Lindy
11/10/2008
This morning I called James Aircraft to discuss my situation with the cowl with Will. We talked quite a while about possible fixes, but in the end, I decided it would be best to order a new cowl. I know it's expensive, and we really don't have the money in the airplane budget at this point to be replacing stuff of this level, but I don't want a lumpy bumpy cowl, and I don't want the cowl to have flat sides four inches in front of the firewall before it tapers. That was the possible fix if I sent it to Will. The good news is that I already have the large intake rings, so I can delete those from the kit, and I can get the cowl kit a little cheaper. I do need the wheel pants, so I'll probably have them get those ready for me too...So I'm in the queue for a new cowl. One of my Rivetbangers buddies, Brian Carroll, has graciously offered his delivery position for an SJ cowl to me if I need it sooner than my spot in line can get it to me. I'll find that out when I talk to Will or Liz again tomorrow. My prop won't be here until at least February, so I really don't need it until then. Even then, I won't be working on the airplane then...too cold.
So this evening I started off by sanding the top deck on the FAB cone. With the cooler temperatures we now have, this is not curing very fast, and it's not really sand-able. I started it, but decided to put it in the house for the next couple of days to cure further, then sand it the rest of the way. I think I laid the flox on a little thick...there's only three layers of 8oz 'glass on there...
Then I turned to making a mock prop spacer for the spinner backplate to measure out the cowl length I need for my unique combo of the longer 320 mount and 360 engine. Will said he would make the special length for me for the regular price of the standard long cowl. My idea would've worked to put the backplate in place if it weren't for the LSE crank sensor ring. The nuts and bolts on the back side of the prop flange interfered, and I couldn't turn the flywheel to get the rest of them on. I used 6" 7/16 bolts that are smaller than the threads in the prop flange bushings, so they need nuts on the back. Turns out I really need to get the right sized bolts to use the threads to make this work. So, rather than mounting up a mock spacer with PVC like I intended, I just used one bolt and a piece of angle to get my measurements.
These next two pics are really just to send to Will, but here are the measurements from the top of the firewall, and from mid-firewall...
I think I'll tell him I need a 40" cowl to be safe, but we'll see what he says...
The last thing I did tonight was install the carb heat muff. This literally took less than two minutes to install...VERY easy!
Such a simple idea that has been working in RV's for years now...
2.25 hours