Im on the home stretch and have been able to figure everything out sometimes with a little help from here or friends but the top center cowl rubber has got me stumped. Its not even close. The step to the inlet ramps that are glassed on are my problem. Im thinking about filling that with foam and making a nice smooth arch so the rubbers can lay flat. And then there's the front angles..... I've looked at past threads and either the pics have expired or I cant figure out how the heck the rubber is being manipulated so it all flares out in one big happy piece. Basically I want to have some wizard come do it!! Any suggestions or thoughts? What I have isn't working
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Center baffle rubber rv7
- Thread starter gassman
- Start date
I would glass those holes, then work with the baffle material to create a seal. I plan on decowling my -10 tomorrow and I'll try and remember to take pictures of what I have, which (I think) seals very well.
I grappled with that area also because it wasn't very clear in the instructions what was required. My cooling appears to be effective enough now (full power climb CHT on first flight all below 380 F after making some baffle improvements during engine ground testing). It seems no two installations are the same, e.g. placement of the inlet ramps in the top cowl.
(I made a change after the following pic was taken and attached an extra piece of rectangular seal to the vertical sides of the bulkhead behind the ring gear, in order to seal the gaps between the cowl inlets and the bulkhead. This isvisible in the pic below with the cowl on).
I don't believe you should need to make a foam arch between the ramps. But I did block off the void inside the ramps (filled with expanding foam and glassed over the ends) to seal off any potential leakage path and that certainly helped. On mine, the top rubbers behind the ring gear contact the curved part of the cowl between the ramps. I put separate pieces of baffle seal on the vertical sides behind the ring gear to close off the gaps that were visible when the top cowl was on. It will be helpful for you to figure out and experiment with the detail of what you need by putting the cowl on and then using a dental mirror to see where there are gaps and address those using separate pieces of rubber if necessary.
Pic of forward facing seal piece on the inside face of the the inlet:
Baffle seal against top inlet ramps on outboard sides:
Baffle seal attached to bottom cowl to overlap the grey lower ramps:
Another detail change on mine was to fill in the centre hump of the top cowl just above the rear baffle with foam/glass, so that the baffle seal has a consistent curve to seal against in that area.
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