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oil fill door

R

Ron B.

Well Known Member
Just got finished with my alum. oil fill door replacement. On our first flight the original flew open. I did not do a good job with the placement of the core and glassing. I removed the core and extra glass and replaced with alum. stiffning. Worked good , but over time the edges began to warp/curl up. Decided to fabricate one out of .050" alum. Installed that one after painting just before Sun n Fun last year and that one would pop open due to the plenum presure. I had taken a lot of time to form the cowl shape into the alum. piece and I was not willing to give up. I drilled thru the painted door and installed stiffning. Repainted the door this week and hopefully installed it for the last time today. I cannot force it open now, no matter how hard I push, hopefully it will not pop open on this trip down to Sun n fun.
Ron
 
oil door

I should have used the standard hinge. I have a hidden hinge on mine and it doesn't span the entire width. The edges flare up with the pressure even though I strengthened the cover with glass and foam. I have two latches on one side that work great. The hinge is my problem.
 
I had the same experience. It is surprising how such an innocuous little mod hides such big details. My latches are to plans, but I made my own hidden hinge out of .040 Al. I thought it would be sufficient, since bending it took a ton of my own muscle.

However, the first time i tested Vne, you could see a 1/16" gap around the door where the pressure pushed it up by the hinge side. The .040 Al hinge itself is bending under the pressure. I was eventually able to put enough of a pre-bend in to keep the door put. However, i suspect with the heat cycles, the Al loses its pre-load, and I have to re-add it every so often. Not that big of a deal at least.
 
Might be a little more to it than the base criteria. I have a homemade hidden hinge, on a homemade glass door, with a single latch, and I assure you my cowl pressures are higher than yours. It does not budge.

53tnwn.jpg
 
Dan , very nice. I have the hidden hinge and that's where it was curling up.
I'm using two Camloc finger latches on the opposite side from the hinge. I think it would have been better to have one on each side, on the sides 90 degrees to the hinge and about one inch from the end.
Ron
 
Ron B. said:
Dan , very nice. I have the hidden hinge and that's where it was curling up.
I'm using two Camloc finger latches on the opposite side from the hinge. I think it would have been better to have one on each side, on the sides 90 degrees to the hinge and about one inch from the end.
Ron
Click to expand...


I'm glad to here that, I am about ready to do the same. There was no way it was going to lay flat with them on the side opposite the hinge.

bob
 
Dan,

I see you used a "real" latch on yours. Mine has the two finger latches which hold it really well on that side. My hinge side is where it is bulging. I used foam and glass on Carbon fiber and thought it was overkill. How did make yours so stiff and what did you make it out of?
 
Here is what I did and it is very tight.
Original oil door plus .063 aluminum made to fit contour.

Oil%2520door2.jpg


Oil%2520door1.jpg
 
The process I used was a lot of time and patients. I started with a piece of material a little larger than the hole and made a small bend in the brake where I thought the cowl crease was. I then rolled little by little for the rest of the shape by hand. Once I got very close I trimmed the piece to fit and fine tuned the bends.

N427EF. Is your aircraft flying? Other than the use of the original fiberglass on top yours looks very similiar to my installation. Mine would pop open.
 
Ernst,
It appears you have a plenum cover. I would guess that you have little pressure behind the door. Nice installation!
 
Strasnuts said:
My hinge side is where it is bulging. I used foam and glass on Carbon fiber and thought it was overkill. How did make yours so stiff and what did you make it out of?
Click to expand...

The hinge is full width 0.060" 2024. Keep dimension "A" short as possible. The door got a six ply reinforcement, ordinary 8.9 oz glass cloth saturated and cut to exact shape between plastic sheet. Need a reasonable foot width where the hinge rivets to the door. The total glass thickness (about 1/8") means the rivets are not in knife edge holes.

144a43p.jpg
 
I have used the "hingeless" method on a number of aircraft and I prefer it from both a building and use standpoint. I did this on last winter's RV10 and it fits well and does not move in flight. Although there is a minor compound curve it was not at all difficult to get the .063 2024 to take the correct shape. The pictures show the one on my rocket, 560 hours, but the principal is the same
2n3ded.jpg


vzzs7k.jpg
 
Ernst
Might be the double layer riveted together that adds to the stiffness. Glad to hear that yours stays put, it's a pain rebuilding. I'm still hoping the last modification (adding stiffners) will stay put. It better as I painted it without testing. My grass runway is soft and now it has the first snow of the year on it. Hoping to get it to firm up a little before Sun N Fun lift off.
Ron
 
No plenum

There is no plenum cover other than the top cowl.
As Tom pointed out there is a slight compound curve in the oil door.
Rather than spend umpteen hours getting that curve to comply with the door
I sandwiched a little epoxy filler between the fiberglass door and the aluminum bottom. Left that clecoed in place to dry, then riveted all together.
Its a perfect fit.
 
Ah , that's where the stiffness is coming from . Good job, much simpler than my steup and just as good or better.
Ron
 
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