7 hours.
If I had a time machine, I wouldn’t go back and tell 1984-me about all the cool stuff in the future, or bet on all the baseball games, or ram a pickup truck into a sleeping Mohammed Atta. OK, maybe I’d do that. But what I’d definitely do is tell 2005-me that under no circumstances should you purchase an engine off eBay, and if you do, make sure the damn prop governor is in the back.
I’ve spent more time than I care to think about figuring out just how the hell the cowl intakes are supposed to interface with the baffles via the rubber airseal material. There are no guidelines for this, here there be monsters, etc. The io-390.com site has a lot of good information, but as with all things cowl and baffle, everybody’s setup is just a little bit different, and I’m basically having to roll my own solution anyway. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I just wish I knew a lot more of what I know now back before I started.
The major issue comes from figuring out the shape of the airseal on the front baffle on the left side, the one that wraps around the prop governor. I think I have something that works, but I’m not 100% happy with it, and I wish I knew how to do it better. But it looks like what I’ve done will seal the high-pressure area under the cowl, and when I get back from Toronto, I should be able to finish cutting the airseal strips for the rest of the baffles. I should also be able to bond the inlet ramps to the top cowl and start filling in the tunnels on either side of them. The idea is to keep air from spilling out of the high pressure area into the area below the engine. The pressure differential is what cools the engine.
If I didn’t have this stupid front-mounted governor, the standard baffle kit would fit fine and I would probably be on to plumbing and wiring by now.
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