With all the excitement of the Pitts flight now dying down, back to reality and in the shop. As I always say, "its not going to build itself!" So the last week or two I have been in a serious "buy" mode. Here is my procurement update.
- Exhaust ordered directly from Larry Vetterman. I thought I was getting a four pipe system from Larry...I had heard that's what he was recommending for the IO-375. I was kind of excited about it too...a four pipe system looks cool to me. But it wasn't to be. I had heard correctly, Larry does recommend this system for the IO-375...what I didn't realize was that is just for the horizontal induction version. Vertical induction is the same 4-into-2 crossover system that Van's sells. Oh well, got it ordered.
- Sam James cowl on order. I got the extended version.
- Prop is on order. I went with the Whirl Wind 200G-CS, see my previous post regarding my thoughts on this. I will have the blades painted red, with yellow tips...to match my Sherwin Williams color choices.
- Upgraded my heater box to a stainless steel version from Spruce.
- Upgraded my Stewart Warner oil cooler to the larger 10599R...also from Spruce.
- Bought some misc FWF supplies from Spruce.
- Purchased and received my Rod Bower Ram Air induction unit.
- Ordered my Classic Aero Design (CAD) interior package after exchanging lots and lots of emails with Luke Doughton to get it just right. Wait til you see what I have come up with...this oughta knock your socks off!
My Ram Air unit...how it looks out of the box. Its a nice looking piece of hardware. Not convinced it is worth the asking price, but check with me later after I am flying, maybe I will change my mind. Its a pricy little bugger...about $1100 for what you see here. Its almost comical how I spend money...I would probably get fired by the board if I was a CEO of a company! :) I passed on the horizontal induction engine because it cost about ~$1200 more than vertical induction and I was not convinced by the argument of horsepower gains...and I wanted to save some money. But, low and behold, here I am buying this Ram Air induction unit for almost the same price! Although, the performance gains with this unit are easy to see...at least with this, I know what I am getting.
Essentially the way this puppy works is this. Close the butterfly valve and you have filtered air (i.e., on takeoff and at low altitude). When you get to an altitude that you feel comfortable that the intake air is "clean"...open the valve and watch the MP increase, which bypasses the filter and you have direct ram air. Most guys running these units see a 1.0" to 1.75" increase in manifold pressure. Manifold pressure, as we all know, is directly related to HP...basically more MP equals more HP.
Lastly, ol' Rod did well choosing "red" anodizing as far as this customer is concerned...as I like the look of the unit, it is kind of sexy looking to a Mechanical Engineer!
Rod Bower Aviation logo...looks professional...and of course, pretty much a copy of the old North American Aviation logo if you remember it.
Open valve...hard to see, but the filter resides around the outside of the unit.
FWF supplies...Aeroshell 22 synthetic grease...grease gun...1" firewall penetration kit...some fire barrier 2000 caulk and my SS heater box.
See this picture of my heater box? Good, get a good look...DON'T BUY THIS ONE! haha! I screwed up and ordered the wrong version. This is an engine side controlled version...no good for the RV7. See my link above for the correct one to order. The reason for this upgrade is, Van's sells an aluminum version of the heater box. Which, is kind of comical...to have a stainless steel firewall and then put a big 2" hole in it and use an aluminum heater box to close it makes no sense. In an engine fire situation, that alum would quickly melt and fire would pour into your cockpit....no bueno. Most guys upgrade this...its a no brainer to me.
Here is the bigger oil cooler...'7 row' vs. '9 row'
Of course, I am still plugging away on the canopy...little at a time, but its getting there. I swtiched out my black electrical tape with red...much easier to see. The black tape was disappearing with the black resin I was using.
I finally took it off the fuse and did some flox fillets on the inside. I think this is going to look good when I am done. I am almost ready to spray some filler primer on it and see how my surfaces look.
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