Today I torqued up the elevator counterweight bolts and used JB Weld to secure the nuts in place. This would allow me to remove the bolts (only one at a time), if necessary in the future. The problem with the original design is that the nuts are inaccessible under the elevator fairing which will be riveted into place. By gluing the nuts onto the lead weights, the bolts can be removed and reinstalled, and hopefully fully torqued, without needing to remove the fiberglass fairing.
Tonight I checked another item off the to-do list by testing the pitot and static lines for leaks. Good news – both the pitot and static lines were leak-free. I wasn’t able to test the AOA lines, but will have to do that sometime down the road.
I started with the pitot line. By removing the pilot seat floor panel, I could access the ports where the pitot and AOA lines will connect once the wings are attached. I used a piece of flexible tube, and attached one end to the Pitot connector. I gently blew into the other end until the airspeed registered, and then folded over the tube and held it for a minute. The airspeed indications on the G3X and the G5 held steady for a minute, which met the standard.
For the static line test, I ended up taping over the static ports, then disconnecting the G3X static line where it joins a t-connector. Using the flexible tube again, except this time gently sucking air, I was able to demonstrate steady altitude on the G5 for over a minute. I guess there’s a small chance of a leak between the t-connector and the G3X, but at least I know the G5 has no leaks.
Tonight I installed the oil cooler hose and the sniffle valve.
I had held off installing the oil cooler hose until I had filled all the gaps in the baffling. With that job done, I went ahead and installed the hose. It was easy, and the only surprise was that the hose didn’t come into contact with the oil filler. The angle coming off the baffles is just enough to provide clearance.
The sniffle valve was also straight forward. I zip tied the end to the engine mount just above the right hand exhaust pipe.
For some reason, Lycoming shipped the engine with an extra fitting in the fuel spider. The Vans plans warn about checking for this fitting and removing it. Unfortunately, the fitting can’t be rotated, as there is interference with the engine case. So I had to remove the spider, remove the fitting, install a plug, and reinstall the spider. This ended up being quite easy.
Over the weekend I took some time to seal up all of the visible air gaps around the baffling system. To help find and plug the gaps, I put a lead light on top of the engine, then installed the top cowl. I had to reposition the light a few times, but it did a nice job of finding many little gaps that needed to be filled with RTV.
This had to be done at night to ensure the garage was dark enough, but that works well since I’m typically working at night.
Tonight I switched out two engine case bolts for longer versions. These are specific bolts, ordered from Lycoming, and are 1/8 longer than the originals. The Vans plans have you place a washer and a cushion clamp on these bolts (one on each side), and there aren’t enough threads showing if you use the original bolts. The clamps hold the starter lead on the left, and the alternator power wire on the right.
Replacing the bolts was fairly easy. The cushion clamps always a pain, but I was able to get enough fingers in there to make it work. The nuts are torqued to 96 inch pounds per Lycoming.
Tonight I painted the bottom cowling white. This required carefully masking the edges of the heat shield, and the exterior, and then a few seconds of actual paint application.
The paint was fine. I used a high temp enamel spray paint, and it went on nicely. The paint really showed up all the areas where I had some stray fiberglass strands. If I did it again, I would have taken more time to sand the inside before painting. Still, I don’t plan to be showing off the inside of the bottom cowl to anyone.
The resin I used to seal the heat shield ran in a couple of places, and made an annoying couple of puddles. I could have used a lot less resin, and I should have realized that with no cloth to absorb the resin, it was going to run. No big deal.
Tonight I finished applying the heat shield, and then brushed some epoxy resin around the edges of each piece, included all the places where edges overlapped.
Today my friend Jeremiah helped me move the wings to a hangar at the airport (KRNM) at Ramona.
I rented a 20 foot u-haul truck and transported the wings in their cradle. In terms of the order of operations, we took the wings out and lay them down on a couple of mattresses. Then loaded the empty cradle into the truck, and secured it to the sides of the truck by lashing it down in several locations. With the cradle rock solid, we carried each wing into the truck and secured into the cradle. The clamp I made at the forward end (wing root end) held the spar in place, and rolled towels on the outboard end helped pad the straps that we used to secure that end. I used some foam triangle shape to peg the wing against the frame of the cradle in a couple of spots, just so that nothing would move. Then we loaded up a storage rack with ailerons, flaps, and wing tips.
The trip was uneventful, and the unload was the opposite operation.
Tonight I started on the lower cowling heat shield. My plan is to get this applied, then paint the rest of the inside of the lower cowl white to make it easier to detect oil etc.
It took a while to work out the best way to work with the foil. Initially my plastic squeegee wasn’t stiff enough, and it wasn’t getting the air bubbles and wrinkles out. It was also a bit of a weird shape, and I had a couple of false starts getting the right size sections of foil cut and sized.
I ended up finding it easier to work with 18-inch sections at a time, which led to multiple overlapping pieces, but fewer problems with wrinkles and air bubbles.
I got about half way done applying the foil before calling it a night.
