First Engine Start!

For some reason I got a bug to start the engine. I torqued the prop to 40lbs and the prop extension, put on the spinner. I pulled the plane out to the fuel pump and put 8 gals in each tank. Back in the hangar I checked the fittings and ran the boost pump until fuel flowed out of the line going to the carb. Connected the line to the carb and run the pump again until I got a fuel pressure reading.

I called Sandi at home and told her to come down... I wouldn't start it without her... kinda of a big moment.

I pushed the plane out of the hangar and crawled in. She started on the 3rd blade turn I'd say. Ran good for 20 seconds and then got real rough. Not sure what was going on, I shut down. A lot of fuel was on the bottom of the carb so I suspected that the mixture was too rich. After cleaning things up and checking over everything, I climbed back in and started her back up with the mixture pulled out half way. She fired on first blade and run great. I let her run for 2 minutes and confirmed I had oil pressure and I was getting EGT/CHT readings. I think I even recall seeing 14.4 volts on the EIS.

WOOHOO! The engine runs! Sandi recorded the 2nd run on her camera phone, so I'll post that when she gets it off her camera. It was 9:30 at night, so it looks kinda cool since it was dark out.

VIDEO: FirstStart.3g2 (Requires QuickTime to view... I haven't been able to convert it to another format.)

Oil cooler mounted

I mounted the oil cooler... on the firewall. There wasn't enough room (that I could see) to mount on the baffle. I had the firewall mount kit from Van's. It was pretty straight forward. I ended up rerouting that left oil line away from the fuel line so it wasn't rubbing.



Note: Everyone tells me that the little box on top of the oil cooler that Van's supplies is poorly designed and won't cool the oil enough. I'm going to try it and see first. I will seal up all the gaps with RTV to improve air flow.

Starter/Alt wire runs

Here are a couple of shots how I ran the starter and alternator wires.

Probe wires and carb linkages

I finally just looped up the excess probe wire and zip-tied it together on the left side.



Installed the real washer/nuts on the throttle and mixture control cables at the carb.

The Craig Catto Propeller Story

I ordered my propeller from Craig Catto on January 19th, 2005. This purchase was a switch from using the Sensenich prop I was planning on, Mel Asberry gave rave reviews of Craig's props. Craig said the lead time was 16 weeks, which would put the prop in my hands at the end of May. (Incidentally, the lead time from Van's on a Sensenich was also 16 weeks.)

On March 29th (my birthday), he replied to an email I sent saying he was 2 weeks behind schedule. So that put me to early/middle June. On July 5th, weeks after my prop should have arrived, I emailed Craig and said he could push me off until the end of September. At that point I was trying to pay for an engine and really didn't have the $$ to pay for the prop and I knew it would help Craig out some. (The prop still didn't arrive when it should have.)

On October 11th, he sent me an email saying "I have put your order in line for delivery by the end of the month or the first week of November.". On November 23rd a reply to a status check email, said he was waiting on the color matched paint.

Finally on December 15th I got an email from Craig saying the prop had shipped. He has easked me earlier where I wanted it shipped and a phone number, I replied saying I wanted it sent to my work address as I figured it would require a signature and we are never home during the day. After his email that the prop was shipped, I was bummed since I thought it would go to my work address on Saturday. Guess who pulled up in my driveway on Saturday? Special delivery postman with a funny shaped box. Guess Craig didn't get my email, which worked out good.

Conclusion: The prop does look nice. I haven't flown behind it yet, so I can't speak to its performance. However, I'm a bit dissapointed that it took almost 11 months to the day to get and it required consistent hounding on my part. (I DID give him a 3 month reprieve, so let's say 8 months to get.) Fortunatly it wasn't keeping me from flying. I think Craig needs to seriously look at his customer service and to be honest with his customers. He IS a nice guy and I swapped several personal emails with him.

Today, I got a voicemail from him checking in. First call I think I ever got from him. :-)

EGT/CHT Probe wires

I drilled holes in the exhaust tubes for the EGT probes and attached the CHT probes. I wired up the right side probes to the EIS. The left side wires have a lot of excess probe wire I'm trying to figure out what to do with.

Prop status and christmas party

Looks like my prop might ship this week.. FINALLY! Craig says the hold up has been the paint color matching. I sent him paint chips a month ago to match with. I wanted the tip colors to match the colors we plan on painting the airplane. It should look great since I had him paint two different colors on the tips in his new style.

Last night was our annual EAA 868 Christmas party... a good time for all.. good food and lots of door prizes.

The temperature here in KS is now way south of freezing.. high today is 18, getting down to 4 (four!) tonight. I've decided to move to the airport sooner rather than later since I'll have a semi-heated hangar to work in. There may not be much progress to report this week.

Exhaust system, starter and stuff...

(NOTE: Since I'm posting in so many different areas, I'm going to start listing the current posts on the main page to make the most recent easy to find.)

The exhaust system arrived on Saturday so I spent most of today installing it and the associated heat muff and warm air doo-dad.

The exhaust itself was about the easiest thing to install! I had to trim 1" off of two pieces and then just bolted it on! Everything lined up nicely. I think I had it bolted up in less than an hour.





I skipped over to installing the cabin heat muff on the right hand side and also fitted the tube that feeds warm air to the carb if needed. Both were very simple to install. The warm air tube required some filing to get a good fit.



While in town for breakfast earlier, I picked up a Gates 7360 alternator belt... tried to install it but it was too short. Went back, got a 7385, it was too long, back again and got a 7375 and it was too long! Ugh.

I bolted on the starter at one point only to discover you can't install the alt. belt with it on. :-) So back off it came.

Getting back to the exhaust system, I put the lower cowl on so I could position the pipes to clear the cowl and then took it back off.

I installed all the exhaust hangar components. Instructions are a bit unclear but finally figured it out. It was tough sitting on a cold concrete floor and dealing with tiny little nuts. I didn't take pictures of it but I will.

Back to baffles

My plenum arrived earlier this week so I'm back to working on the baffles. I screwed all the pieces in place and played with the plenum. Sam James provides templates for all the baffle pieces to make your own, but I opted for Van's kit to make it easier. I did some major trimming on Van's side pieces using the templates that Sam provides. I started to get the plenum positioned. It is going to require some trimming at the front to clear some protrusions on engine case. I managed to break off my cutting wheel so I had to call it quits for the evening.

Carb mounted

After burning out working on cowl and not having enough hinge material, I decided to mount the carb.

Before I mounted it though, I wanted to get a template of the bottom where the inlet box would mount. So I spent a good 45 minutes making a template out of aluminum sheet.

I drilled out the four mounting holes to get rid of the excess powder coating. Gasket, bracket, gasket carb. Sandi helped by holding the carb in place while I put on the washers/nut. Dug out the hardware to attach the control cables. Gathered all the pieces and attached the throttle and mixture cables. It took a little trial to get the adjustment right to where you could get full travel of the arms and have the knobs be correct inside.

Connecting more hoses/pieces

Received another box of fwf stuff from Van's and can't resist not hooking stuff up.

Installed fitting on fuel pump and connected fuel pressure hose. Installed fuel hose from gascolator to fuel pump and a 1/4" plug on gascolator.





Put in the recepticles on the bottom of the cylinders for the CHT probes.

Installed the fuel pump overflow tube. (I think I'll replace zip ties with hose clamp.)



Also received an order from B&C and Dynon (pitot tube), so I wired up the alternator to the contactor.

Spent a few minutes on the cowl.

Technical References

ECI has some good documents on their site about engine break-in and running as well as an engine troubleshooting guide.

http://www.eci2fly.com/pages/tech.aspx#breakin

Firewall forward stuff

Another full day in the shop.. felt good and I had fun.

Installed the manifold pressure fittings and line.



Installed the oil pressure line. TIP: Make sure you install this fitting before you hang engine and also make sure it is pointing down and outward. My fitting was installed by BPE for engine test run and it was pointed down and back about 45'. I didn't adjust it before hanging engine and when I went to connect the hose it was rubbing on the engine mount. This fitting is in a very tight area and the magneto gets in the way of using a wrench. I bought set of crow feet wrenches and used that to turn the fitting just enough to get the hose on.





Tip #2 for today: If you haven't started on the fuselage or are still working on it, order the FWF drawings! (Assuming you are installing a lycoming.) There are so many little things that go on the firewall that would be so much easier to install when building up the firewall. There are 5 nutplates in various places. Brackets and such. Get the drawings and put these on ahead of time.

Started to install the fuel pressure line and fittings. I had to take of the sender mount to install the 90 degree fitting. Tip #3: Install the fittings on the sender mount before you mount to firewall or attach any hoses.



I thought I had been shorted the T-fitting for the fuel pressure but discovered it isn't a true t-fitting.. it's a 90-degree fitting with another hole in it. I put it on the fuel pump then realized I put it on wrong and when I too it off, I had buggered up the flared part of the fitting, so I'll have to order replacement.

I installed the alternator. I ordered one from Niagra Air Parts for $275. This seemed like a good compromise between Van's less expensive alternators and B&C's expensive version. Turns out this one is just a Nipon Denso. I don't know if they do anything with it or if it is just an off the shelf producet. The kit comes with no mounting instructions but has all the hardware. I'm not impressed at all.







Installed the tach sensor that will feed RPM to my EIS.



(I spruced up the shop someone after my neighbor stuck his head in the window. I'm embarassed at how bad the place looks sometimes.)

I'm stalling on finishing off the baffle kit. I want to get the SJ plenum in hand before I go to far and I need to get my c-frame tool back so I can rivet a few angles on the sides.

Time to start on the cowl. Since I'm insalling a Sam James cowl and I think his instructions are a bit sparse, I'm going to document in detail the installation in a seperate area. Cowl Blog

Engine hung! Baffles started

Woke up early and headed out the shop. Put the other nuplate in the engine recess cover.

Hanging the engine!
I turned the fuse around and put the engine on the hoist. Sandi and Louis came out to help as this takes more than one person. Before you hang the engine, install all the fittings, especially the oil pressure fitting on the back right side of the engine. You can't install this fitting once the engine is on. On the Vans Airforce website is an 'Illustrated guide to engine hanging'. I didn't do it their way. We tried to hang the engine starting with the the top bolts but it was futile. I could get one in but couldn't get close with the 2nd. So we started over and put the two bottom bolts in first and they went in real easy. This makes more sense to me anyway since it is easier to let the engine down if you need to versus raising it up. (You can only pull it up so far before the tail starts going down.) So with the two bottom bolts in, I put one of the top bolts in. Just required some grunting and growing and jostling the engine around. The last bolt was certainly the hardest and took a small amount of persuasion but finally went in. Took less than an hour I'd guess. I did have to run to town to get a couple wrenches. I still haven't replaced all my tools from when they were stolen this past summer.











Baffles!

I received the baffle kit earlier in the week and sat down in the living room with all the parts and instructions. I reviewed all the parts, figured out where they went and glanced over the instructions. Everyone says the baffles are baffling but they sure looked easy to me. The instructions say that pictures are better than words and so there isn't a lot of text instructions but quite a few drawings. I sure didn't see what the big deal was.

So now it's Saturday and I started in on baffles. I started with the side pieces. With lots of filing and sanding I got them to fit pretty good. The left side pieces tuck inside each other. This sure looks like a high stress area and a spot for cracks to develop. I did what bending to relieve any tight spots in this area. Why did they do it like this? The other side just overlaps each other.



So with the sides on and feeling pretty confident, I started in on the back pieces. Here is where things started getting weird. The #5 and #6 pieces go together to form the back left wall and the #7 piece is the back right wall. #5 is easy. The #6 piece however, caused me some frustration.

The instructions say that the piece sits in the valley by the engine mount bolt. Ok. They also give you an AN-15A bolt that attaches the piece to the engine just below the engine mount itself. So I jockeyed the piece kinda in place and thought I must be doing something wrong because a -15A bolt was WAY to long. In desperation, I sent an email to Mike since he just recently did his baffling. I also tortured myself looking at pictures using our dial-up connection at home. I went back out to the shop after cooling off a bit and started playing with it some more. I used a shorter bolt than the -15A and created the 1/4" spacer needed. I started filing the piece where it sits down in the valley to get it to fit nicely. I put the #5 piece in and clamped it together. The tops of 5/6 met nicely but there was a gap at the bottom, so I spent a lot more time filing to allow the #6 piece to rotate down some, closing the gap. I spent probably an hour filing it to fit nicely and follow the contour of the engine. The one outstanding issue is that the piece rubs on the rubber engine mount. I'm not sure what to do about that. I'll have to email Van's.









So, now to piece #7. This is a one piece part. You have to take the oil filler tube off to get it in. (I didn't have to disconnect any oil lines as Van's suggests you do.) I got it jockeyed into place without much trouble and it fit very well. I did a little filing on it where it hits the top of the engine.

I put the #6 piece back in place and here is where things got goofy again. The two pieces meet in the middle just above the split in the case but the #7 piece sits on the front side of the engine mount flange and the #6 piece sits in the valley about a 1/2" back from the front, leaving a rather large gap between them. They need to meet in fashion that creates a somewhat straight edge along the back so the plenum can attach to it. So back on the internet I go looking for pictures. I also sent a cry for help to Jerry. He has lots of nice big pictures on his site but the dial-up connection was killing me. I also poked around on Mike's sit but his pictures aren't as big. :-) The only thing I could figure is that the #6 piece has to transition out of the valley to meet up with the #7 piece. There was no way that #7 piece was going back any farther.

Mike called me about the time I got back in the shop and clued me in on a few things. That -15A bolt was too long for him too. Jerry emailed me back with a long list of pictures on his site that might help. His also posted the email he sent me on his site. (The support in the RV community between builders is amazing!) This all confirmed that I needed to transition that piece up to meet #7.

I called it quits for the evening at this point. I really want to have my plenum in hand before I get to far into the baffles.

It's Alive!

With the world conspiring against me making the trip to Tulsa to watch the engine run, I persevered. Bill, Sandi and I launched from KOWI about 12:45pm, southbound for Tulsa. This was about an hour later than planned. We landed at KTUL in Tulsa a few minutes before 2:00. (This would be a 5 hr drive!) We parked at TulsAir and managed to find a way through the security fence to walk across the street to BPE. I had told Allen we would be there around 1:00, so they were ready to go. We promptly walked back to the dyno.

Monty Barrett is the dyno master and would get things going and then Mike would take over and do the run. Everything was ready, so they flipped on the fans and started the engine. BINGO! it literally started right up! I couldn't believe it. I expected it to give us a little trouble.. but nope.. with the equivilant of 2-3 blade turns it was running. Allen was checking for oil leaks and Mike took over the test stand.

The next hour and half was spent slowly breaking the engine in. They have a defined procedure with checks/balances in place. The top it out at 2700 rpm for a few minutes to get a peak HP reading and then slowly cool it down. I was so happy the thing started and ran OK, the rest was kinda boring. Not much excitement watching it run. On seperate occasions both Monty and Allen had me hold my hand on the engine to fell how smooth it ran. The engine is hard mounted to the dyno stand, no rubber shock absorbers. You could barely feel any vibration at all. Even when they had it idling around 600rpm, it was smooth. After shut-down they did a compression check and we celebrated a good run!

End result: 166hp and a perfectly running engine!

I'm going to twist Bill's arm to drive down with me on the 29th to pick up the engine and bring it home.

The engine has been rebuilt!!

On Saturday, Sepetember 24th, in front of 27 people and with the assistance of Allen and Mike from Barrett Precision Engines I rebuilt my O-320-D2J.

I'll follow up with details later.. but here are a few pictures.







(Yes.. the valve cover is missing in the last photo. This is a reminder that they need to change the push rod to a longer one when they get back to the shop.)

Engine Seminar Finalized

Seminar flyer

It isn't getting any better...

Mags I sent for 500 hr are bad. Allen found a replacement crank for $2800. The camshaft did come back OK. Can't take much more of this....

Bad business....

I'm finding that the aircraft industry isn't a nice place to do business. First I get an engine from an FBO that is "ready to fly" but turns out has a bad crank.

I've been trying to locate a replacement accessory case for about a year. Finally found one only to find out it was the wrong one. So back on the hunt I go. I get an email from a guy at Premium Aircraft Parts saying he has a 76110 case that will work. The first one they sent wasn't a 76110 and it was for a rotary fuel pump (whatever that is) so it won't work. Email them.. ok.. we'll send a replacement. You will never freakin' believe what they sent me?! They sent me the ORIGINAL accessory case that I pulled off the engine and sold on eBay!! Not only that... it was marked up almost 3 times what I sold it for. Crimeny!! I was working with another company in TX who said they might have one but wouldn't ever call me back. I called her back this morning and again, she thinks she has one but I need to call her tomorrow.

Are there any honest, reputible people out there in aviation land!??? Uggh this is so frustrating.

Moving forward

After agonizing for 12 hours, Sandi and I decided to continue on with the engine overhaul. We have enough invested in it, it doesn't make sense to scrap it and buy new. We are moving the seminar date to late September to give us more time to save some $$. Hopefully everything else will come back OK.

If you are still building and haven't made an engine choice... well, go with one of the new kit engines. Unless you get an engine for free (Mike S!), it isn't worth it. If you can find a LOCAL engine with known time/condition that has been running, you could do OK. I wouldn't touch another engine with a 10 ft pole that I didn't know every detail about and who was selling it. Trust me.. that is a $7,500 piece of advice.

Very bad engine news...

Crank got rejected. Excessive pitting behind the flange area. This is a pretty serious setback as a new Lycoming crank is $5600 (with bearings). Add that on top of the $7500 engine core and the cost to overhaul and I'm more than a new engine.

I have a call into the shop I bought the engine from but I'm not the least bit hopefull.

Stay tuned...

Engine Teardown

Thursday afternoon, Sandi and I hit the road for Tulsa with the engine in back. We were headed for Barrett Performance Engines. The plan is to get in Thursday night and tear down the engine Friday morning and head home Friday afternoon.

Arrived around 4:30pm and checked into our hotel. Shortly after that, Allen called and asked where we were. After hearing we were already in town, he suggested I bring the engine down to the shop since it was going to rain all night. I dropped the engine off and got a quick tour of the shop and we made dinner plans for the evening.

Friday morning.. arrived at the shop around 7:30am. Mike, the tech I am going to work with, already had the engine on on a stand and was waiting for me. Mike is an A&P and is building an RV-6. All the other shop guys were standing around as well, guess they were all intersted in watching some yahoo from up north tear down his engine. :-)

The accessory case has already been removed, so we started out by taking off the intake tubes and oil drain lines. Next I took off the valve covers. Next came the oil sump. All of this so far being straight forward. Next up were the cylinders. Contrary to normal procedures, I loosened and removed the cylinder base nuts. Mike slide off the first one as a whole unit, push tubes and all. (Normally I think you remove the valve train components and slide out the push tubes/rods) With the first cylinder off, I took the remaining three cylinders off. Only one nut was really hard to remove, the rest were pretty easy. Initial visual inspection of cylinders didn't show any major problems... a lot of carbon build-up on the pistons and top of cylinder. They'll get de-carbonized and inspected closer. We followed that up by removing the crank gear bolt and the nut under the cam shaft gear and a few other bolts in the accessory area. Next I removed all of the perimeter bolts holding the case halves together. (Note, all of the hardware on the outside of the case went into one bucket and all the hardware on the inside of the case went into another bucket.) We knocked out the case thru-bolts with a brass bar. Mike tapped on the two thru bolts that you can't remove (they are screwed in to one half of the case.), this tapping was enough to break the seal between the two case halves. He tapped with a plastic mallet in a couple of other places to get the case broke loose entirely. While I held one half of the case, he held the other along with the cam shaft we just pulled the two halves apart. Pretty simple! I've read that splitting case halves can be a real challenge. Mike said that most 320 cases split pretty easy but when you get up to the 540's, they can be a challenge.

At this point, the engine is pretty much apart. The case looks good and only has a very tiny amount of fretting. The cam shaft lobes look good but the gear has some wear on it. Allen thinks it will probably get rejected. The crank also looked good visually with a very small area of corrosion on the front end (thumb sized). Allen put it in a little jig and checked for run-out. It passed! (Thank goodnes!!)

The teardown took maybe 2.5 hours at most with me doing most of the work. The good news is that the engine appears to be in very good shape. Everything was standard sized... so essentially a first run engine. (2,500 hrs TT)

At this point we got a bit distracted since they had a 540 engine on the dyno that was getting started up. I think this is for an RV-10 and they are also testing a new exhaust system for the RV-10 and their cold air induction system.

Since the whole point of this tear-down is going to be an engine rebuild seminar, we started talking about dates and costs. Here is the point where things we a bit sour. Last night at dinner we talked about the labor costs and the discount they were going to give me as part of the whole seminar. So now I asked him about the overall cost... ohh. about $16,000. HOLY SHYT! I think my knee's buckled! I basically told him that was WAY more than we were expecting and that was going to be a problem. We went to his office and started talking a bit. I was literally catatonic for a couple of minutes. He said that price would come down since I already had some of the parts that would normally be included in that price. At the end of that conversation he said it would be closer to maybe $11,000 or so. That is still WAY more than what I was expecting. (I had $5,000 in my head.) I think I under-estimated the cost of the parts.

Needless to say, Sandi and I are a bit dazed by all of this.

Photo tour of engine tear-down.

Engine teardown scheduled

My engine has a date with Barrett Performance Aircraft in Tulsa, OK. I'm working on a seminar for our local EAA chapters and my engine rebuild is going to be the subject of that seminar. The date.. Friday the 13th. :-) Sandi and I are going to drive down to Tulsa on Thursday and then I'll tear down the engine on Friday under the guidance of Allen and his techs. At that point we can get an idea of what the overhaul is going to entail.

Cylinders must come off...

Our EAA tech counselor came out with a borescope and we looked inside the cylinders... bad news.. they have to come off. There was some rust areas in several places on the one cylinder we looked at. The pistons have quite a bit of carbon build-up on them. I'm not really surprised about this...

We also managed to peak at one of the cam lobes and it looked ok from what we could see. We'll have a better view once the cylinders come off.

Oil cooler

I picked up an oil cooler off eBay.. Aero-Classic, the same one Van's includes in the FWF kit for less than half the cost.. and it's new.

They guy I purchased from sells them frequently on eBay. His eBay id is "Fastlisle".

Prop update

I received a quote from Sabre Mfg for the 4" prop extension. Ouch... $515. This includes all the bolts, extension, crush plate, etc. (The extension is only needed since I'm using the SJ cowl. You don't need this if you use Van's cowling.)

I also swapped some emails with Craig, we've changed my order from a 70" pitch to a 72". I noticed on my quote that he said 190mph @ 2800rpm... well.. the engine never revs that high. I also want a cruise prop, not a climb prop.

FYI: The bolt holes in the Catto prop are 7/16". The prop hub is 4.375, so you do not need the spacer indicated on Van's drawing.

Links / Decisions

I think I'm going to get a 40amp alternator from Niagra. Yea.. it's internally regulated. He tells me they haven't had a failure yet and that you can turn off the alternator with the field wire. I'm comfortable with it.

http://www.niagaraairparts.com/

I think I'm going to pick up the experimental starters from the guy on eBay. $180. I've seen one report from an RV builder who had 30 hours on one with no trouble yet.

http://stores.ebay.com/Auto-Express/Airboat-Starters-Textron-Lycoming.html

Here is a page detailing a Superior engine build-up... not too bad:

http://brian76.mystarband.net/SuperiorTextPics.htm

I've watched the Skyward Tech O-320 rebuild video.. not as good as I was hoping I guess but not bad. I've also been reading the Lycoming Overhaul manual.

Mahlon at Mattituck as quoted me some really good prices on a mag harness and an oil pump. I need a new oil pump to comply with the AD.

I also may have the opportunity to put the engine on a test stand and run it. Seems like it might be a good idea, flush out any issues before I fly it.

EGT/CHT Probes

Here's a tip for those of you who suffer through my builders log. GRT Avionics sells EGT/CHT probes for less than what Van's and others sell them for. Here is the pricing Sandy sent me:

EGT-HCS (small hose clamp) $36 each
EGT-HC (large hose clamp - 2 inch and larger) $36 each (Van's = $55)
EGT-CF (compression fitting like Rotax) $36 each

CHT-BAY (bayonette style) $38 each (Van's = $60)
CHT-ADPT (adapter for above) $5 each
CHT-x (various sizes that go under spark plugs ... 10-12-14-18) $14 and $18 each

Mark Landoll Pricing

Overhauled 35 amp alternator w/reg. attached & external cooling fan $70.00
Overhauled 55 & 60 amp alternators w/internal voltage reg. and fan $90.00
Voltage reg. only $20.00
Mount bracket, pad mount $10.00
Case split bolt mount bracket $15.00
Adjusting arm $10.00
4" aluminum pulley - extra pulley-larger $25.00
Shippping $10.00

Starters:

Remfd. Datsun Starter $125.00
Mount bracket $75.00
total wide tooth starter $200.00
Narrow 149 tooth pinion gear $10.00
total narrow tooth starter $210.00

UPS (approx.) $10.00 -- $15.00

Starter / Alternator

It was recommended to me to contact Mark Landoll for an alternator and it also seems like he sells starters as well. I'm going to email him and get the scoop and prices. The starter price is $170 (vs $355 from Van's for a Skytec). I think the alternator kit is $140.

Mark Landoll's Electrical Service
1205 Redbud Lane
Newcastle, OK 73065
405-392-3847

Speaking of alternators.... there is major debate on internally regulated vs. externally regulated. It seems the internally regulated can self-destruct easily if they aren't always connected to a battery or something like that. Sounds like there is also the possibility of the internal regulator going bad as well. Who knows... I believe Marks' alternators are externally regulated.

Going Catto

Decided on the Catto prop... have invoice, will be mailing deposit this week.

Catto Propellers
15301 Jesus Maria Rd.
Mokelumne Hill, CA 95245
209-754-3553

Specs:
3-Bladed Wood/Glass Composite
Propeller for RV-9A
66" Diameter x 70" Pitch
0-320 160HP@2700PRM
Top Speed at Target RPM - 190mph@2800rpm
4.375" Finished Propeller Thickness
7" Diameter Prop Flange
SAE-2 Pattern, 7/16" Bolts and 5/8" Lugs

Cowl ordered

I've committed..

"You've been added to the list for a cowling and your e-mail has been forwarded to the south shop for the plenum order. Should they fail to contact you, please let us know (older generation computer skills marginal). -- Thank you, Will."


James Aircraft - Makers of the "Holy Cowl".

Engine Update and Prop Decision

My tech counselor has a borescope and is going to come out and look inside the cylinders and possibly the case to see what shape the engine is in. That will determine the route I'll be taking.

PROP... YADD (Yet another d@#% decision)

I was about to order the Sensenich prop from Van's since it has a 4 month lead time. Then I get an email from Mel Asberry saying I should consider the Catto since it is cheaper, performed better, was lighter, etc.

Ok... I thought about Catto props previously but didn't dig deep enough on the performance side. So I emailed a Scott about his decision and Craig at Catto about some things.

PROS:
-- Only 17 lbs.
-- 3-Bladed which results in smoother operation
-- No RPM restriction like the Sensenich.
-- Supposedly better performance.

NOTES:
-- Cost is essentially the same. Prop itself ($1,650) is cheaper but you have to buy then extension and bolts which brings the cost right back up to be the same as Sensenich.
-- Possible CG/WB issues with lighter prop? May just mean not so much luggage.

CONS: (for me)
-- Non-certified prop.. means a 40-hour Phase I test period vs. 25 hr.
-- If I use the SJ cowl as I'd like, that requires a 4" prop extension ($355). Add in the crush plate ($55), and bolts ($90) and I'm actually at more than a Sensenich prop. ($2150 for Catto, $1935 for Sensenich)
-- Oh yea, he is on a 4-month lead time right now as well.

So for $215 extra dollars I get a better performing, smoother operation, lighter prop. I think it might be worth it.

Contents of RV-9A Firewall Forward Kit

I asked Van's for a parts list for the RV-9A FWF kit. It may be of help to other builders as well, so here it is.

RV-9/9A FWF Kit Contents

Flywheel

Received the flywheel I bought of eBay.. looks good. Need to sent it out for cleaning and checking.

Parts purchased

I managed to buy a flywheel and idler gear for the engine on the same day off of eBay. I've been watching for months, funny they both came online at the same time. Also bought a Slick Mag manual.

Things left to buy: drive pin for fuel pump, the fuel pump, accessory case (swap), starter & alternator. And of course the gajillion other pieces and parts for getting it hooked up. I'll probably buy the FWF from Van's that has all stuff I need.

Accessory case removed

An idler gear with the lobe for the fuel pump came up on eBay (as well as a flywheel), so I needed to remove the accessory case from the engine to see if I needed it or not. Mahlon at Mattituck wasn't sure if the D2J had the right gear. Pulled the mags/oil filter/vacuum pump off and then popped off the case itself. It was all very easy. Between the paint and gaskets, the case was stuck on but I managed to get it off without too much trouble.

I do need the gear, the gear in it does not have the lobe to drive a fuel pump. With the case off, I got a better look inside... and all looks well. Somewhat of a relief. I need to pull the cylinders off to look at them.

Ramblings....

It's only been a couple of days and I've learned quite a bit about engines. As previously mentioned, the accessory 'housing' (not case) isn't machined for a fuel pump. After posting a message in the Lycoming Yahoo group, I received a couple of responses. In the end I spoke with Mahlon from Teledyne Mattituck. (1-800-624-6680 ext.305) He sent me some pages out of the illustrated parts manual along with part #'s. He was extremely helpful.

Turns out I'm going to have to spend a few $$$. He has an accessory housing for $250 with trade. I'll also need a drive pin ($136) and possibly an idler gear if the one in my case isn't the right one ($231). On top of that, I still need the fuel pump itself ($195).

So.. for all of you out there shopping for an engine, make sure you get one that has ALL of the pads that you need machined before purchasing.

The other suggestion he made which I think I'll follow through on, is to pull at least 2 of the cylinders. This accomplishes a couple of things for me. First, it gives me interior access to lubricate everything. Second, it allows me to see the condition of the inside. Lastly, I can get a better look at the cylinders themselves. Since I'm going to exchange the accessory housing, I can pull it off too and lubricate all the gears and gadgets in there. This will also tell me whether I need a new idler gear.

By the time this plane is done, I'll know every little nook-n-cranny, including the engine!

Engine arrives

I picked up my engine today from the freight docks. Managed to get it unloaded with the help of my tech counselors who happened to be visiting. :-) Engine came out of a Cessna 172. Has ~2500hrs TT, 1145 SMOH with accessories. The alternator/starter are 28v, so I'll probably sell those and get new lightweight 14v versions. Has duel impluse slick magnetos and vacuum pump. Discovered that the pad for the fuel pump is not machined, so I will need to get another accessory case that has one on it. Not sure if I can have mine machined or not. The engine has been sitting for a number of years, so I need to get it preserved.

Engine purchased!

The engine decisions are over. I purchased a mid-time Lycoming O-320-D2J. Once the deal is complete and I have the engine, I'll post more details.

I took long hard looks at alternative engines. Primarily the Subaru by Jan Egenfellner, the new 5100 from Jabiru and even considered a rotary conversion. I think in the end I wanted a known quantity... and I definatly spent less money on my Lycoming that I would have on any of these.