January 3 , 2010 HOME

   

 

Wow!   A new year begins!  I thought I'd be finished by now, but here I am still plugging away.  I really never had a finish date in mind, but the arrival of a new year -- a new decade at that -- shocks me into realizing that I need to get back to work.  I know, many of you have told me that in emails so, here goes...

I am guessing that the 2 biggest firewall forward projects are the cowling install and the baffling.  I am going to start with the baffling so that I can cut it down to fit the cowl as I go.  Here, I started by roughly clecoing it all together on the floor of the shop.

baffling setup

 

Echo the shop cat, stands guard as I work.  Don't you get tired of people always inserting their cat pictures in these logs???

echo

 

I used the Van's baffle kit as a starting point even though I will install a plenum.  The kit contains many of the parts you need, but there are still parts that need to be made.  The big advantage is having the detailed plans to work from as I was a little confused about how to go about the baffling from the start.  Below are just pictures of the bracing parts and brackets.

 

The fresh air intake collects air for delivery to the heat muff and ultimately, to the cabin.  It is good practice to place a screen in the collector to keep out insects and debris.  I will apply Pro-Seal around the base of the tube and rivet it all together.

 

fresh air

 

 

 

 

 

With all the parts final drilled and deburred, it is time to start fitting the baffling.

 

 

 

I found that about half of the pre-cut parts fit reasonably well.    The rest needed some trimming in order to clear the heads or case.  That sounds worse than it is.  It is pretty easy to see what needs trimming and how much to trim.  Just don't get carried away!

 

 

Bracing is match drilled to the sheet metal in the conventional way.

 

 

I am installing an oil cooler at the back of the engine baffling (not on the firewall).  The cutout for airflow is made in the baffling behind the #4 cylinder.

 

Another thing I have decided to do is to install nutplates in many of the places that call for rivets.  That way the baffling can be screwed together and taken apart in smaller pieces.  I have watched people removing their baffling and, even though you shouldn't have to do it often, it is a real pain.

 

 

 

 

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