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RV3 - cowl questions

blaplante

Well Known Member
Hi, repairing an RV-3...

a few questions on the cowl for the RV-3

  1. Is there a pre-made oil door for the cowl? Will the RV-4 part work?
  2. The cowl seems shockingly long. I have the spool in place (4" I believe), and the spinner backplate on that, and it looks like I need to cut 4 to 5 inches off the aft of the cowl!* This is an older gel-coat cowl.
  3. The cowl seems to interfere with the dipstick. The dipstick is actually holding the cowl up 1/4" or so. And I do have the front properly spaced up off the engine so as to align*with the spinner, and the aft is laying on the boot cowl.
 
1) I recall there being a premise oil door, but it was pink link our pink cowl….so not sure about your gel-coated cowl blank. I don’t recall the part number - the plans should show it.
2) I recall ours was pretty long, and I suspected that it was the same cowl blank as used for the RV-4….but that was a long time ago.
3) You do need a short dip stick tube with the RV-3 cowl if I recall correctly.

Paul
 
Cowl Plans?

The cowl plans on the RV-3 stick seem to be generic.
The original plans for this plane are long gone.

Searching oil door on Vans I don't see one for the 3. Do get hits for other models.
 
Don't know for sure since my RV-3B cowl is one of the pink ones, But I think that the RV-4 cowl is the same thing but longer. The RV-4 oil door for (I think) the pink cowl is:

OIL DOOR
COWL,4 OIL DOOR
$50.00

It's on the RV-4 plans drawing 43.

Or you can fabricate one from scratch based on the existing cowl.

Dave
 
Yes you will have to trim for length and obtain a shorter oil tube. Be prepared to hack, trim and fill the cowl to make it fit. At least that was my experience with the pink cowl.
Russell
 
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