Oct 27, 2021     Picked up engine from RANS       Category: Engine

Titan 340 engine finally arrived, originally ordered in October 2020 with expected delivery of February 2021. Took one year instead of the projected 5 months. This entry is actually being written in November of 2022 and later on some people endured two year waits on their Titan engines.

  Mar 02, 2023     Uncrate engine - (1.5 hours)       Category: Engine

Installed gascolator, the stem mount had been done for some time but I had left the gascolator safe in its box until ready.
Used a strap to physically pull the engine crate/box out into the middle of the hangar to allow removal of packaging. Removed plastic bag that had been sealing the engine and began to prepare for work on cooling baffles, fittings and related before hanging the engine. Also noted that the Lightspeed ignition pick up sensor mounts and magnet ring had already been mounted on the engine at the factory. Always glad to have some time saved for me!

  Mar 03, 2023     Electrical study - (3 hours)       Category: Engine

Spent some time putting questions together involving various electrical things. Sent an email to Tim Day at Steinair to get some clarification. Parent sitting in-laws killed quite a bit of productivity on the plane today. Try, try again.

  Mar 05, 2023     Ignition coils and cooling baffles - (6 hours)       Category: Engine

Acquired parts required to mount the newer style ignition coil mount to the rear of the engine. Needed to reroute some of the fuel injection lines to clear the coils and high tension lines that will mount to them. Next began to assemble some of the cooling baffle frames to the engine.

  Mar 06, 2023     Cooling baffles - (5 hours)       Category: Engine

Worked on cooling baffles (aluminum framing only, no seal material) most all day. Primarily working on inlet floors on both sides of the flywheel. Riveting doublers and adding support angles to ties the inlet ramps to the side baffling. Guess I also attached the baffle pieces that wrap around the cylinder barrels and heads. Also riveted in the cabin heat air pull off into the right side cooling entrance.

  Mar 07, 2023     Cooling baffles inlet ramp support angles. - (4 hours)       Category: Engine

Continued to work on making reinforcement angles for the inlet ramp areas of the cooling baffles. First one at opening can go under the ramp to promote smooth airflow but as you go back and around the corner you need to go inside of the inlet openings.

  Mar 08, 2023     Cooling baffles - (3 hours)       Category: Engine

Continued work on installing engine cooling baffles (the aluminum frames portions). Worked on right rear of engine, including upsizing the original 3” oil cooler duct to 4”. Progress is good when there aren't interruptions, today wasn't one of those. 137 days till Oshkosh.

  Mar 09, 2023     Finish baffle frames - (5 hours)       Category: Engine

Finished the cooling baffles aluminum framework. I did use some #8 machine bolts and nuts on the left aft baffle outer portion rather than riveting to ease removal in the future. Reinstalled the dipstick tube and safety wired. Installed the engine mount onto the fuselage and torqued the 5/16” bolts. Also worked the leads for both of the GEA24 harnesses through the firewall penetration before installing the engine mount. Sealed some of the baffle structure to engine gaps with orange high temp RTV sealant. Changed out the Titan factory crankcase breather fitting with a 90 degree fitting provided by RANS with FWF kit. (Modified it also)
I also secured a 25# bag of lead shot to the tailwheel spring to counterbalance the engine until I install tail flying surfaces on the plane. Attached the hoist to the engine with a trailer safety chain in preparation for lifting.

  Mar 10, 2023     Final prep & Hang engine - (3 hours)       Category: Engine

Installed oil temperature sensor and loosened plugs for manifold pressure and oil pressure fittings, waiting on the fittings as I had forgotten to put them on order. Actually pulled the engine mount back off of the plane and did a little wire sorting and added the inner fire sleeve on the firewall pass through, then re-installed the engine mount on the plane & torqued.
Used cherry picker engine hoist to lift the engine from shipping pallet and moved to engine mount area. Assembled the Lord mount s and secured in mount by just pressing them together until the engine was moved closer and the bolts ran through.
It had gotten late on me so for the night the mounting bolts are installed but still need a washer behind three of the four nuts. Moved hoist away for pics and then replaced it to hold at least a little weight overnight.

  Mar 11, 2023     Prep work for wiring engine - (2.5 hours)       Category: Engine

Lots of thinking, reading and a little action today. First had to get the last washer behind the nuts on three of the four engine mount bolts. I had pulled things together without them in place, and it was almost midnight last night by the time I could leave things hang.
Next, I sorted out the Lightspeed pickup sensor wires out of the pack coming through the firewall. Did a lot of looking at builders logs and pictures of factory aircraft to see where they were routing the wires that lead from the pick up sensors behind the flywheel to the ignition boxes behind the firewall. The difficulty comes from the Lightspeed harness already being assembled with big sensors on one end and d-sub connectors on the other, and needing somehow to get the leads through the baffle frames. It appears that the factory green plane has a slot cut to a grommet hole in a couple of different places to allow the wire to be inserted through the grommet.
I located some scrap 40/1000” aluminum and cut a couple of pieces to tape onto the face of each of the sensors to set the gap to the flywheel. Thanks to Pat Hatch for this idea, I will start the screws through the sensors and temporarily install the flywheel against the sensors with the spacer installed to set the air gap, pull the flywheel and finish tightening.
One picture today shows how tall a drink of water this airplane is going to be!

  Mar 12, 2023     LSE sensors mounted, other wiring - (5 hours)       Category: Engine

I had taped the 40/1000” spacers onto the sensors Saturday night and so this morning I mounted them tight enough to hold but loose enough to adjust and then temp mounted the flywheel to set the clearance. Once this was set I undid the mounting screws one at a time and used blue loctite on them.
Routing the LSE sensor wires was a head scratcher for me, I did a lot more looking online and finally decided to go above the engine for both the upper and lower sensor wires. Since everything is already soldered on the LSE wire harness I had to cut a couple of slots in the baffling panels with holes and grommets to secure the sensor wiring.
I also shortened my previously finished master solenoid switch wire and also shortened and finished the starter solenoid switch wire.

  Mar 13, 2023     CHT probes, wrapping baffles - (3 hours)       Category: Engine

First order of day was to finish wiring the voltage shunt to the GEA 24 harness, used crimp butt connectors with a shrink wrap over them both.
Next was to install the CHT probes. I am hoping to get the engine wiring details done in the next few weeks and routing the CHT and EGT wires seems like a substantial project to my untrained mind.
Upon installing the CHTs it became obvious that I needed to tie the baffle strips tight around the cylinders below the engine before doing much else. I used .032 safety wire and some aluminum rivet stems to secure the inner two sets of baffles to each other, front to rear. I plan to insert a piece of baffle seal material between those two twisted wires and the bottom of the inter cylinder baffling to prevent wear and to give the last little bit of tension to those strips. The outside baffle strips were much easier as I just used an angle drill to add a couple of holes to the lips of the center baffle and then wired the front and rear cylinders separately.

  Mar 14, 2023     Baffle ties and EGT probes - (5 hours)       Category: Engine

Finished securing the baffles for the cylinders and heads, I redid a couple of the wires to go through two holes on the tabs of the baffle plates as that seemed to allow me to get them tighter.
I pulled out the exhaust assembly and loose bolted it up to the engine to locate where I wanted to put the EGT probes. I did some picture hunting and believe I positioned my probes similar to the green factory S-21 when it had a Titan in it. (Pictures of it from Oshkosh 2021 were on Instagram). I did make a mistake and drilled one probe hole in-line with a lug on the exhaust pipe and so obviously the clamp won't work there.Went closer to the flange on a new hole and the rest of the pipes.
Decided on a routing for the left side EGT a and CHT wires and crimped the #4 rings onto the harness wires.

  Mar 15, 2023     Start oil cooler mount - (1 hour)       Category: Engine

Began to hang the oil cooler, the vertical bolts are in a pretty difficult location to install with the washer that goes against the plastic ducting.

  Mar 16, 2023     Oil cooler mounted - (1.5 hours)       Category: Engine

Upon fitting the lower supports to the oil cooler, it became apparent that the cooler was tipped down in the front. Probably wouldn't have hurt anything, but looked goofy. Concluded that the bushings on the rear mount were resting on top of the insulation blanket that I added to the firewall, while the supports mounted to the tab on the engine mount and were not set up for the extra distance. I pulled everything apart and cut the holes out where the rear mounting angle bolted to the firewall. Upon reassembly, things appear correct and level.

  Mar 24, 2023     Exhaust gaskets installed - (1 hour)       Category: Engine

For reasons unknown, I did not have exhaust gaskets in my FWF kit, probably just got missed. I have had exhaust hanging loose previously and received the gaskets today and installed. Also tightened the clamps holding EGT and CHT and starter ground cables under the left side of the engine.
After a week of not getting much done due to family health troubles, today I can feel a cold hitting me. Argh.

  Mar 26, 2023     Top side engine items - (2.5 hours)       Category: Engine

Received more spiral wire sheath for left side LSE trigger wire, so finished protecting and routing it through the rear baffle. Added 2 holes for the LSE coax leads to enter the rear baffle. Mounted the ignition coils back onto rear of engine. Spent an hour getting the one adel clamp to hold the LSE wire on left rear of engine (there's a reason I'm pointing at it with my middle finger…) I also did quite a bit more sealing of the baffles with RTV sealant after seeing some pictures of the factory baffling on the green demo plane at OSH 2021 with the Titan in it. Need some extension tubing to get to some deeper spots also.

  Mar 27, 2023     Starter power cable - (1.5 hours)       Category: Engine

Had not installed the positive cable from the starter solenoid to the starter yet, don't really know why, other than I was thinking it was missing (actually I didn't get the cable from the master solenoid to the starter solenoid, or even the master solenoid) due to an older FWF kit. However I did have it and should have installed it earlier as it is going to follow the starter ground cable under the left side of the engine. So a few minutes to hook it up and route it and then over an hour rearranging the standoffs for it and the other cables, not quite done yet.

  Mar 28, 2023     Securing wires - (3 hours)       Category: Engine

Finished securing the stater cable with a double adel clamp on the lower left engine mount. Worked at securing the EGT and CHT leads from #2 and #4 cylinders with adel clamps attached to standoffs along the underside of the engine on the starboard side. Very tedious working with multiple cables/wires inside of adel clamps.

  Mar 29, 2023     Alternator B lead and securing wires - (4 hours)       Category: Engine

More securing wires on the right side of engine, then the realization that I still needed to get the alternator B lead in that area too. I ended up remanufacturing the forward standoff to accommodate an extra adel clamp to hold the lead. I fabricated the B lead from #6 tefzel wire and crimped the ends with a shrink over them. I also laced some of the wires in the solenoids area together for a nicer appearance.

  Apr 01, 2023     Ignition leads and oil cooler connections - (5 hours)       Category: Engine

I had some of the ignition leads on but was making sure the boots could be removed without harming the cable before threading the lower plug wires through the cooling baffles. I was also waiting on an extra rubber grommet for those holes. Needed to drill one of the holes in the baffling as there were only three, and of course there are four plugs on the bottom of the engine.
I also was waiting on a couple of 45 degree fittings for the oil cooler hoses to mate to the cooler, so that was final hooked up.
I also did some electrical work figuring out a few of the wires in the bundle that I was unsure of. Used an Ohm Meter to figure out where a few of these went.

  Apr 02, 2023     Engine fittings and some electrical - (2 hours)       Category: Engine

Short day due to other home projects and flew the PA-11 for the first time since February 8th! I installed the restricted fitting for the oil pressure sensor and the straight fitting for the manifold pressure sensor to the engine.
I also needed to lengthen each of the two wires that go to the ignition system circuit breakers so that they can reach to the battery.

  Apr 03, 2023     Coil mount brace / Lightspeed wiring - (3 hours)       Category: Engine

When I was ready to add the support bracket to the ignition coil bracket that attaches to the rear of the baffling, I discovered that the mount was offset to the port side just enough that it needed to be re-centered to align things. This ended up taking some considerable work as I ended up removing the outer two coils to access the adel clamps. I put two rivets in the support instead of just one and used an AN3 bolt with stainless nut through the rear of the baffling.
I gathered the wires that will be going to the Lightspeed connections and ran through sheathing to go from the harness under the panel to the area between the two ignition boxes. This will be 5 wires total, 2 for the ignition indicator lights, 2 for the ignition toggle switches, all on the LSE input plug, and 1 for the tachometer pickup from the LSE output plug. The 2 LSE sensor wires will have different routing as they come through the firewall.

  Apr 05, 2023     Lightspeed ignition wiring - (2 hours)       Category: Engine

Finished bundling wires that go to the input and output plugs on the Lightspeed ignition boxes. Much of the time was spent securing the screws that secure the d-sub plugs into the ignition units. With the spacing of the two boxes and the fact that the d-sub connectors face each other on the end of the units, you are left with very little room to get a screwdriver in to reach the screws. I then tied up the extra wire that I had at the end of the run to the boxes. It isn't the cleanest part of my electrical system, but the necessity of soldering the solder cup type d-sub connectors in an accessible area made it pretty difficult to end up with a nice even wire bundle.

  May 11, 2023     LSE a ignition power wires configured - (1.5 hours)       Category: Engine

Used solder sleeves and some extra 18 gauge black wire to make the ground connections for each of the two Lightspeed ignition power wires. I also connected the middle conductor with eyelet connectors and clear heat shrink. These wires are to be connected directly to the battery per LSE an installation manual.

  May 12, 2023     Install fuel injection servo (start) - (4.5 hours)       Category: Engine

Secured parts to install the fuel injection servo on the engine. First step was to replace three of the four studs at the intake of the engine with longer versions. Fabricated two retaining angles to mount the teleflex retaining brackets to the throttle/mixture anchor plate that will mount with the servo.
Once the servo was mounted, I positioned the throttle cable (teleflex) into the retaining bracket and quickly determined that the throttle arm on the servo would have to be clocked differently. I ended up rotating it clockwise facing the shaft by three notches. I attached the throttle cable and determined that the travel was very close to correct. Will work with the mixture cable tomorrow.

  May 14, 2023     Phasing Ignition Coils, add ground wire - (3 hours)       Category: Engine

‘‘Twas the day to phase the Lightspeed ignition boxes to fire the correct coils. I needed to mount the prop spacer and propeller first, at least temporarily. This required more time than the actual testing and determination of which coils needed to be hooked to which coax wires. I still need to add ends onto the ignition control coax wires to hook to the coils.

I also added a ground wire from the right side upper engine mount bolt (to firewall) to the Forrest of tabs ground block that I have mounted on the middle of the cabin side of the firewall.

  May 18, 2023     Manifold pressure line to ignition - (1 hour)       Category: Engine

Decided on a route from engine side of firewall to the LSE ignition modules inside of cabin. Particularly driven by where I had access with a drill. Routed line after drilling the access hole. Still need to get a 1/8” npt to 1/8” hose barb fitting.

Also pulled out Titan factory oil drain plug and replaced with a quick drain plug supplied with the RANS kit.

Tried several different routings for the sleeved fuel line that goes from the fuel injection servo to the flow divider on top of the engine. I was able to adjust the clocking on the outlet fitting on the servo and then route the hose well away from exhaust components.

  May 19, 2023     Air box assembly - (2 hours)       Category: Engine

Gathered parts and accomplished most of assembly of the airbox / air filter housing assembly.

Not as pretty as I had hoped, mostly owing to the middle hole used for clocking the outside “side” to the top and bottom was apparently clocked off just a bit. Therefore the step and offset bend were off just a bit. I ended up using screws with locknut and blue loctite in two locations to pull things together where they had not mated quite correctly.

  Mar 18, 2024     Cowling work - (2.5 hours)       Category: Engine

Fitted cowl back onto fuse with clecos and checked how airbox intake was sealed. I have a gap on left side that might require an additional piece of material, otherwise good. Test fit cowl inlet ramps from AeroSport with tape. Installed the top cowl to bottom with clecos to explore the fitment of the baffle seals. Lot of contemplating.