Feb 01, 2022     New Engine, Cold Intake Air Planum       Category: Engine

I always intended to eventually install a new engine on my plane and the opportunity presented itself a few weeks ago. New engine is installed and runs good (as well as the rebuilt one I had before but confidence in the new engine is higher). I also built the cold intake air plenum and installed an MGL EMS-1 engine monitor.

  Feb 27, 2021     Smoothing cooling air inlet       Category: Engine

  Feb 14, 2021     Cooling Duct Seal       Category: Engine

Installed the cooling duct seal. Seals well. I am going to smooth out the inlet transition to the duct so this will take a little time before it is all done.

  Feb 12, 2021     Cowling Screws       Category: Engine

Installed nutplates and screws on cowling. You can see that by building the double flange the screws on the sides is reduced to only 4 per side.

  Feb 12, 2021     Cowling Double Flange       Category: Engine

Built a double flange as recommended in one of the Europa newsletters. This reduces the number of screws on the cowling sides.

  Sep 18, 2020     Overflow Tank       Category: Engine

So spent the last two days making a little contraption to mount the coolant overflow tank. Little things like this are a bit of fun but make you waste a lot of time. Well, at least it is done.

  Sep 15, 2020     First Taxi!!!       Category: Engine

Today I put all the bits and pieces together and Lo and Behold it is an airplane!! Fired it up and took it for a taxi test. The airplane taxies very nice. I am surprised about the turning ratio which is tighter than I thought it would be. The engine is running great so far. Only problem: the outriggers don't fit my taxiway. Only way I can taxi down my taxiway is to keep the wheel that is on the ground (left side due to my weight) in the asphalt while the other wheel is skimming the grass. That was no problem but not sure ow it will work when I have two people in the airplane.

  Sep 05, 2020     Engine First Start       Category: Engine

This morning got last minute electrical system fabrication done. Put fuel and coolant and tied it to a tree. The engine started and ran great.

  Aug 15, 2020     Fuel, Oil and Coolant Hoses       Category: Engine

Fuel, oil and coolant hoses installed. Fireshield and heat shield where necessary.

  Aug 11, 2020     Engine Installation       Category: Engine

Got the fuel lines and fireshield so worked on installing those. Ended up a little short of material so had to order some extra. As got the cooling duct in place and painted. Slowly building the supports for the coolers and next will be to install baffles to seal it all.

An interesting picture is the one with the passthroughs. Honestly resisted purchasing one of the available passthrough kits for more than $50 so found these nice shower curtain rod flanges in Amazon, made of stainless, cost around $2 each and they are great. they are screwed to the firewall, an inner firesleeve is installed to protect the fuel lines and cables and an outer then follows. Not shown will be hose clamps that holds the firesleeve to the flange and another seals the firesleeve tight against the lines.The worked nice.

This week I will be receiving the oil hoses, additional firesleeve and fittings so the goal for next weekend will be to pretty much finish the engine mechanical and start working on the electrical. The main goal is to be able to start the engine in the next few weeks.

  Jul 25, 2020     Mounting engine       Category: Engine

Today finished sealing the firewall using intumescent caulking. Completed the rudder pedal tubes sealing. Installed the water pump elbows and installed water pump on engine. Torqued all engine mount bolts and at last mounted the engine permanently on the fuselage.

Added some pictures of previously completed work such as the installation of the seatbelt harness, tire and brake line.

  Nov 01, 2019     Engine       Category: Engine

Nice picture of the engine. That muffler is a thing of beauty! And the fit was superb.

  Nov 01, 2019     FWF Progress       Category: Engine

The following pictures show the progress made to date on the FWF. As you can see I got the cowling fitted. Put a lot of effort to make it perfect. Came around 90% of what I wanted to achieve but I know what to tweak to make it nice.

Then muffler came in. Super nice and something that fit perfectly for a change.

Last was fitting the oil reservoir, which is the reason why I installed the cowling and muffler before doing this. Just to make sure I had proper clearance.

  Oct 27, 2019     Engine Alignment and Cowling       Category: Engine

Performed alignment of the engine and started fitting of the bottom cowling. It's not attached yet as there is some thinking to do to ensure is it in its proper place.

  Oct 23, 2019     Oil Tank Bracket       Category: Engine

  Sep 28, 2019     Throttle Quadrant       Category: Engine

Marty made a throttle quadrant housing from a neat wooden plug. A little sanding, paint and a pretty assembly is born.

  Sep 14, 2019     Engine Install       Category: Engine

I haven't done much work for some days due to hurricane Dorian woes. This weekend is tropical storm Humberto but I managed to get some good work in despite the distraction. In the last week I worked on getting the engine prepped and the ring mount painted and installed. I also spent a bit of time getting the cradle reinforced and providing better support to the fuselage since the its weight is increasing considerably.

Regarding engine install, one of the pictures shows the ring mount on primer before top coat. Today my friend Tom and I hung the engine on the fuselage. I kind of installed the prop to see how it all looks like together. This thing is starting to get long :). Some of the pictures shows the progress. I may do some engine related work in the next few days but need to get back to the baggage compartment bulkhead and finish that so that I can call the airframe mostly done.

  Aug 20, 2019     Rotax Ring Mount       Category: Engine

A little reaming of the engine mount bolt bushings was necessary for the 10mm bolts to fit. Good fit now. I got this ring mount used so need to strip and paint to make it look good.

  Aug 18, 2019     Making Engine Noises       Category: Engine

Broom Broom. Modified my Lycoming engine stand to mount the 912 on it. Put it in front of the airplane to make engine noises. Man! that engine look tiny!!

  Jul 31, 2019     Got Radiator!!!       Category: Engine

First entry on the engine section. I found a radiator. May need to send it out to inspect it and fix a couple dings but looks great.