CHAPTER 8 Firewall Forward
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| Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 | Proceeding to firewall... |
| I proceeded with the soldering of the Amphenol connector in the wing root. These are the last basic wires to be connected. | |
| To be honest, this is quite a job. It took almost a complete day to finish the left side. Tomorrow I will proceed with the right side which is even more work due to the extra cables for the wingleveler. But things have to be done... | |
| I sprayed the battery box and put it in place. | |
| Red isn't it? I used the same color for the canopy lathes. These are critical parts and red gives a psychological feeling that this is important... | |
| In the afternoon Johan joined me. He proceeded with the final installation of the platenuts in the middle of the seat floor. | |
| Afterwards Johan tried the cabin seats. Have a look at the grin... | |
| So, the left and the right hinges to keep the cowling were placed. I preferred to do this first because at the end of this week I would like to install the engine and the gear. It's better to have these riveted in place. Otherwise the complete engine mount has to be removed later to give space for the squeezer... | |
| And of course the same on the bottom position of the firewall.
Tomorrow I'll proceed with the right connector... |
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| Time spent | 15 hours |
| Friday, August 3rd, 2007 | Proceeding to firewall... |
| I first continued with the finishing of the right wing root connector. | |
| Once all wires were connected I tied the cables up and putted a spiral protection around them. | |
| Here the compartment where all cables leave the fuselage via the Amphenol connector. | |
| The complete set outside the fuselage where the wing male Amphenol will connect... | |
| ... and here the inside where the wires are connected. | |
| So, what a job. All finished...
Up to some firewall preparation. I made the hole where the heatbox will be placed. While I will have to make a modification for the defrost assembly, I had to choose a slightly different location... |
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| I installed also the two cables which will be used to select heat for the cabin and the defrost. | |
| I repositioned the gear. All bolts were placed and... | |
| ... torqued as required... | |
| After torqueing, a seal to mark the torqued bolts and nuts... | |
| So, the main gear and engine mount installed and torqued in place. | |
| The receptor for the oil sensors in place. This after spraying in. | |
| And then, late in the evening, Dimi and I started to install the engine in place. | |
| It took almost two hours to get the bolts n place. | |
| We did not torque them yet. This is temporarily to measure cables and tubes lengths... | |
| But, what a wonderful moment. The engine for the first time in place... | |
| Time spent | 18 hours |
| Friday, August 4th, 2007 | Proceeding to firewall forward... |
| I started today with the installation of the exhaust pipes. Cilinders 2 and 4 on the right side... | |
| ... and 1 and 3 at the left. | |
| Then we installed the support parts to keep the exhaust in place. | |
| The black tubes give some freedom to the pipes. | |
| Then the "carburator"... | |
| ... and then the propellor | |
| In the afternoon Ronny helped me with the installation of the Com 1 antenna. Here you can see the doubler plate with the female antenna connector. | |
| And under the fuselage, the Comant Whip Antenna. | |
| The most difficult part of the day was the installation of the Marker Beacon antenna in the forward cabin compartment. Ronne went in the airplane to bolt the antenna with the doubler plate to the bottom floor... | |
| And here inbetween the exhaust outlets the MB antenna... | |
| Time spent | 15 hours |
| Monday, August 6th, 2007 | Proceeding to firewall... |
| Well, I mostly spent my time on studying the drawings and some websites. This is the most difficult part of the project for pme. I'm not so familiar with the engine part of the project... So, I lost quite some time in finding out how the studs need to be brought into the CSU receptacle. I sent an email to Jade Air for some support. I'm waiting for an answer... | |
| This is the side of the governor that needs to go to the receptacle. I just made this picture because it seems that there is a mandatory note that these black gaskets have to be used with the filter built in. | |
| And then I finished installing all these sensors. On top an oil pressure sensor that will be used to switch the tachometer on and to infor me about possible low oil pressure via a led on the annunciator panel.
The middle sensor is the oil pressure sensor for the Dynon EMS. The lower is also for the EMPS and measures the fuel pressure. Another thing I started is the assembling of a bracket for the Andair gascolator. This will be proceeded tomorrow. |
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| Time spent | 7 hours |
| Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 | Proceeding to firewall... |
| Here the bracket I mentioned yesterday. Bolted to the firewall with a doubler at the Firewall inside. | |
| Another view from the front. The drain nipple coming just out of the bottomside of the to-be-installed cowling... | |
| This is the CSU. It has to be mounted to the adaptor on the engine but first of all, some studs have to be driven into the bracket. I contacted Jade Air for this. And this is what they advised me to do... | |
| I had to take the shortest studs I found in the spare part set they gave when I went there for the building class. The left side has to go into the adaptor. I drew a blue line on the stud. The remaining length (outside the adaptor) has to be 11/8 ". | |
| To do this I had to bring 3 nuts on the stud... | |
| ... and counterfasten them. | |
| And then drive them in the holes. | |
| The bolts are meant to give you the possibility to bolt the stud into the adaptor.
I did this for all the studs and installed temporarily the CSU. |
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| Last thing I did, the heat muff. But this gave me some problems. The information tels me to install it on the #1 exhaust. This was impossible due to the diameter of the exhaust. So, I installed it on the #4. Hope this is OK. I will check this... | |
| Time spent | 9 hours |
| Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 | Proceeding to firewall... |
| Proceeding assembling all tubes and accessories for the engine. I started hanging temporarily the alternator in position.Just to see how to... | |
| Then I installed the main bracket for the hang-up of the alternator. | |
| Then the side bracket. It lmatches perfect. | |
| Last thing to do was the manufacturing of a support bracket between the alternator and the starter. | |
| Finished it looks like this. Then I tried it but discovered that the right side of the right bolt was to wide. I had to shorten that region with 1/8". | |
| And then it was perfect. I torqued and safety wired all bolts and nuts as required. | |
| And here he is finally in place... | |
| Next thing to do was the installation of the air-oil separator. | |
| The left side of the separator connects it with the breather port of the engine via a tube. The "out"-position goes to a tube which makes a corner of 90 degrees downward. | |
| Here a better view of this tube as delivered with the FF-kit of Vans. | |
| With some modification of the delivered alu tube I managed it to bring the exit just above the exhaust. The alu tube was clamped to the firewall. | |
| And then the manifold pressure sensor which I place inside the firewall. Via an AN-fitting through the firewall it connects the exterior with this position. I show it hereunder with the next pictures. | |
| The manifold pressure fitting on my Superior enbine is located on the cilinder #3. (See red arrow) | |
| From this position on the engine it connects via an Aeroquip tube to the AN fitting in the firewall. | |
| Here a complete overview how the tube goes from one to the other... | |
| The inside of the firewall, above the sensor. Here you see the other side of the AN-fiiting receiving a tube. Dynon states that this has to be a tube of minimum 1/4". I made this with some spare tube and an Aeroquip connector. The other side of the tube goes straight to a nipple on the sensor. To finish this, I shrimped some teflon over the end. | |
| And here the internal connection to the sensor. I also finished the wires for the sensor coming from the EMS 120. So, tomorrow I go further with the baffling job... | |
| Time spent (With Johan) | 14 hours |
| Thursday, August 9th, 2007 | Proceeding with the cowling |
| Today I received a new static port which I need for the Altitude Hold system. I started installing this. I installed it forward with 4 blind rivets... | |
| ... and connected the tube to the Altitude Hold System from Trio Avionics. | |
| And then I decided to bolt the Propellor in place. This is necessary to find the right distance to the spinner for the top cowling. | |
| Handy to use a wich for this that is standard installed in my workshop. I used this also for the installation of the engine. | |
| And then I started installing the hinge with clecoes to the firewall. In the meantime I clecoed also the topskin to the fuselage. This is necessary to find the right position for the cowling. Once this was done, I tuned the right distance and trimmed the cowling in a way that it fits exactly agains the flange of the firewall. | |
| The distance between the cowling and the spinner is about 1/4" as described in the drawings. So again another view. This really becomes a real airplane now... | |
| Time spent (With Johan) | 8 hours |
| Friday, August 10th, 2007 | Proceeding with the cowling |
| Fitting the cowling is continuously mount, unmount, try, mount again... Quite a job...
So, this took a complete day. I marked the places to drill the holes for the top hinge. It is important to start with the top cowling and to fit it against the fuselage and the spinner. Once this is done you can proceed with the lower parts... |
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| I drilled and clecoed the top cowl and then placed temporarily the bottom cowling. Duct tape is very usefull to try out the fitting. | |
| Vans describes that trimming can only be done from the top cowling. So I ducted the cowlings togetger to make a reference line for this. | |
| One clecoe in these places is important for the temp install... | |
| And then, once the cutting line is set, the first rough cut can take place. And then sanding, trimming, trimming and again trimming until fit... | |
| Once this is done I installed the second half of the hinges and started to drill and clecoe the bottom part to the fuselage. The transparancy of the epoxy helps perfect. But, of course for this you need to drill all the holes first into the hinge part. And then drilling and clecoeing... | |
| And the same for the bottom side. | |
| And last but not least, the two cowls together with another type of hinge. Her a lamp into the cowling is super helpfull... | |
| Time spent (With Johan in the evening) | 15 hours |
| Saturday, August 11th, 2007 | Proceeding with baffles |
| I started hanging the side baffles in place after some minor trims. I also placed the left back baffles temporarily to see the construction. | |
| Then all reinforcement plates in place and numbered. These need also some minor trim on several places. | |
| From the cylinder to the cranckase a stiffner is placed after making all stiffners. This one is needed to support the baffling floor on the left side forward. | |
| Side plates on the right side where placed... | |
| And then a quite difficult part. The first bottom front baffling floor needs to be trimmed in a way that it fits perfectly with the inlet from the cowling. For this two bends have to be made in a right way. It took us some time to find out the right way. But at the end... it's OK. | |
| Another view aligned with the cowling. | |
| And then the connection to the middle. I will proceed on Wednesday because this holiday is over now. Well, I'm very satisfied for the proceedings of the last three weeks... WHAT A BIG STEP FORWARD... | |
| Time spent (With Ronny) | 15,5 hours |
| Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 | Proceeding with baffles |
| Johan went on with the supports on the left baffling compartment. Here the most rear floor support under the left front baffle floor... | |
| ... and the most forward support. Driklled and clecoed in place. | |
| Then Johan finished the inlet support angles of the left baffle compartment. | |
| Ronny and I went on with the right forward baffles. Here another view on the same piece as above. | |
| The right side needs some studying. Some special pieces have to be made to hang up the right front side baffle. This is the cylinder side of the side baffle connected with the floor. A support is necessary to keep the thing in place. | |
| The mid section is hold in place with this support. | |
| The right back baffles fit quite good. A very little trlm is necessary to bring it before the screw holes. After this trim I drilled all holes connecting the back to the side baffles. Looks good.... | |
| This part is the support forward in the centreline connecting and supporting the two mid front baffles. | |
| This is a stiffner on the right outside back baffles. | |
| And inside these two an angle to support them.
The picture below is just a nice view of the engine compartiment frontside... |
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| Time spent (Partly with Johan and Ronny) | 14 hours |
| Saturday, August 18th, 2007 | Proceeding with the baffling |
| The last baffle to make fit is the left back baffle where the oil cooler is mounted on. Johan proceeded with this one while I started to assemble the heat selector for the defrost assembly. I show some pictures later... | |
| Another view of the job Johan proceeded on. | |
| On the left back baffle we measured the position for the duct flange for the air inlet. We drilled the flange in place and made the holes for the two magneto coolers... | |
| And then, the biggest part of the day we spent on trimming the baffles to fit under the cowling. Try out and triming, and this again and again until a perfect fit was reached... | |
| Ronny started to make the top flanges on which I would like to install the inner cowling. An idea I saw from Jeff Bordelon. I like the idea to colse the baffle region with an inner cowling. This to prevent the complete assembly from air leaks and to protect the outer cowling cover from the ram air pressure it will have. This has to take the function of the rubber strips all around... | |
| Here the cowlinng installed. | |
| This is a second selector to make a choice to send the hot air into the cabin via the normal channels or to divert it to the windows as a defrost selector. It will be installed in the compartiment where the hot air selector sends the air into the cabin... | |
| Gerry made a beautiful adapter for me to install the selector to the firewall. | |
| This is the idea... | |
| I cut the selector so that it fits in the heatbox as shown hereabove... The selector is kept to the firewall via the adapter. | |
| Finally, this is the way it installs to the firewall. Perfect system... |
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| Time spent with Johan and Ronny | 23 hours |
| Saturday, August 25th, 2007 | Proceeding with the baffling |
| In order to find the best height of the oilcooler, final baffles trim had to be done first. Johan came with a perfect idea. Temporarily glue soft material to the baffles with cocktail sticks in it. Doing this on several places makes the possibility to measure the exact height of the edge of the baffles to the cowling. | |
| So I did this all around the baffles to edges and then put the cowling in place. The cocktail sticks sink into the soft material by pushing it in place... | |
| And then this is the result. Sticks sunk to position and this makes it simple to measure an exact trim line. So, after drawing this line I final trimmed them. | |
| And then the cooler. I ordered this nice piece of technics. A cooler door that can be closed and opend. So I installed it in place and this is the result seen from the front... | |
| ... and froml the backside. Here the door is opened. On thop the connection for the Bowden cable. | |
| and the closed position. I didn't take pictures so far, so that's for the next time... | |
| We finished all baffles and removed them from their position. And then we started final preparation to go to priming them. We also installed reinforcements on the top edges. I will show pictures of this lter... | |
| Time spent with Ronny | 18hours |
| Saturday, September 1st, 2007 | Proceeding with the baffling |
| In the morning I continued working on the preparation of the baffles. Drilling for final rivets, deburring, etc... You know the story.
Johan helped me with this and took some pictures of the complete clecoed baffles to be sure of the construction. |
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| The rear right baffles... | |
| ... and the rear left baffle completed. | |
| Then cleaning and preparing for the primer and the priming job itself... | |
| ... and finally the top paint. | |
| I decided to paint in white. Just to see later if oil leaks will appear. On white, every little problem is immediately visible... | |
| And then we could put them in place again. Just to see the fit... | |
| All baffles were mounted and then the front left baffle seemed not to fit. We will have some job to discover the reason for this but for sure this is a little issue... | |
| All the rest seems to fit perfectly. So, another nice job is finished... | |
| Finally we put the oil cooler in place. | |
| At the rear you see the oil cooler door. Nice now that it is laquered in the final color...
Hereunder a total image of all baffles in place. Only this front left part needs to have some attention next week... |
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| Time spent with Ronny and Johan | 22 hours |
| Saturday, September 8th, 2007 | Installation of the vertical induction snorkle |
| Here he is, the verticla induction snorkle that has to be mounted to the induction system and the left baffle floor. We installed it as described to the engine inlet system and drew a line around the system. Then with light from behind and with the help of a template we drilled the attachement holes. This fits perfect... | |
| Then we bolted it to the engine so that we could proceed with the baffle attachement. | |
| This is the only way to do this. Once bolted to the engine and by trimming parts away from the upper side of the snorkle it becomes clear how to proceed. From that moment it is possible to draw the lines where the cut is needed in the baffle floor. | |
| These attachement angles are delivered with the kit. Some minor mistakes in the drawings gave some hesitation but at least this is the required position. | |
| The left outboard attachement had to be changed to fit. This is the way we did it. I saw a lot of different approaches on internet but this seelms to be the best way to go on... | |
| The inboard angle was trimmed to follow the bends in the floor. The filter is flexible so this seems to work... | |
| Some details: the inboard angle, | |
| the aft angle, | |
| and the outboard connection angle between the baffle floor and the snorkle are ready to install and primed. All platenuts installed... | |
| And then just in place waiting for the snorkle... | |
| and another view of all these attachement points. These will be riveted to the snorkle later. | |
| And in the meantime we installed partly the alternative air inlet. This is drying now because at the bottom it had to be filled with microballoons... | |
| Time spent with Johan | 19 hours |
| Sunday, September 9th, 2007 | Proceeding with the airfilter |
| After preparing the yearly Rally, I proceeded with the installation of the air filter. Ronny came and helped me with this. | |
| Some minor modifications after our work of yesterday and this was the result. Fits as it has to...
After this we started cutting some templates for the rubber baffle"fingers" between the baffles and the cowling. We will proceed on this next week... |
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| Time spent with Ronny | 12 hours |
| Sunday, September 16th, 2007 | Proceeding with the baffle Sealing strips |
| To find the exact height to be cut, we used some quick made templates and the cocktail-stick-method. We cut the templates to length. | |
| Here the opposite view with the exact height of the template | |
| Then we removed the templates and used these to cut new, but now perfect templates. These were used as overlay to cut the baffle seal material. We did this for all the strips... | |
| And finally we put them in place. | |
| Here you see the strips in place with the overlay inbetween the # baffle sections. Later we riveted them in place. Next week I hope to finalize this part... | |
| Time spent with Ronny | 10 hours |
| Saturday, September 23th, 2007 | Oil Door in cowling |
| After a late party (Ronny's birthday --> 50 Yr) this Saturday seems to become a lazy project day... I desided to work on the oil door in the cowling. So as you see on the image, I started cuttng and grindig the door to format. And, I drilled the holes for the latches. | |
| After this was done, I made the cut in the cowling. | |
| Finally, bothe seems to fit after finetuning and grinding... | |
| To drill the latch, I temporarily taped the door in place. | |
| And then drilled and clecoed the hinge in place. | |
| And of course, the a first try. This seems to work perfect. | |
| Next thing to do was the reinforcement frame. I measured the dimensions for this and made this from some aluminum I had in stock. Ronny arrived in the afternoon... Still alive... | |
| Together we drilled this support in place and measured out where some shims had to be made to support the complete assembly to the cowling. The we drilled it together... | |
| Next all holes had to be countersunk. After this was done, we riveted the support to the cowling. | |
| At the inside of the cowling I put some epoxy to the support to reinforce the assembly. | |
| Time spent with Ronny | 15 hours |
| Saturday, September 29th, 2007 | Inlet Ducts |
| I reinforced last week the support for the oil door. Last week the epoxy had time to dry... I tried now to install the door. Fits perfect and... is very strong and solid... | |
| We took quite a lot of time to figure out how the inlet ducts had to be installed. | |
| Measuring, taping temporarily and again and again until we found the right position. Then we clecoed the ducts in place. | |
| Next thing was to final cut the curve in the outside front baffles. | |
| Notice the inner baffles. We didn't cut them. Instead we trimmed the ducts to fall exactly in between.
As last job, I finished the ducts in place with epoxy. During the day the supplier of the milling machine came and this took long time to overview the investments I would like to make. More of this later... |
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| Time spent with Ronny and Johan | 14 hours |
| Saturday, October 13th, 2007 | Proceeding baffles and cowling |
| Today I went on with the baffles and the rubber seals. I didn't make pictures. The cowling piano hinges are riveted and final trimming is what we did all day. Professionally it is a very busy time so the following weeks are quite inpredictable. We'll see how the following weeks things will proceed... |
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| Time spent with Ronny | 15 hours |
| Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 | Proceeding cowling |
| Hi, back in business. After a hectic professional month flying on and of to Rome, weekly trips to Karlsruhe in Germany, some job to do in Friesland and, not to forget the renovation I'm doing on my workshop at home, I finally found some time to proceed my project. Later I will show some pictures of the workshop I'm making at home. I have to take some time in between because winter is coming and this has to be finished before freezing cold will boycot my plans. I ordered a brandnew milling machine and a lathe do start doing things there. And, these things need to have a warm environment.
But OK, today Ronnyy and I focused especially on the fitting of the cowling. Let's say, some finetuning. This has to be pertfect before we proceed to the next step. So, again I didn't make pictures of this boring stuff. But just to keep you informed... Another news is that I will start my tailwheel conversion on next Tuesday afternoon. With a DHC1. (De Havilland Chipmunk) this will be done. After a lot of trying in another local club to find a Piper and an instructor, I finally found this beauty. It was always my dream to fly this airplane. And now my dream becomes reality. I will keep you informed... So, possibly tomorrow afternoon I go back to my workshop with Ronny and proceed the project. |
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| Time spent with Ronny and Johan | 11 hours |
| Saturday, November 10th, 2007 | Proceeding cowling |
| Today we finally riveted all piano hinges to the cowling which were left. The row connecting vertically the cowling to the fuselage and the two bottom rows beside the mufflers. | |
| Then the platenuts which will keep the cowling pins in place were mounted on the cowling. | |
| Here the locking system for the both side cowling pins. I used a piano hinge to keep these in place. | |
| And the same in the bottom side of the cowling. Afterwards we dismounted the baffles for their last spray session. They are now drying. Once this is finished we proceed connecting all sensors and remaining things firewall forward. | |
| Time spent with Ronny and Johan | 13 hours |
| Sunday, November 11th, 2007 | Proceeding Firewall Forward |
| Before leaving to Germany for my job, I went to the shop this morning to final spray the remaining baffles. | |
| Once finally sprayed I proceeded removing the protection tapes from all pieces. Now thy are ready to reinstall finally. | |
| I sprayed the compass assembly... | |
| and the air inlet snorkle. | |
| This will be the sensor that detects the canopy latch. It is an inductive sensor which releases the contact of the warning light when an iron piece comes in the neighbourhood. I will show this more clearly in the future... | |
| Time spent with Ronny and Johan | 4 hours |
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