October 13, 2005

I got out of work early today and went to the hangar. I didn’t really have a lot to do at work, and the weather was nice. Yesterday, I ordered a 4 into 1 exhaust from Aircraft Exhaust Inc. It looks like a pretty nice system, so I’ll look forward to getting that. It should arrive in about 3-4 weeks. I decided to go 4 into 1 because it helps with smoothness, and gives you a little bit of extra power. I don’t know how much exactly, but nonetheless more is always better. I think it may be a little noisier than a crossover exhaust, but that what ANR headsets are for!

I continued on with the baffles today. I found the missing bag of hardware (in the box, where else?) and set to it. This stuff is actually pretty good. It practically fits perfectly right out of the box. There are a few small areas in need of a trim, but otherwise, they fit fine. I must admit, I was surprised. Something I need to really get into the baffles, is to fit my cowl. Unfortunately, this ain’t gonna happen until the prop arrives, unless I make a pretend spinner. I’m not sure I want to risk that though, so I think I’ll just wait until the prop is here. It shouldn’t be long now!

Here are the baffles in place. I even managed to get the right rear baffle on without removing anything from the engine!

The only real problem area I’ve seen so far is the rear right corner. The jog doesn’t jive… In the end, I did what other people have done here and cut the offending flange off. I’ll replace it with a piece of angle.

This is pretty much where the oil cooler will go. I really wanted it on the firewall, but the FADEC has eliminated that possibility. Oh well. As long as the baffles are well braced, I should be OK. I also need the cowl in place to figure out how high I can mount this thing.

Next up for the firewall forward stuff today was the starter motor. I’m using a snorkel inlet so I don’t have a scoop on the bottom of the cowl. Unfortunatley, the starter motor has some ears on it that interfere with where the snorkel runs. Need to cut these puppies off!

The lug closest in the picture is fine. That one is for the alternator mounting, so it’s not going anywhere. The problem child is by the terminal there.

Here it is, all chopped off. It clears nicely now.