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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

(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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.)

Seminar flyer

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....

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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".

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

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

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

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

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"

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".

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

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

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

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

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

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

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