I read all the warnings. “Use a Van’s-approved engine or you’ll have a ton of trouble making everything fit.” Or this one: “By the time you convert the engine to what you want, you’ll have spent just as much money as if you’d bought new.” Tinker or fly? So, I now have a laundry list of issues related to my particular setup that will now require no small amount of customization, some of it in steel, which I haven’t had much to do with since shoehorning large snowmobile engines onto the backs of go-karts back in the mid-80’s. Here’s the list of fun so far:<\/p>\n
-Throttle body interferes with the starter. The Kelley Aerospace starter has a retaining bolt on it that prevents the TB from being mounted in the diaphragm-up position.
\n-Stock brackets won’t work. Either the mixture or the throttle arm goes the wrong way when pushed, so a bellcrank is probably going to be required.
\n-AFP throttle body won’t play nice with the airbox. More fun with fiberglass.
\n-Fuel hose from engine pump to TB inlet is too short in any position except the one that won’t work because of the starter.
\n-Custom-length quadrant cables will be required.
\n-Throttle and mixture arms interfere with factory-set linkages when oriented in directions that work for me. I’ll need a straight arm from Don at Airflow.
\n-Right magneto interferes with battery box. Will need to be re-indexed for harness to clear and be retimed.
\n-Left magneto had to be removed to adjust oil cooler fitting. Timing will need to be reset.
\n-Breather tube is a little close to the RDAC. Should be OK though.
\n-Alternator interference unknown at this time, since I haven’t purchased it yet.
\n-Oil cooler taken off the engine when I got it is cracked. Need a new one.
\n-Oil pressure fitting is AN3, not AN4, so the supplied hose won’t work. Earl’s doesn’t seem to have a steel expander either.<\/p>\n
So should I have listened to the warnings? Waited for a a good deal on an engine with a standard Bendix fuel injection system that wouldnt’ have necessitated an aftermarket, oddball sump? Maybe. Am I kicking myself for not doing so? A little. Thanks to the teardown\/rebuild, I’m pretty much out of money and it’s going to take some time to build up reserves. I could probably still fit the cowl, and I can definitely get the avionics and wiring done, but the firewall-forward engineering may be my greatest challenge yet. But I know a guy at Crashspace with a 6-axis mill and a lathe. Van’s Air Force is still my lifeline. And I’m in too deep to quit now.<\/p>\n
As I write this, I’m on Alaska Airlines on initial descent into LAX, returning from Vancouver, BC. If human beings can figure out a way to get me online in a big spam can at FL30, I can find a solution to the nearly-overconstrained problem of the firewall forward situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I read all the warnings. “Use a Van’s-approved engine or you’ll have a ton of trouble making everything fit.” Or this one: “By the time you convert the engine to what you want, you’ll have spent just as much money as if you’d bought new.” Tinker or fly? So, I now have a laundry list […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}