|
Engine Installation This section will detail all of my trials and tribulations (and successes!)
of building and installing my engine. The current plans are to build a
Superior Airparts engine at the Superior build facility. The process has
begun (i.e. money is flowing out) and you can follow the activity below.
Ordered (Put a Deposit On) An Engine |
September 22, 2005 |
I finally identified the correct Airflow Performance choice on the Superior
web site, and placed the order for my engine today. The Superior folks gave
me a call, confirmed that I was serious, and e-mailed me the order form. I
have filled it out, and only have to write a deposit check ($1000, which
is refundable if I bail out) and send it to them to lock in my order. This
will also lock in my build class date ... as I am intending to build it
myself.
What I have ordered is an XP-IO-360-B1DC2. This is a Superior XP-360
with the roller lifters, Airflow Performance fuel injection, a hollow
crank for a constant speed prop, and vertical induction. With the
roller lifter option comes a 3-year warranty and a really huge price tag.
I've not been able to talk myself into doing anything but a new engine
(probably silly, but there you have it) and the family seems to support
that decision. I'll be writing my check and getting the order into the
mail tomorrow. The biggest expense of the whole project starts today!
(Yes, I'm paranoid about identity theft and making too much personal
information available thus the redactions on the picture of the check!)
|
Airflow Performance FI-101 Class |
March 3, 2006 |
Take a look at my Fuel Injection Page
for more information on the class.
|
Fuel Injection System P.O. Recieved |
October 3, 2006 |
I got word from Don at API today that the purchase order for *my* fuel
injection system (go read my FI section if you don't know what I mean by
"*my* fuel injection system") arrived from Superior. Things are on track
for me to go do my engine build ... with *my* fuel injection system. :)
|
Engine Build School |
November 6, 2006 |
I headed down to Dallas to build my engine, and had a great experience
at Superior. Evan Yearsley is a fantastic instructor, and kept the class
fun even when we were having to hussle to get work completed. See my
XP-360 Build School
section of my logbook for details and more pictures. This was a once
in a lifetime experience, and if you are engine-ignorant like I was and
are even remotely curious about wanting to learn more about how your engine
goes together .. do it. Just pay the extra money and go do it!
|
Engine Shipping! |
November 21, 2006 |
I just got a call from Dena at Superior, and my engine finished its run-in
with flying colors today! It'll ship out tomorrow, and should be here by
Monday mid-day. Wow. This is MUCH faster than I expected. Maybe it was a
good thing I went ahead and got my engine lift last week after all!
|
Engine At Freight Dock |
November 27, 2006 |
Today I confirmed that my engine is at the Yellow freight dock. They are
a 24-hour facility, so we can go tomorrow after work and pick it up. I
have had a number of folks volunteer (they did, really, I think) to lend
a hand moving it home.
|
Engine Comes Home! |
November 28, 2006 |
Except for one small issue, bringing the engine home was a trivial exercise.
Thanks for the loan of a tilt-up trailer from a co-worker the loading and
unloading of the engine was simple. The Yellow Freight folks loaded, and
we unloaded. Unloading was as simple as backing the trailer into the garage,
taking off the cargo straps, tipping the trailer up, and sliding the box
off onto the floor. Trivial.
As we got it uncovered all agreed that it was beautiful. This also means
that my fuel injection systen has taken another trip across the country
and is now .. finally .. home as well. They removed it from the sump for
shipping so I was able to pull it out and admire it. What a fantastic piece
of work Airflow produces (and I'm only slightly biased because I got
to build it myself. We took the plastic
off to give it a good look-see .. and as I continued to explore the engine I
noticed the ONE small problem I mentioned above.
It looks like the right side of the engine (facing forward from the back)
took a hit in shipping. The only damage was a scuff to the side of the box
(not clearly visible in the streetlight-lit parking lot of the Yellow freight
depot, but visible in the dark first picture above of the box on the trailer
at the house) and rather dented valve covers.
We then quickly realized
that another bit of damage evidence was a broken strap inside the box that
was supposed to secure the engine. See the last picture to take a look.
Clearly somewhere during shipment the engine got a bit loose, and hit
something. Or something hit it which broke the strap. One or the other.
I'll want to take the two valve covers off (after checking with Superior) to
make sure they didn't hit the rocker arms ... but I can already see they are
not likely to be dented enough to have done that.
If it were anything else, I'd be upset. As it is I am 100% certain that a
pair of replacement covers and 10 minutes with a screwdriver will rectify
the issue. I'd be truly shocked if Superior didn't just send me a replacement
pair .... but I'll update this with the details after I talk to them
tomorrow.
I am _very_ excited. The engine is ... beautiful. What a milestone!
Update : I talked to Dena at Superior first thing this
morning and within moments she was making plans to send me replacement valve
covers. No questions. No need to look at pictures. Zero hassle. No discussion
of how it was really a problem for the freight company to deal with. That is
what I call support! Thanks Dena!
|
Drilled Real Firewall / Cut "Fake Firewall" |
December 10, 2006 |
|
|
Today was slow going, but progress was made. The first thing I did this
morning was cut down the panels for the "fake firewall". They the needed
to be trimmed to the shape of the firewall ..... but I realized there was
one task that had to happen even before that could be done. I had to drill
the engine mount to the real firewall so that the holes would be correctly
positioned.
Bear in mind that there are pilot holes already in the firewall (and in
the steel weldments behind the firewall), but they might not be _exactly_
positioned for _your_ engine mount. What I did was open up one of the holes
so I could put a full-sized 3/8" bolt in place. I then slipped a 1/4" bolt
in the opposite far corner (with 1/4" happening to be the size of the pilot
holes). I checked that the mount was level with respect to the fuselage
and then started drilling all the other holes. There are six holes total,
each through first stainless steel, then regular steel. They are ... to be
honest ... a pain to drill. I used my regular twist drills to do the job
and it was SLOOOOOOW going. Eventually my bits were not generating any
steel chips at all, and I figured I had killed 'em. Sadly I still had two
holes to go! *sigh* This drilling was done slowly and with cutting fluid
and with breaks to allow my aching back to recover. During that time I
did some final fitting on some other parts (the canopy latch, etc.) but
nothing significant enough to warrant its own log entry. :)
Finally I went and bought a Dewalt cobalt bit with an integrated pilot bit.
When I hit the steel with that, it was a world of difference! It cut like
a hot knife through butter! Damn, I wish I had known it would be that big a
difference on the first hole. It would have gone five times as fast and
would have saved me a lot of pain. Oh well, lesson learned.
I did some initial trimming of the fake firewall, but when I went to grab
my belt sander to shape the edges I discovered I had a bum belt. With the
hardware stores closed (it was Sunday after 6:00) I decided to call it a
day. It was a -good- day, even if progress seems minimal. :) Even so as
I fiddled with the fake firewall .... I'm debating whether I actually want
to use it or not. I've very little time in it, so can toss it without
any real pain. As I look at it ... I'm just not sure. We'll see.
BTW, the week passed with -zero- work primarily 'cause work has, as has been
so common of late, a bit nutty. Maybe next week will be less nutty. Ya think
so? No .... I don't either. :)
Time : 6.25 hours |
Finished Engine Stand |
December 24, 2006 |
I finally finished the engine stand today. It isn't perfect (I won't point
out its flaws) but will do the job nicely enough. Or so I believe. It took
forever to get all the holes drilled in the steel, and then match drilling
all the wood, and then acquiring all the bolts/nuts/washers, and then
pulling it all together. Included here are a couple of pictures with the
mount finger-tightened in place. Next step .... mounting the engine.
Did you catch the note at the previous entry? Notice I prognostocated? I
dare say my prediction was accurate ... thus the huge gap (14 days!) since
the last bit of work. *sigh* Gotta work on that.
Time : 5.25 hours |
Engine Off Of Pallet |
December 30, 2006 |
I finally got the engine off of the pallet today. To get it up onto a work
surface (so I can be in a position to put the engine mount on, and yes I
know this is an odd order of assembly) I had to first lift the pallet off
the floor enough to get the legs of the engine hoist under it. I did this
by taking some 10,000lb-rated ratchet straps (used to secure the engine
box when driving the engine home from the freight dock) and slipping it
under one end of the pallet. I then brought the two hooks up to the big
steel hook on the engine hoist .... and I lifted one end enough to put a
pair of concrete blocks under it. I then moved the strap to the other end,
lifted it, and put another pair of blocks under that end. At that point
the pallet was about 8 inches off the ground.
It was then a piece of cake to get the engine hoist legs under the pallet
and lift the engine into the air. I had to modify my low rolling table to
raise a cross-support enough that the engine hoist legs would go under it
as well. With that done I was able to roll the table under the engine and
gently lower it (using the foam block that it was shipped sitting on) to
the table.
I left the front metal support (bolted to the prop flange) in place and
clamped a 2x4 across the table to make sure the engine would not move
around. With it secured like this I can push and shove and tug all I need
to get the mount onto the engine. (Or so I hope.)
I'm really glad to have this slightly nerve-wracking step behind me!
Time : 4.5 hours |
Engine Mount Installed |
December 31, 2006 |
We have a lot of New Year's activities to do today, but I thought I would
spend a little time working on getting the engine mount on the engine. I
had asked around about what I'm doing (i.e. putting the mount on the engine
WITHOUT it being on the firewall) and was told it would be a LOT easier
than doing it the "traditional" way. As it turned out, it was a piece of
cake. Note, I still need to torque the bolts and get the cotter pins into
place, which won't be a lot of fun. But thousands have done it before me
and I'm sure I'll work it out.
What I did was the following .... I first arranged to lift the mount into
place off of my engine lift. I'm not SURE that was as much a help as one
would have thought, but I did it anyway. I then used a couple of drift pins
to do the first bit of crude aligning of the top donuts (putting the "hard"
ones to the rear on the top). Some pushing and pulling were needed, of course,
but in due time I got the top bolts in and finger tightened a few threads
worth of distance.
The bottom ones are traditionally the difficult ones, but in my situation
they were even easier. I slipped the first donut (the "hard" one forward on
the bottom) in place and pushed in a drift pin. On the other side I did the
same and had to use my dimpling mallet to tap it in. Then I realized I had
a perfect setup for "pulling" the mount in place.
I used one of my quick-clamps to catch the back-side of the mount and the
lip of the table ..... and tugged on the mount until I could slide a drift
pin in with my fingers. I then came back with the rear rubber donut and it
went in trivially. Moving the bar clamp to the other side I did the same
thing with equally easy results. Way cool.
I've got to break now to do some family stuff ... but the next step is to
torque, cotter pin, then put it on the engine stand. Worst case I hope to
have that all done tomorrow.
Back at it today .......
Chris and I went out to do the wrap-up work on the engine. We torqued the
bolts and got lucky on two (i.e. when the torque wrench clicked, we had
the cotter pin holes lined up), got relatively lucky on another (just had
to add a washer, and then it lined up), and had to struggle with the last.
To get the last happy we had to grind down a washer to make a thin washer
to get the cotter pin hole to line up. *groan* I really appreciate Chris'
help and patience. I needed a strong helper to lend a hand with this and
he was there at just the right time.
After that we used the hoist to levitate the engine again, and swung it
over to the engine stand. With very little fiddling it went right on and
when we finally took the weight off the hoist .... nothing moved. It all
seemed rock solid and now I can wheel my engine around at will. To put
it on the firewall, we'll do much the same thing (i.e. lift it with a
hoist, swing the mount to the firewall, and slip the bolts in).
While I was messing with the engine I replaced the valve covers that got
dented in shipping. That took all of 5 minutes, and I could feel like I
had everything I needed to get done taken care of. I think I am done
(FINALLY!) with "engine stuff" for a while. Back to work on the canopy frame!
What a GREAT way to end the year! Happy New Year, everyone! :)
Time : 3.75 hours |
Cotter Pins Installed |
January 15, 2007 |
This was a small task, but had been left lingering from the earlier engine
work. I had a little time to kill this afternoon and installed the cotter
pins in the engine mount bolts. No big deal, but now its done.
Time : 0.5 hours |
Prop Arrives |
May 2, 2007 |
Woo hoo! My prop has arrived! I had a voicemail at work when I got in
yesterday morning telling me my prop was sitting on the FedEx freight
shipping dock. I met Theresa and Marie for lunch and swapped cars with
them (assuming the Suburu would be big enough to hold the prop) so I
could head out after work to pick it up. FedEx is now the third freight
dock I've spent time on (previously using both Yellow and ABF), and I
think it'll be the last. This is the final "large shipment" I think I
will be getting. Thanks goodness!
The prop box was -huge-, and barely fit in the Suburu. They, reasonably
enough, package up the props quite well. Chris helped me haul it into
the shop, and we poped the bands off the box. It is a -beautiful- Hartzell
C2YR-1BFP-F7496-2 blended airfoil prop. Yeah, I know the AeroComposite
and Whirwind props are supposed to be faster, but the Hartzell is a solid
reliable prop for a reasonable price (at least considering what those
others cost!). I'm -very- pleased.
|
Total Time : 24.25 hours
|
|