now cured #2 cylinder baffle —with the fin/baffle standoff support curve integrated into it— off of the aft side of cylinder #2.  I had put a heat lamp on it since the weather (and shop) was much cooler overnight.  I assessed the baffle a bit —all looked pretty good— and then set it aside to remove the bottom cowling to allow removal of the left outboard/cylinder #3 exhaust pipe.

I commenced to remove the tape securing the halves of the exhaust pipe together at the near-center cut and then cleaned all the tape gunk off with Acetone.

While I was doing all these shop tasks, I had already pre-heated my kitchen oven to 400° F and was baking my previously “super-soldered” brass oil sump standpipe fitting.  My goal was to separate the fitting from the standpipe tube to allow James to braze it with some 1/16″ Silicone Bronze welding rods I picked up to allow TIG welding brass. Well, an interesting thing happened, or didn’t happen… whereas at 400° F previously I was able to remove the soldered pipe from the fitting, now it wasn’t budging. Hmmm?

I threw the standpipe assembly in the truck as well and headed out to James to weld the exhaust pipe, and also have a discussion on the standpipe.  My thoughts, in composite parlance, is that I had essentially post-cured this sucker and that it was now battle-tested to withstand 400° F without any issue… very interesting.

Again, it’s a good hour over to James’ shop and since Jess had a light work day I brought her along.  Unbeknownst to me, Jess’s mom is from the same area (“out in the sticks”) where James’ shop is… so after James had welded up the pipe an elderly friend stopped by and a whole conversation of who-knows-who ensued.   Combine that with a late lunch/early supper in Jacksonville and we didn’t get back to my house until very late afternoon.

And here we have the final piece of the puzzle (better be!) with the left outboard/ cylinder #3 exhaust pipe welded back together.  Now I can start on the final configuration of the tips in earnest.

BTW, James confirmed my theory on the soldered brass standpipe.  He also quipped that if I’m seeing over 300° in my oil sump that I’ve got lots worse issues than the standpipe… good point James, good point! <ha>

Back in the shop I got to work on the cylinder #2 aft baffle with it’s new integrated standoff bump.  I cut a ply of CF to fill just where the standoff support form was located and another full ply of CF to hold it all together on the interior of the baffle.  I then mixed up some HTR-212 epoxy and laid in the small filler ply of CF (pic 1) before laying up the interior ply of CF (pic 2).

I then of course peel plied the layup.

I let the baffle cure for nearly 2 hours to tack up before then setting it back onto the aft side of cylinder #2 (which I taped up completely to protect from any errant epoxy).  I taped the baffle securely in place to the cylinder since this will be the final cure and set a heat lamp on it while it cured overnight (much colder tonight than last night).  I’ll also note that the cylinder #2 fin/baffle standoff support mold was still in place on the cylinder to ensure the final shape is as optimized as possible.

And with that, I called it a night!

I actually started off today out in the shop to do some more inner baffle layups (see below), but apparently in my haste to get stuff done didn’t grab any pics of the initial layups.

After I got the layups situated (thankfully the weather went into mild mode over the last couple of days) I modified my cylinder #2 fin/baffle standoff support template to a simple rectangular shape based off my test fit yesterday.  As a reminder, here’s what that looked like:

After I got the major dimensions dialed in on my CAD model, I then created a vertical arch that is 1/4″ high in the center for my fin/baffle standoff support mold.  I kicked off the 3D print of the mold and then went out to the shop to prep the cylinder for the mold.

Here’s the cylinder #2 fin/baffle standoff support mold taped to the front of the cylinder.  After I got the mold placed, I then spent a good half hour trimming and sanding the top and bottom baffle segments to get their mating edges even and just kissing the top and bottom edge of the mold.

I then taped up the mold, which then allowed me to secure the cylinder #2 top aft baffle segment in place (pic 1).  I mixed up some HTR-212 epoxy to apply peel ply to the mold only, and then wetted out the surface of the top aft baffle segment (pic 2).

I did some dry runs on the the bottom aft baffle segment before adding tape to the inside of it.  I then laid up the single ply of CF (note: same print as spinner!) onto the free and unattached bottom aft baffle segment before securing it into position with its inside taped surface… I pretty much had to work it this way since the oil return line is in the way and I didn’t want to have to try to layup the CF around and under that oil line.

After I got the ply of CF laid up and trimmed I then laid a piece of plastic over it to provide that glossy, non-bumpy surface like all the other inner baffles have.  I then left it to cure overnight.

After getting the aft baffle on cylinder #2 squared away, I then pulled the peel ply and did some trimming on the narrow top outboard inter-cylinder baffle segments.

Here’s the non-cylinder mating side of those baffle segments… and I’ll remind everyone that these will get merged (separately, one per each side of the engine) with the larger end baffle segments to create the top outboard inter-cylinder baffle segments…

And to be clear, here are a couple shots from a couple different birds on how the top outboard inter-cylinder baffle looks when completed:

I’ll note that tomorrow I’ll be heading out to James’ shop to get the last exhaust pipe welded up, so it will be a slightly lighter build day.

I had some decent build plans for today but it turned out to virtually be a non-build day in most regards.  Last night I got an email saying that our monthly EAA meeting was this morning at a local restaurant.  I texted the new Canardian in the area, Guy Williams, about the meeting since I wasn’t sure if he was on the email.

I also received a text from my friend asking if I could watch her daughter, aka “my little buddy,” while my friend went to a doctor’s appointment.  No problem there either.

After the EAA meeting, Guy and I went to the airport to check out his Long-EZ.  It’s a beautiful classic built in 1982.  He and his dad, who owned it for many years before Guy took ownership, converted it from an O-235 to an O-320.  Guy moved out here this summer from Tehachapi, CA… home of Marc Zeitlin and Mike Melvill.  Thus Guy clearly had plenty of expert help on hand to assist with engine conversion, etc. on his Long-EZ.  And of course it’s great to have another Canardian at the airport, especially one of the Long-EZ persuasion!

Now, in my mind I figured a doctor’s appointment would take an hour or two at most, and although I only know that it was NOT anything serious, this appointment ended up being over 4 hours… that had me on kid-watching and entertaining duties.  By the time I got home it was well past 4 pm and I was due to have a dinner/evening out with Jess… so my already shortened work day was severely truncated by events that plopped onto my schedule just the night prior.

Out in the shop I pulled all the laid up baffle segments off their respective molds and pulled all but one piece of peel ply (only because it has such clear baffle edge trim markings on it).  I can tell you the added 6-8 hours of cure time with these baffles on the molds was felt significantly as they were MUCH harder to get off each mold!

Here’s the tally, starting CW from the lower left corner:
– “Old” top outboard wide inter-cylinder baffle (to be joined with narrow baffle segment)
– Opposite side of above, just laid up… now just need to layup narrow parts for these
– “Old spinner print CF” end baffle now relegated to duty on front of cylinder #4
– 2 pcs for cylinder #2 aft end narrow baffle that will get middle fin extension area added
– New “spinner print” aft end baffle with much better looking CF for cylinder #1
– New narrow end baffle for front side of cylinder #3

Also, before I headed out to the shop I quickly drew up in CAD and then 3D printed an initial template for the cylinder #2 fin extensions and associated baffle curve over these extensions.  Here’s the result that I temporarily taped up in place.

And an idea of how the top and bottom baffle segments will get melded with the upcoming semi-circular cylinder fin standoffs.

With that, it was time to get inside, clean up and head out for a Saturday evening with Jess.  Tomorrow I definitely intend to get at least the 2 partial narrow baffle segments glassed up for the other half of the top outboard inter-cylinder baffle assemblies that need to be floxed together back-to-back to make up those baffle segments.  I would also like to get some machining done, with the baffle extensions getting made to confirm the configuration for me to then “glass” (CF) up the gap on frontside cylinder #2 baffle.

Moving forward!

I started off this morning by pulling the two cylinder base inner baffles of their molds, as well as the new cylinder #1 aft end baffle off its mold.  The big reveal I mentioned yesterday is that they’re sporting the same CF print as the spinner and flow guide!  The cool thing is that these will all be fairly visible on the aft side of the engine when you look into the aft cowl opening.

Unfortunately, this CF is a bit thicker weave and I think I was a hair thin on epoxy in a few spots so the spots look just a tad dry in the light (just cylinder #1 baffle).  I have no doubt that it will still work and that it’s mainly cosmetic, but I’ll be relegating this new cylinder #1 aft end baffle to the frontside of cylinder #4, where it’s not as visible.

Along with the cylinder baffles, I laid up the second set of “accessory” pieces that are shown along the bottom of the pic (from L to R): the top inboard inter-cylinder baffle plate, the bottom outboard inter-cylinder baffle, and the angle bracket that screws into place between the cylinders at the top to secure the top inboard inter-cylinder baffle plate.  All told, this completes the cylinder base baffles and the “accessory” baffle parts.

For the larger cylinder end baffles that still left a redo on the cylinder #1 aft end baffle to get better epoxy coverage, and another partial end baffle for the other side top outboard inter-cylinder baffle.  Again, these partial end baffles will be merged (separately) with a pair of also partial narrow end baffles (below) that at full length are for the front side of cylinder #3 and the aft side of cylinder #2.

Speaking of which, I prepped the narrow end baffles by taping them up first with blue tape (pic 1) and then using the Tyvek tape on top of that as a mold release (pic 2).

I’ll note that on the cylinder #2 baffle I added a lip [a curl would be much harder to fit into place with oil line present] and a curl on the cylinder #3 baffle [also an oil line present, but at the forward side of the cylinder the bottom length of the baffle will be shortened with the curl positioned much higher up/closer to cylinder].

I then did the inner baffles Round 3 layups, which from left to right is as follows:
another partial end baffle for the other side top outboard inter-cylinder baffle;
the redo on the cylinder #1 aft end baffle;
top & bottom sections of aft cylinder #2 baffle (middle to be laid-up over fin extensions);
narrow front side end baffle for cylinder #3;
extra top inboard inter-cylinder plate (if/when fuel spider goes underside…bottom of pic)

My last point of note for the day on the build is that I spoke with my welder, James, who has been quite busy as of late, to set up an appointment on Monday to get the last exhaust pipe (cylinder #3) welded up.  From there I can do my end trimmings and final tweaks to get this exhaust pipe saga closed out.

Tomorrow I plan on doing another round (hopefully final) for the engine inner baffle layups.  This should get me close to having the full set I need to start trimming these inner baffles up and installing them all.