Drilled the screw holes on the bottom of the cowling
Attached the inlet ramps with epoxy and flox. Filled, sanded and sealed the areas where the baffle seals will seal against the top cowl.
Installed the heat shield foil in the lower cowl and sealed the edges with epoxy.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 10.0 |
| Finish kit (hours): | 277.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 1011.0 |
Match drilled the top and bottom cowls to the cowl hinges.
I disassembled the cowls, deburred all the holes in all the hinges. I coated the inside of both cowl halves with thin coating of resin to seal it all up.
Riveted all the hinges to the cowl halves
Trimmed and sanded the fiberglass inlet ramps and fit them to the top cowl. They gat match drilled to the cowl core just deep enough to hold a cleco to clamp it in place for bonding with epoxy and flox. I didn’t get any pics of the bonding process and I put it back on the fuse to cure before I could get a shot of the finished product.
I did decide to get the oil door done once the epoxy set up sufficiently. It was a pretty straightforward process.
I reinstalled the spinner. She’s coming along!
Just have to drill the attachment holes on the bottom of the cowl and blend in the inlet ramps and the cowl will be complete.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 14.0 |
| Finish kit (hours): | 267.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 1001.0 |
Another busy week at work. Didn’t even have a chance to post last weekend’s build sesh. So here it is a week late.
Fabricated and installed the cowling hinges
Trimmed the top and bottom cowling with a cut-off wheel in the Dremel and some course sandpaper on a long sanding block. Cut out the landing gear hole and the oil door.
Clamped the cowl halves together and fit, trimmed and sanded the spinner and air inlet areas. This took several iterations to fit properly.
Had to do a couple of iterations of trimming the aft edge of the top cowling to get it to fit in place. Marked the rivet locations on the cowling and drilled them. Then match drilled those holes to the cowling hinges.
Several iterations of trimming and sanding the bottom cowling aft edge, then the top edges. Marked the rivet locations and drilled them. The match drilled to the cowl hinges.
Clamped the hinges that join the top and bottom cowling in place. Layed out the rivet line and match drilled the bottom cowling to the hinges. Located and cut out the notches in the top cowling for the tabs that secures the hinge pins.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 12.0 |
| Finish kit (hours): | 253.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 987.0 |
Went flying with Jared, Wes, and Scott. Got some nice pics of Wes’s RV-7A in fingertip formation on the way to KLZU for dinner Thursday evening.
Jared came over on Friday and helped me hang the prop. Leveraged my specialization in brute force and stupidity to turn a one hour job into a five hour epic involving a three hour journey to and from Aircraft Spruce for a new prop wrench. All’s well that ends well.
Safety-wired the prop mounting bolts.
Mounted and drilled the spinner, spinner plate and forward bulkhead. Used the neodymium magnets and plastic washers that came with the kit to locate the holes in the forward bulkhead.
Installed nutplates into the bulkhead and re-mounted it. Torqued and safety-wired the bolts.
Fabricated and installed the gap fillers. Clamped a couple of wooden boards to the prop blade as a lever to rotate the blades (change their pitch) in order to check the clearance of the spinner and gap filler. I used a sanding drum in an electric drill to make minor adjustments to the spinner and gap fillers. Then riveted the gap filler to the spinner plate.
Reinstalled the spinner.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 10.0 |
| Finish kit (hours): | 241.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 975.0 |
Uncrated the prop.
Match drilled and clecoed the spinner plate doubler to the spinner plate. Marked and cut out the center of the spinner plate with a skill saw. I cleaned it up with files, and a bit of emory cloth. I scuffed and primed the plate and the doubler then riveted them together. I attached the spinner plate assembly to the back of prop and re-torqued the bolts. The prop is now ready to be mounted to the engine.
Installed the heater muffs and associated SCAT hoses.
Fabricated and installed the sniffle tube.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 8.0 |
| Finish kit (hours): | 231.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 965.0 |
Assembled the oil cooler inlet and tray. Trimmed, deburred, and primed all the parts and then riveted them together. Glued the seals in place and sealed all the gaps with RTV. Installed the AN fittings into the oil cooler. Bolted the tray to the firewall and engine mount. Then mounted the air cooler and inlet. Connected the feed and return lines to the oil cooler.
Wired the EGT sensors, CHT Sensors, and Fuel flow sensor.
Created a hose for the manifold pressure sensor using Aeroquip AQP hose and reusable connectors. Ran that hose to the sensor block from the primer port in the #3 cylinder head. Also ran a line from the sensor block to the MAP port on the right PMag. I the manifold pressure, fuel pressure, oil pressure, and oil temperature sensors using crimp on, fully insulated, quick disconnect terminals.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 14.0 |
| Finish kit (hours): | 223.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 957.0 |
Installed the fuel injection servo. A gasket, four nuts, and two fuel lines. pretty straightforward.
Installed the exhaust system. Slightly less straightforward than the fuel servo but not too bad.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 5.0 |
| Finish kit (hours): | 209.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 943.0 |
I wired up the ammeter. I picked up a couple of inline fuses that had mounting holes. I attached them to the engine mount with an adel clamp.
I fabricated a mount for the Garmin GA 27 GPS antenna by modifying the suction cup mount that came with the antenna. I cut it to match the profile of the antenna, bent the mounting tab to a right angle and cut it shorter. I drilled a hole for the mounting screw and viola.
I wired up the left magneto.
I installed the fuel line form the firewall to the fuel pump.
I cut the right angle hose segment and installed the breather tube.
I installed the line to the oil pressure sensor.
I began terminating the oil, fuel, and manifold pressure sensor wires but realized that I didn’t have any fully insulate quick disconnect terminals. So put in my daily Aircraft Spruce order.
I wired up the right PMag.
Attached the upper and lower oil cooler lines.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 7.0 |
| Finish kit (hours): | 204.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 938.0 |
Eeked out a few hours of building this week.
Installed the fuel overflow tube.
Installed the dipstick tube and lock wired it in place.
I ordered a tach cover from Vans and this is what showed up. It has no means to lock wire it. I’m going to replace it with one from Spruce.
Installed the oil temperature sensor.
Installed the alternator.
Installed the cylinder head temperature sensors.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 4.0 |
| Finish kit (hours): | 197.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 931.0 |
Installed the prop governor. I wasn’t sure what hardware to use. The plans said to refer to the engine/governor installation instructions. The Hartzell instructions said to refer to the engine manufacturer’s instructions. The Lycoming instructions that came with the engine were mute on the topic. I was able to find an illustrated parts catalogue for the engine on Lycoming’s web site. It showed a washer, a star washer and a plain nut. Now I need to figure out where Lycoming keeps its torque values.
I installed the fuel flow sensor and the fuel lines from the fuel pump and to the fuel injection servo.
I installed the sniffle valve. This seemed like it was going to be straightforward. Remove the plug; install the valve. What I didn’t take into account was that the intake manifold was full of preservative oil. So now my nose gear and tire are well lubricated and in no danger of corroding.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Finish kit (hours): | 193.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 927.0 |
Ron's RV-14A Build Log 