Last week was more of the same jockeying with the plenum...trimming, fitting, etc. On and off, on and off, on and off a gazillion times...definitely kind of a pain trying to get this all just right. But, I am making progress...its slowly getting to a point where I am more or less happy with it.
Here is some of the details around the oil cooler mounting scheme I devised...
I cut this rear "ear" off the plenum as I mentioned I had planned to do in an earlier post. Not sure if I will reattach that or come up with a different scheme altogether...stay tuned.
This was my dilemma with the plenum. If I cleco-ed it to the rear baffles, the angle of the mounting flange caused it to sit high in the front. Really less than impressed with this plenum fit...
During my fit checks I realized I didn't have the plenum sitting low enough...it was rubbing on the top cowl. But this mounting bracket for the rear baffle was preventing it from moving downward. So...I decided since it wasn't really needed with the plenum since it would give it plenty of support, I would trim it.
That's better...again, this is an iterative process...later pics will show the rear baffles getting trimmed even further.
Ok, now I am starting to get somewhere...this is starting to look alright.
I have had a heckuva time with my Rod Bower Ram Air unit. When I decided to go this route, I had no idea that its really not designed for a downward facing sump combined with a crossover exhaust. Both of which make the install difficult. If you decide to go this route, please realize you will need some mods to make it work.
Rod has been working with me to make it work and really has been very responsive with me to work our way through this. You will notice two machined plastic spacers in this pic...a white one and a black one, there is also a third custom spacer mounted directly to the servo. All of this is so it would clear the crossover exhaust. Good news is, it does...but its tight.
I soon realized I would need some modifications to my SJ cowl to make it fit. I did some trim work as you can see here. It was then, that I realized I had ordered the wrong cowl from Sam James...let me explain.
 |
| http://www.jamesaircraft.com/ |
In this pic, you can see the bottom version is the one I ordered...for "forward facing injected engines". Mine is an "updraft" version...I should've ordered the top cowl in this pic! dangit, pisses me off. I did this, completely and utterly out of not knowing what the heck I had...or at least the proper terminology. Lesson learned...hopefully this post will help one of my readers avoid the same fate. Its much too late to ship it back for an exchange now...we will make it work.
My first thought was to do my own fiberglass work...this is what I started playing around with. But I soon realized two things...one, it would need a bigger area than what I have here and two, I'm not sure how to make sure it is just the right size...big enough to fit, but not too big. I remembered that Rod Bower sells a lower scoop (I know...more $$$) that I could just buy instead and glass it in place. That way I know it will fit the Ram Air unit perfectly. I am still pondering this idea...haven't made a decision yet. I'll work on the plenum some more in the meantime while I reflect.
No comments:
Post a Comment