J

jscottpilot

Active Member
My tail, wings and fuelage are finished and I have ordered the finishing kit. Do the instructions in the finishing kit cover engine installation? If not, are their detailed instructions for engine installation available? I have found that Vans instructions are excellent and easy to follow but where lacking this forum is excellent to fill in the gaps. I am just curious about the future.
 
The 'Finish Kit' doesn't cover much
in front of the firewall.

Check out Van's 'Firewall Forward kit' and
its order form.
I went with a standard O-360 and it
helped me a lot. It also includes some
decent schematics for wiring. I understand
it won't cover all the different combinations
of engines, fuel systems, props, etc.
Tom
 
I have just installed the XIO-360M1B purchased from Vans and also purchased the FWF kit from Van's. If you have done any of this before it is quite easy. If it's the first time you might battle with a couple things. Van's drawings and instructions are good for installing the hoses, oil cooler, etc. The throttle, prop and mixture linkage went together easy per Van's instructions and everything fit well. The plus of buying all this stuff from Van was that in a week i have the engine pretty well installed.

there will not be instructions from Van for the carb or throttle body depending on what engine and Lycoming send them separately. The prop governer came with instructions that were adequate but on the -8 you have to change around the control arm and I had to read it a few times and stare at it a while before it clicked.

The baffling is also pretty straightforward and Van's instruction are good.

Overall the engine installation goes pretty quickly and is a fairly enjoyable part of the project because you can get so much done quickly and you see the progress.
 
engine installation

The plans will not give you any detailed instructions on engine installation. It isn't all that difficult a job, and it's something that you can ask friends or other builders for help and advice with. Most items you have to deal with is pretty straightforward(alternator, starter, fuel systems). The baffle system is the most involved, but you will have detailed plans for this. The filter air box also presents a challenge to fit properly, but by the time you get to that you will probably feel much more confident. Without the proper knowledge of the mags, proper timing, and fuel plumbing, these are items best left to a mechanic or IA to do and / or inspect, as well as proper carb or FI setup and adjustments. Otherwise, a piece of cake. :D
 
Should I have the finishing kit competed before I start engine installation? Also, once the finishing kit is completed how far along am I in the project percentage wise? I have heard that once the airframe is completed you are pretty much half done.

In the fuselage instructions the wings are mated to the fuselage. It seems that engine installation would be easier with the wings off. Should I wait to install the wings until the engine is installed?
 
Van's instructions are pretty good in the engine part of the FWF kit, but Tony Bingelis' Firewall Forward should be consulted as well. What Van's doesn't describe, Bingelis seems to.

Completed airframe = 50% done seems about right in my case. But I'm not done yet!
 
50% seems about right, up through fuselage. Finishing and FWF are the other 50%.

The FWF instrustions seemed to be a pretty good sanity check but I tend to use the drawings, then refer back to the direction just to double check things.

Jim
 
Engine Instructions

In addition to the resources discussed above, some engine companies are beginning to provide RV-specific instructions, with part numbers from Van's, Aircraft Spruce, etc.

As an example, see http://www.eci2fly.com/exp/kitEngine_exp.aspx for their RV instructions. A couple of good pics of fuel return lines, etc.

Mike
 
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