Firewall Forward XI
5/7/2006 5 Hours
There are lots of bits and pieces that need to be done now on the engine. It's mostly wiring related, but there are some mechanical things too. I continued securing the wiring harnesses where I could with the Adel clamps I have. I ordered a whole load of them today, so I can wrap all this up.
Here I've secured both the front cylinder ignition leads. I couldn't do the rear cylinders - no Adel clamps the right size! Aaaaargh!
Here I have secured the left hand FADEC harness and the starter motor cable.
I finalised the connection to the FADEC wide open throttle (WOT) switch. This switch detects wide open throttle and tells th FADEC computer that we want full power. It uses knife connectors, so I put heat shrink on there to insulate them properly.
Another odd job on the list is the engine ground straps. There are two for redundancy (for the FADEC). One this side, and one on the other. I fitted both of them today, and checked the ground continuity between the engine and the airframe.
Once I'd figured out the EGT/CHT harness, I could go ahead and drill the exhaust for the EGT probes. I rough trimmed the band clamps, I'll clean up the ends later when I remove the exhaust to refit the tailpipe.
I routed the fuel injector wiring on the left side cylinders and fitted the injector solenoids to the injectors. In case you're not familiar with a FADEC system, it has true sequential fuel injection, with timing and duration controlled by the ECU's.
The left side is almost completely done! I think I only need to do the ignition wires now. Sweet!
Last thing on the left..... Manifold pressure and temperature senders.
5/8/2006 3 Hours
I did a quick stop at the hangar today and finished drilling the holes in the exhaust for the EGT probes on the right side cylinders. I then started trying to polish the tailpipe. Hmmm. Gonna have to take this home and attack it with something a little more abrasive.
After football this evening, I got home and started to sand away at the tailpipe. I started with 60 grit, and worked my way down to 320. I'll be needing to do some more rubbing down on it tomorrow to get it perfect.
5/10/2006 1 Hour
I did some more polishing of the tailpipe tonight. It was a chore. Fortunately, I don't need to do too much of it! Anyway, I got it to a point that I'm happy with.
5/11/2006 4 Hours
I had a bit longer at the hangar this afternoon/evening. First up, I removed all the baffles and the snorkel, and took them to a paint shop to be painted. They'll be done with them sometime next week, then they can go on the plane for good! I was contemplating leaving them bare aluminium for a while until I'd ironed out any bugs with the plane, but then I thought about how horrible it would be to have to take all this stuff apart when the plane is flying! Ugh! Paint 'em now!
I darted about the firewall forward a bit tonight. I recieved a bunch of orders from Pegasus, Aircraft Spruce, and McMaster Carr, so I could get a lot of small things done. First was the manifold pressure line. Here's the 45 degree connection to the cylinder head.
And the hose going to the firewall bulkhead connector.
I fitted the 5/8"-18 nut to the tach sender. This is stainless steel, but I couldn't find one with a natural finish. Oh well. I could polish it I guess! I also had to shorten the batery -ve lead to clear the sender.
Next hose job! Oil pressure line. This one has to go to the manifold on the firewall, because I have a pressure sender for the FADEC SBC to send to the Blue Mountain EFIS 1, and a pressure switch to operate the hobbs meter.
I've taken a lot of poor quality photos tonight! Here's the manifold on the firewall. I need to make a link pipe that goes from one part to another to feed the two senders that will be in here. I'm waiting for an adaptor fro the FADEC sender. I did mount the hobbs pressure switch though. You'll see in a later piccy. Me being really clever an' all, I don't think I've left enough room to bend a link pipe across the manifiold. Hmmm. Glad I used temporary nuts for now. I'm goig to be putting nut plate on this thing too.
Safety wired the prop. This was a task. It's not very easy getting in there. I'm not the greatest safety wirer either.
I ran the field wire to the secondary alternator. I've been having some discussion with Aart in the Netherlands about the hall effect sensor that you can use for the SB-1 regulator with this. We were wondering where it should go. Heck, I don't even have one! Hmmm. Do I need one? My uinderstanding is that the SB-1 is set a volt lower than the main regulator, so it'll cut in automatically if voltage drops due to a dead primary alternator. We'll see what our discussion reveals.
Here you can also see the hobbs pressure switch in the manifold.
Another question.... Will the sniffle valve work correctly in this orientation? I hope so, because it won't fit vertically because my exhaust is in the way! Maybe I'll give Mahlon a call tomorrow and ask.
I secured the main alternator 'B' lead to the engine mount. I will secure closer to the other end on the engine. The key here is to prevent strain on the terminals.
I stopped by the hangar on the way home and did some polishing on the tailpipe. This is it now, it's done. Whew. Now I can fit it for good - when I've done the FADEC harness stuff. Better to get all that done with the exhaust off, because access is easier.
5/13/2006 8 Hours
I had a reasonable day at the hangar today, despite the late start. I didn't get there until 2pm. I have a lot of things to get wrapped up, and the first one I went for was the ignition wires. Here, I've done the second clip, and put both lower wires in place on the engine. I recieved a shed load of Adel clamps during the week, so now I can get on with securing everything.
I also recieved some PTFE spiral wrap from McMaster Carr. They have everything there practically! And they ship fast too. If I order stuff, it's somtimes here the next day. I tied the left side FADEC sensor harness with waxed cotton lacing stuff, then wrapped it all with 3/8" spiral wrap. If you use this stuff to wrap your wiring, be really sure to use only the PTFE stuff. EVERYTHING else will melt. Trust me, I've seen it happen... Not on my plane, but Cameron's. He bought some stuff that he was led to believe was high temp wrap. Well, he found out it wasn't when he looked inside his cowling after running his engine for a little while. The stuff had literally dripped off the cables and on to everything else.
It's a bit of a tangle in there. You think this is bad, wait until you see the right side!
Here, I started mucking around with other wiring. This is the main bus feed wire, and the blue one is the main alternator field wire. I tied them with the wax cotton lace, then wrapped it with spiral wrap. The 1/8" wrap takes forever to do! Next time, I'll buy 1/4" for the small stuff!
Here, it's wrapped, and secured to the engine mount with Adel clamps.
Since I was getting carried away with these Adel clamps, I secured the brake lines that run across the plane.
OK, here's the right side. What a web of wires! I tied it all together, then wrapped it and secured it to the engine. All this took a LONG time. It's almost done though!
Now I've got that little lot out of the way, I could put the exhaust on. Fantastic! Here we have it all torqued up.
Here on the right side, I hade to do a bit more work to keep the wiring away from the exhaust. This meant another bunch of Adel clamps. Here you can see manifold pressure and temperature sensors in the throttle body, the CHT temp sensor in the cylinder head, and the EGT sensor in the exhaust pipe. Loads of info for the computer to chew on when it's figuring out just how much fuel and timing to add.
Now the exhaust is on, the heat muff can go on. I have a second heat muff too, but I'm going to see how I get on with just the one before adding the second. It might be OK, we'll see. The SCAT tube routing worked out nicely too.
Here you can see the SCAT tube going through to the heater door on the firewall.
The starter motor wiring needed securing to the airframe to prevent strain on the terminal at the other end. I mentioned this before, but you have to make sure that your wiring is secured to both the moving and non moving stuff so that your terminals don't die an early death.
Well as you can probably tell, I've been spending a heck of a lot of time at the hangar lately. This is "The Big Push" to get to a point where I can start the engine. I remember when Dave was visiting from Australia during New Year, and thinking we could get this thing started then. We must've been living in a dream world, because we weren't even close. Heck, we didn't even get the wings on did we?!
Tomorrow, I'm going to work on getting a new throttle bracket made up. Clayton might be coming over to help out, and he's going to bring some welding equipment with him. The design of bracket I have in mind (same as the old one, but with a further reach) needs a weld to help strengthen it up.
Once the baffles return from the paint shop, I can get them on, finishi up the wiring on the top of the engine (injector harness, and cylinder heater harness), and then start on everything else that needs doing before I can start her up. Basically, that's fitting the centre console, and running the control cables for throttle and prop.