[miyu1975]

Been working a lot on "the list" and trying tidy up in the FWF before I dive into the avionics/panel stage. I think I just about have it wrapped up and thought I would post to progress pics.

comments welcome

awaiting fuel flow before connecting the ff line

 

[miyu1975]

 

[TS Flightlines]

Looking good Ryan!
Tom

 

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Lots of wires below and to the left of the oil filler tube that look like they are free-floating. Can you ties those up? Especially the 6AWG main buss wire, but also the little ones if possible.

Also, can't tell from the angle of the pic, but any chance the stainless steel braided manifold pressure hose and SCAT tubing might rub?

Will the SCAT tubing rub on the engine mount or other items? (Being connected to both the exhaust and moving engine, there's likely to be a lot of vibration or moving of the SCAT.) I didn't like Van's stainless steel straps holding the SCAT because they were so sharp, but did use a couple ~2" adel clamps in places.

Zip ties around engine mount: might be worth wrapping the mount with some self-fusing tape first as it both protects the mount and helps keep the zip ties in place.

Another pic angle issue: Big black hose near mount and braided oil cooler lines? Are they going to be rubbing each other and/or the mount?

There may be others, but it looks like you're making good progress, Ryan. As you may guess, my philosophy was to positively secure everything that could possible chafe on anything else, leaving just enough slack for engine movement.

Hope this helps.

 

[aerhed]

Take a $2 pair of hardware store sidecutters. Grind/file or belt sand the outside of the edges into a nice flush cutter. Then go around and nip all your tyrap stubs flush & smooth. That way you won't get blood all over your nice engine. Also, is it me or are the red rocker gaskets flipped 180?

 

[Sig600]

That's purty. Love the exhaust!

What did you use on the firewall and where did you get that gucci looking airfilter collar?

 

[Dennis_I]

Ignition leads should not be clamped to a fixed point like the engine mount, clamp them to the engine all the way to prevent it from streching and vibrations...

 

[Captain Avgas]

Seeing as you're asking for constructive comments.

I like your use of steel fittings but they're not all steel for some reason. For instance you've got steel at one end of an oil hose and aluminium at the other end of the same hose. I'm not certain of the logic there.

The ducted air onto the alternator will not do any good. It's pointed at the hot outflow air region of the alternator rather than at the rear where the intake and diodes are. Ten out of ten for intention, but 1 out of 10 for execution.

Oil fires can be more ugly that fuel fires (you can turn the fuel off but not the oil) so I think fire sleeves on the oil lines are in order.

I don't see any coloured torque marker on any B-nuts, or on any fasteners for that matter. It may be there but I don't see it. How do you know that everything is properly torqued up in your very crucial FWF area. If I was you I would go over EVERY B-nut and fastener and retorque it, and then mark it.

And yes, the wiring is generally way too chaotic and unrestrained for my liking (including the spark plug leads above the engine).

 

[miyu1975]

WOW, Yall have good eyes.. Ok I couldn't figure out how quote text and reply....so I'll try to answer to some of this..

1. wires on left side, red and white, hanging loose and chaotic

I agree, although I have not spent time on these yet....so they are still on my list to do.

2. Zip ties on engine mount.

Any that you see are not permanent

3. big black hose near oil cooler rubbing

That hose will be cut and routed soon. It will T into the manifold pressure tubes off the PMAGs. I will be sure though it isn't rubbing...thanks

4. Rocker Gaskets backwards

Wow...at first I thought how could you tell that by a photo.. then I looked at the photo again and it is clear as day. They look backwards to me too. good catch. These will be flipped

5. Red Airfilter coller?

This is Rod Bower's Ram Air set up..

6. steel fittings vs. aluminum

No logic here. I recall only a few places that the steel fittings were required or highly recommended, the prop gov port in front of the engine and the oil cooler fittings.. I went with alum on the rest becuase will that's what Vans supplied.. good, bad, indifrent?

7. ducted blast air onto altenator

Yes..in the pic it is doing nothing. I was trying to figure out how the best way to accomplish this..also I wasn't sure where the air should be aimed at. I have another post specifically on this topic. It will be a 10 when I am done with it.

8. Firesleeves on oil lines

I went with the Vans lines provided in the fwf kit. They didn't supply fire sleeved oil lines...that is why I have them. But can and will add a firesleeve here too...no prob..thanks

9. color torque on b-nuts..etc

check that, will go back and double check all and mark appropriately..

10. And yes, the wiring is generally way too chaotic and unrestrained for my liking (including the spark plug leads above the engine).

The spark plug leads on top of the engine...I thought I did pretty good here looking at others. What would you suggest?

 

[Captain Avgas]

The spark plug leads on top of the engine...I thought I did pretty good here looking at others. What would you suggest?

Many builders really struggle to achieve tidy, restrained wiring (including ignition leads) so the benchmark is pretty low in this area and quite often it's the blind leading the blind.

I've noted a couple of points on one of your photos where the spark plug leads are going to just flop up and down on engine components. That's a no-no. It's not good for the leads to abrade on the push rod shrouds....and it's a bit freaky for them to abrade on the stainless fuel injector lines.



My set-up is a bit different because I have ignition coils located over the engine but you might be interested in how I dealt with proper restraint and separation of the plug leads. My leads touch nothing. Perhaps you could also fabricate brackets and support them with adel clamps off the pushrod shrouds as I did. Here's a couple of pix bearing in mind that there must be many ways to achieve a desired result.

 

[miyu1975]

Bob...great feedback and dually noted. I will make these changes immediately. Thanks again.

 

[aerhed]

Ryan, you're getting shotgunned but don't be mad or discouraged. Most of the comments are good. Pretty cheap too. Just soak them up and keep going.

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Many builders really struggle to achieve tidy, restrained wiring (including ignition leads) so the benchmark is pretty low in this area and quite often it's the blind leading the blind.

I've noted a couple of points on one of your photos where the spark plug leads are going to just flop up and down on engine components. That's a no-no. It's not good for the leads to abrade on the push rod shrouds....and it's a bit freaky for them to abrade on the stainless fuel injector lines.



My set-up is a bit different because I have ignition coils located over the engine but you might be interested in how I dealt with proper restraint and separation of the plug leads. My leads touch nothing. Perhaps you could also fabricate brackets and support them with adel clamps off the pushrod shrouds as I did. Here's a couple of pix bearing in mind that there must be many ways to achieve a desired result.

I struggled with this on my engine...the Lycoming IO-360 I got new came with these monstrously long spark plug wires. I swear, you could mount the engine 5' forward of where it is and have extra wires. I took up most of the slack behind the engine, but still had some running over the engine, so I used Adel clamps on the pushrod tubes to route them (neatly) back to the passthrough. I might still redo them, and when I get the mags overhauled at 500 hours, I'm going to replace them with the correct lengths.

That said...one thing I did do was use steel Adel clamps with the heat-resistant cushion. The code is MS21919-WCJ. Nice blue color, too.

 

[Captain Avgas]

I struggled with this on my engine...the Lycoming IO-360 I got new came with these monstrously long spark plug wires. I swear, you could mount the engine 5' forward of where it is and have extra wires.

Steve, one of the most common problems I see in many Experimental aircraft is that builders are often determined to use pre-fabricated hoses and ignition leads supplied with engines/FWF kits to save time and money....even when the supplied lengths do not allow for a safe and sensible routing.

For example, instead of planning an ideal and logical route for the fuel lines (and getting new hoses made to fit) these builders work backwards by "designing" the routing to accomodate their existing hoses.

Often this results in absurd and dangerous routing. In particular I constantly see fuel lines too long and flopping onto other objects or too short and with insufficient play for engine movement (thus putting stress on fittings). Then there are the hoses that are routed way too close to exhaust pipes. Others, and this is very common, have a bend radius that is less than that specified by the hose manufacturer. This is exacerbated by the current trend to Teflon hoses which require a much more generous bend radius. For instance the common 601/AE701 rubber fuel hose (-6 size) requires a 2.5" minimimum bend radius while the teflon hoses (-6 size) require a 4.0" minimum bend radius. It truly concerns me that so many builders who are trying to "fit a round peg into a square hole" are simply unaware of these important hose specifications.

Every so often some over enthusiastic RV builder pops up on VansAirforce to repeat the old furphy about the typical RV having better constructed systems than the typical new certificated aircraft. That always makes me laugh.

 

[Lars]

Bob, neat job on the standoffs for the plug wires. I have twice as many plug wires to deal with on top of my engine due to four coils in roughly the same location. I made standoffs also, but cantilevered off the pushrod tubes rather than bridging between two tubes. Yours are much nicer. Yet another item to rework...

Steve, I've never worked with plug leads on magneto harnesses, but in the case of automotive plug wires they are easy to re-terminate. Some of the cables that came with my Lightspeed ignitions were too long. Lightspeed uses MSD automotive cable, so I bought MSD terminals and a crimper from a speed shop and optimized the lengths. I would think that something similar could be done with magneto leads.

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Steve, I've never worked with plug leads on magneto harnesses, but in the case of automotive plug wires they are easy to re-terminate. Some of the cables that came with my Lightspeed ignitions were too long. Lightspeed uses MSD automotive cable, so I bought MSD terminals and a crimper from a speed shop and optimized the lengths. I would think that something similar could be done with magneto leads.

Yeah, I don't know how hard or easy it is to remake wires for standard mags...at this point, I just want to *finish* , so it may be something I'll learn after I get her flying and do later, maybe at the first annual condition inspection or somewhere along the way. I know it's easy for automotive-style harnesses, but my understanding is it's a more involved job for mag harnesses, although I may be wrong.

Just another skill to learn...but not right now (I wish I knew why Lycoming delivered them so loooooooooooong, though).

 

[scsmith]

mixture bell crank

Hi Ryan,

there have been some questions posted (and I got a couple PM's) about the Van's mixture bell crank installation on the IO-360-A1A. I searched the forums and couldn't find a picture. So, if its handy and you can shoot a picture of that area, please post.

(assuming you used Van's mixture bell crank, of course. If you did something different, that would be informative for others also)
Thanks!

 

[miyu1975]

pic

found a few pics

what are the questions?