HangingEngine

Today was dedicated to bolting the bottom center engine mount to the firewall. This is complicated because there is a blue bracket that gets bolted to the engine block and to the two tubes of the engine mount. But because the engine blocks sags down a bit these two holes or the hole in the engine block doesn't line up very well. One of the two will have to move somehow. A picture will make that a bit clearer hopefully.

The way I got this done was first unbolting the blue bracket from the engine block (incl. the two rubber rings) so that the right side of the blue bracket can be bolted to the firewall (leave the nut off for now). Because there is only about 1/2 inch spacing between the engine block and the top of the blue bracket, one of the rubber rings needs to be forced in between there. That is the part that is a bit challenging, but with a screwdriver you can push the two parts apart enough for it to fit in between. Put the blue bracket back in place and put the left firewall bolt through. After that, with the engine block hoisted up somewhat, you can just about get the bolt through the engine block hole and put the second rubber ring and big washer on. Then put the nuts and washers on the firewall bolts and start turning the nut so that the rubber rings move themselves into place and push the block up. Then it looks something like this:

Looks cool huh? Last thing to be done is torquing all these engine mount bolts to spec, but the (cheapo) torque wrench I bought doesn't seem to work well in the 160-190 inch/lbs range so I need to ask around if someone else has a good torque wrench.

Finally the BIG moment has arrived: the engine has been bolted to the firewall tonight.

Really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be although I still have two bolts to go: the two in the bottom center of the mount that tie the white and blue tubes together. These parts really don't line up at all and I have to figure out how I can get the engine block up enough to line these tubes up and get the bolts through. I did install the fuel return line; noticed for the first time that Jan already had installed an AN fitting that was screwed right in the AN fitting on the firewall.

I also installed the fuel pressure regulator for which I already fabricated a bracket that was riveted to the firewall earlier.

This afternoon was spent on reaming the last hole through the firewall and mount and installing gear on the firewall. First the remaining hole through the mount was reamed so that the complete mount could now be bolted on. Unfortunately I forgot to make a picture of this, but will do next time the mount is bolted on (maybe for the last time?). Next was determining a good location for the ground tab. The battery and engine ground will be bolted to the firewall at this point and there will be a number of small tabs to connect device grounds to.

Next was drilling the 1 and 1/8 inch holes for the safeair firewall-passthru brackets. That was easy enough again with my 1 inch wholesaw and same sanding with the dremel. Power, ecu and sensor cabling will all go through these holes. All the writing on the firewall you see on the pics show the other locations I thought of putting the holes :-)

It was also time to rivet on the firewall hatch so that the heater could be installed on the other side. Of course I forgot about to rivet in the rudder pedal brace, so had to do that afterwards. Luckily that wasn't as complicated as I though it would be due to the limited space for the rivet gun.

After I installed the rudder pedals back into the fuse the heater could be bolted in place. I still need to find out in detail how to connect the two heater tubes into the engine cooling system.

The 12 inch long 11/32 inch drill bit came in this week so it was time to start drilling the engine mount to the firewall this weekend. Saturday was the yearly air show at N57 and since I volunteered there (filling up planes with smoke oil) I only worked on the plane a bit on Sunday. Through the #12 holes I drilled through the firewall last week, I temporarily bolted the mount down with AN3 bolts to hold it in place to drill the 11/32 inch hole and ream with a 3/8 inch reamer to final size.

For the bottom two holes on the outside this was easy as the mount allowed me to use a normal length reamer in my electric drill (reamer didn't fit in my pneumatic drill). But for the top engine mount holes, this didn't work out well. Drilling of the hole to 11/32 inch with the long drill bit worked fine, but I couldn't get the reamer in straight enough since it was only 7 inch long. I tried reaming the mount and firewall hole separately on the left side, but didn't want to risk doing that on the right side just in case the holes wouldn't line up. So I need a longer (12 inch or so) reamer.

After having taken the engine of the firewall again I drilled a hole for the return fuel elbow, but noticed I didn't order enough AN 5D nuts from ACS on my last order! So I have to go back and get some more so that I can finish it.

Today I tried for the first time to fit the engine on the firewall. Uses the hoist and some strategically placed slings on the mount to suspend the mount in front of the firewall to check if the bolt hole locations are good (they are). Also figured out (and drew with a sharpie) where most of the components and the holes for cabling could go.

Attach: hanging-the-sube-4.jpg

While I was at it I also tried the nosewheel fit in the mount (it fitted well).

And I decided the drill the mount holes on the firewall with a #12 bit. Will do the full 3/8 inch hole through the mount itself so that the fit will be perfect. I need to order a longer (12") 11/32 drill bit for that first.

It's about time I fill it up with oil and make this machine run for the first time. I'm having bad dreams that it is rusting from the inside :-)