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Firewall Vent Assembly

Mudfly

Well Known Member
I recently completed the assembly and installation of the two vent assemblies in section 28 of the fuselage kit for my 14A project. However, while looking through the revision updates on the Vans website, it appears the vent assembly gets modified in section 48. The attached picture is from page 48-04. It shows two blind rivets that need to be drilled out, and the installation of a cover plate (FF-00084) that is sealed with RTV.
I thought this may be a mod for the tail dragger only, but it is tough to tell not having that set of plans yet.
It seems it would be much easier to make that modification now, since everything is easily accessible, than to wait until later when the engine is mounted.
For those that have completed this section, can you help me with the "big picture"?

Pic should be here.

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It is a straight-forward modification to add a closure plate to the co-pilot side vent before installing the engine mount. The closure plate keeps all of the heated air in the heater pipes so the pilot side can get some of it. Without the mod, the heated air would all dump overboard at the co-pilot side. It would be difficult or maybe impossible to access it for installation later. :)
 
Do it early

Good work reading ahead. You should absolutely install this cover plate during the initial installation of the co-pilots vent to the firewall if you haven't reached that point yet. No reason to drill out rivets and do work twice. I did it this way and had no issues later in the build. This does however require you to order the cover plate early since it normally comes with the finish kit but is best installed early with the rest of the vent that comes in the fuselage kit.
Make sure to seal it up nice and tight with RTV as well.
 
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Thanks Med for explaining the purpose of the closure plate. Tough to visualize when you don't have the system installed yet. Makes sense now.
Jon, I' just installed my vent assembly on the firewall so still easy to make the change. Wish I would have caught this before so wouldn't have to modify in place. I will add the closure plate to my next vans order. Not sure why the closure plate is not included in the fuselage kit so you could install during fabrication in section 28.
 
Not sure why the closure plate is not included in the fuselage kit so you could install during fabrication in section 28.
Great question!! As a new builder, this stuff drives me crazy! This page in the plans has been wrong for nine years. Sheesh. Please Vans, hire a college kid to spend a couple weeks going through the Wiki and update the plans! I find errors in the plans at least once a week. The kit itself is phenomenal. The plans in general are as well. BUT, it's like once the plans were released, very little effort has been made to update them. I need to order this cover plate (FF-00084) so I can install it now rather than waiting until section 48 where I would need to remove rivets to correct this oversight in the plans. By the way, the Vans store shows this part being for the RV-12is, not the RV-14 :-(
 
Make sure the flap door completely closes without force. On mine, the right side fully closed without force, however the left side require a little bit of force to fully close. The plane is flying now and the left side leaks a little and during the summer is rather warm on the feet. I later read to shim the bottom of the flap door where it is riveted. This keeps the hing from binding and allows the door to fully close without force. Not impossible to fix after flying, but would have been a lot easier during construction.
 
I later read to shim the bottom of the flap door where it is riveted. This keeps the hinge from binding and allows the door to fully close without force.
This is what I just finished doing. The door now closely completely shut with no force at all.
 
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