Plodding along

This week has been yet another in what seems like a long line of task ticker weeks.  I am finishing up the plenum finally and I have taken care of quite a number of smaller tasks that needed to get done.  I'm getting excited about doing my transition training in a couple of weeks but the weather may put a damper on that excitement.  I am also looking forward to moving to the hanger in December.  I still have a lot of work to do before I make that move so it may only be the wings and empennage that gets moved at first but it will be nice having room in the garage again....even if it is short lived.  ;-)

On to the show...

The right side exhaust part that I had shipped back to Clint from Vetterman Exhaust arrived this week so I installed it and then mounted the cowling.  I verified that my newly formed inlets will work and that the exhaust fits inside the cowl.  I actually took this picture because I was going to post it on VansAirforce in the RV-9 forum.  There were a couple of recent updates and I was going to add my 2 cents.  Since the canopy is off I decided not to post it.

I finally got around to mounting the cooling/defrost fans.  It was a bit of a challenge to get the screws in that close to the windshield but they are both in now.  Also in this picture you can see the glare Shield pad that I installed this week.  Its from Classic Aero and it a very nice addition.  I can't tell you how many times I have banged my head against the glare shield already working in the panel.  Now instead of a razor thin piece of aluminum I have a nice padded bumper to protect my noggin.

I also decided that I needed a line input for music.  The original wiring harness had the stereo inputs to the comm system coming from the G3X display (GDU460).  Since I did not purchase the XM satellite radio option I removed the inputs from the G3X and installed this little stereo jack on the co-pilot side.  Now we can have a little in flight entertainment on those long cross country flights.

Here is the new exhaust clearance to the lower cowl.  Its pretty close and after getting some guidance from Clint I will be lining the cowling with a piece of aluminum formed to the shape of the cowl and then "glued" with some high temp RTV in those areas where it is so close.  The rest of the lower cowl will have some heat reflective material bonded to it for heat protection.

The left inlet...current status.

Right inlet current status

Ah, here I decided that since I had the avionics out I would go ahead and install plate nuts so that I can remove the face plates without removing the nuts behind the panel.  In this picture you can see the four new angles with nutplates installed.

What?  The battery again?  Yep, I finally got around to putting the cushion material in the bottom and sides of the battery box.  This battery box was designed for a standard airplane battery but I have a lightweight LiFePo battery and it is a little smaller in size.  I also added the tie down bar to the whole mix.

Oh, and some really fun stuff!  See that gold looking device there?  Well that's the new ignition system, or at least the right side ignition.  Remember each cylinder in a Lycoming engine has two spark-plugs that are fired by independent ignition systems.  (Safety and redundancy).   Still not wired up yet but that will come when I get around to routing all the wires in the engine compartment....soon.

This is a picture of the left side ignition system (PMag).

Just a top view of the backside of the engine.  Its getting pretty tight back there and I'm not done yet!

Ah yes....this little bugger took a lot of work to get installed.  Why you ask?  It looks like you should be able to just screw it in right?!?  Well that's what I thought when I hung the engine.  Turns out that this little nipple would not screw in because the motor mount (white tube at the top of the picture) was in the way.  So how did I get it installed?  I pulled the engine....again!  I must be getting pretty good at it since it only took me about an hour to pull the engine, install this nipple, and then re-attach the engine to the motor mount.  Oh, this nipple allows oil vapor to vent overboard to prevent pressurizing the crank case.  I have an oil separator system that attaches here and will separate the oil from the other gases and drain the oil back to the engine.

I absolutely love the look of carbon fiber!  Here is the new panel that my friend Mark cut on his CNC machine.  It took us about 3 trial passes before getting comfortable enough to cut the actual panel but it fits perfectly and looks awesome!  Still need to cut the right side but this will at least let me get the avionics back in the plane.

Here is the panel after I drilled the holes for mounting.  This thing weighs half that of the aluminum panel I had installed (granted its only half a pound) but it looks much better!

And finally here it is with the avionics installed.  I'm gonna like this I think.  Still need that right side but it should be easy.  

Ok, one more picture.  I really like that carbon fiber look.  This time I got everything powered up again.

One more for the weekend.  The little white device on the firewall is an oil/air separator.  I got it hung on the firewall and all that's left is the piece that taps into the exhaust.