The Valkyrie has always had a very nice, even distribution of Cylinder Head Temps, right out of the box ? the baffle kit back then didn?t have air dams as part of the stock setup, and the recommendation was to go without them, and add them if required. I never needed to, so I never did. But ever since I changed all four cylinders a few months ago, the #1 CHT has run about forty or fifty degrees cooler than the others. Don?t? ask me why ? same baffles, same sealing system ? just Lycoming jugs versus ECI?s.
I?ve been so busy with so much flying (RV-1, RV-3, SnF, Osh?) that I just now got around to doing something about it. I had been putting it off because I was going to have to remove the front baffles in order to install nutplates to hold various dams?and then I let my ?lazy man? inclinations take over, and figured out that I could probably use the cylinder fins to my advantage - allowing me to quickly remove/trim/replace/test. I started out with a 1? wide strip of .032 scrap, and bent tabs on the ends that matched up with fin slots on the #1 jug. I then put a ?kink? in the tabs so that they wedged in ? effectively, I had a clip. I flew with just that in place, and discovered that I needed a bigger dam, so I took it off, cut out a piece of 0.040, and riveted it on to the clip. This popped right in place, and pretty much brings all four jugs to within fifteen degrees of each other ? problem solved! I was ready to trim it down if I needed to make further adjustments, but I think I?ll fly with it like this for now.
Of course, once I know the final size, I can take the baffles off and install nutplates, make a permanent dam, etc?. But that ?Lazy man? just keeps saying ?hey, if it works?.?
Paul
I?ve been so busy with so much flying (RV-1, RV-3, SnF, Osh?) that I just now got around to doing something about it. I had been putting it off because I was going to have to remove the front baffles in order to install nutplates to hold various dams?and then I let my ?lazy man? inclinations take over, and figured out that I could probably use the cylinder fins to my advantage - allowing me to quickly remove/trim/replace/test. I started out with a 1? wide strip of .032 scrap, and bent tabs on the ends that matched up with fin slots on the #1 jug. I then put a ?kink? in the tabs so that they wedged in ? effectively, I had a clip. I flew with just that in place, and discovered that I needed a bigger dam, so I took it off, cut out a piece of 0.040, and riveted it on to the clip. This popped right in place, and pretty much brings all four jugs to within fifteen degrees of each other ? problem solved! I was ready to trim it down if I needed to make further adjustments, but I think I?ll fly with it like this for now.
Of course, once I know the final size, I can take the baffles off and install nutplates, make a permanent dam, etc?. But that ?Lazy man? just keeps saying ?hey, if it works?.?
Paul