Anyway, here's the other hose I ordered, which goes from the Airflow Performance purge valve back to the firewall. I unibit'ed a 7/8" hole in the rear baffle wall (just enlarged the hole I had drilled previously), where I'll use an AN931-10-14 grommet.
The hose passes down through the engine mount, weaving between the oil filler neck (not installed in this photo) and the engine mount.
Here's the bottom end. If I were doing this again, I would definitely install the bulkhead fitting at the top of the firewall, which would require a shorter, more straightforward hose. It would require routing 1/4" aluminum tubing down the firewall on the inside, which would raise its own issues, but I think that would be a simpler installation than this. In any case, this will work fine the way it is, with the weaving and bobbing hose route. And hey! I'm done figuring out and ordering hoses...cool!
I finally finished cutting the hole in the front right baffle for the governor oil hose. This hole has to be pretty huge for the firesleeve clamp to pass through. I had toyed around with the idea of pulling the firesleeve off this hose, but I guess I can live with the mondo hole for the extra degree of protection.
Here's a shot from below. The doubler and screw bracket need to be bastardized pretty badly to provide enough clearance, Clarence. I'm going to fill the gap around the hose with RTV after the baffles go on for good.
I had gotten those electrical terminal boots from Sac Sky Ranch, and tonight I installed a handful of 'em on some of the firewall forward stuff. For example, this is the alternator's battery lead. I honestly don't even believe in terminal boots as a concept...but rather I believe in circuit protection and securing things to avoid contact. Ok, maybe the positive battery terminal and the hot side of the battery contactor, yeah, that makes sense. Anyway, it doesn't hurt to have 'em, so why not.
I put boots on the ANL current limiter terminals while I was at it.
It was right about now when Daisy started playing around with one of the boxes under a bench...playing like there was an animal inside the box. I figured she was on crack and pulled the box out. I figured I'd either see nothing or maybe a little mouse inside. Nope. Black Widow spider, about 1 3/4" across. Daisy has no fear. Remind me not to reach blindly into and fumble through any of these boxes...
Relocating the heat exchanger to cylinder 3's exhaust stack really makes the heat setup much, much simpler that what Van's recommends for the 200hp IO-360. I fly-cut a 2 1/8" hole in the back right baffle and drilled the 2" hose flange to the baffle.
Here's the front view.
It's just a simple straightforward SCAT run down to the heat exchanger inlet, and then a short bob and weave through the engine mount and up to the bypass valve on the firewall.
Van's recommends using a piece of aluminum screen over the heat air inlet...why not.
Here's the finished setup (this photo is upside down, the baffle is in my vise on the bench). I used flush AN426AD4-5 rivets and back-riveted this puppy.
Using Permatex high-temp RTV I filled the gaps. The weld on the flange is pretty piss poor (not that I can do any better, but whatever), and there are gaps all around the joint...so I filled those gaps and the little pucker factor gaps around the flange. You know...wouldn't want to leak any heat air in this hot southern California climate...
Actually, I'm thinking I may eventually want to install a little sliding door over the front of this inlet. The way I see it, when the heat is turned off, the fresh air gets bypassed at the firewall (so it doesn't come into the cockpit). Problem is, that's fresh air coming into the upper cowl, and then flowing continuously through the SCAT and out the bypass -- that's lost cooling air! That has to reduce the effectiveness of cylinder and oil cooler cooling. Even if it's just a small amount, it's lost air. It would add more moving parts to the system to have another cockpit control for a sliding door here, but it could theoretically be linked to the control that opens and closes the bypass. We'll see how hot the engine runs before doing anything. I most likely won't do anything at all, but I reserve the right to grumble grumble about wasted cooling air. Heat is for wussies. Oh yeah, and for my wife.
In an effort to wrap up the cowl work, I wanted to cut the holes in the oil door for the Hartwell latches. This was kind of nerve-wracking at first, because I figure I only had one shot at this...mess it up and it's time to order a new oil door, which would basically be starting over with this thing. In the end, it was No Big Deal© (batteries not included). If you're in the same boat, here's the simplest way to do it...mark the cutout like this: it's 2" long, 7/16" wide in the narrow portion, which is 1 3/16" long, and 21/32" wide in the wide portion, which is 13/16" long. Dassit.
I drilled #40 "relief" holes in the corners, and then agonized for like 40 whole seconds as I ransacked my tool collection, looking for something that would make this cut easy. I didn't want to do the whole thing with needle files (reminiscent of the hours I spent filing the canopy latch slots). Little did I realize how well this freakin' Dremel tool would work. Fiberglass is just aching to be to' up with this thing. Be careful, hold it with at least 2 fingers, and it just zips right through.
Here's the first cutout, after some needle filing to smooth the edges.
Initial fit is great. Tight, but not overdone, looking good.
After some more filing and sanding, it's feeling right.
Ok, repeat for the second latch. That wasn't so hard. And I managed not to totally jack up this one-shot oil door. I'm very happy with how it came out!
After drilling the latches to the door, I had to test it out. Works just like you'd expect.
The one little thing I do have to do is build up the cowl flange area under (or above, rather) the latch fingers. I'm guessing these latches are designed for thicker applications. No big deal. My new-found epoxy/micro skills are just what the doctor ordered. Something for another day, though. It's late.
Oh, by the way...today I decided to move forward with the hangar transition. Since I'm freakin' paying for the damned phone line there (I got it so I can dial up and do work), and I'm dumping $300 a month into the rent, I may as well get some use out of it. Everybody always says to do absolutely as much as humanly possible at home before bringing the plane to the hangar, because it slows down once it's at the airport. But hey, how many of the people who emphasize that cliche can also say that they work out of their hangar? I'm talking weekdays. I'm not one of the guys who can only be at the hangar on weekends. So I think moving to the hangar is just what I need for a nice little productivity boost.
Lately, I find myself sitting in front of the tube when I should be out in the garage. It's hard, I have to say, at this late phase, to continue to motivate yourself. You might not think so, with a plane that's nearing completion, but it takes some serious perseverence. Think about it...it's been the same M.O. for over two years now. Every day. I'm not saying it's not fun and rewarding and all that crap, but c'mon. It's time for a milestone. The last big ones were firing up the panel (June) and hanging the engine (July). Before that, it was an airframe milestone every two weeks or so. Now, it's infinite minutia. Grommets and terminal boots and hoses and cowl trimming and... Plus, I think bagging on the plenum idea was a real mental setback for me. It's for the best, but it was disappointing to some degree.
It's not surprising that lately I've been getting distracted with all sorts of little software projects (i.e. the new IM network thing) here and there. That's fine, but it's time that would be better spent on the plane at this phase.
So, I'm gonna move the plane to the hangar and start working (real job) there. The goal has been to get it there, wings on for good, by Thanksgiving. I've got a few weeks to make that happen, so fuggit...let's do it. Milestone time. Stay tuned...