Quadrant with new welded-up cable support brackets installed. It took a lot of
diddling to get the 2 cables to clear each other.ENGINE WORK January, 2009
Jan 2 - fiddle with making supercharger adjuster rod 1.0 hr
Jan 3 - diddle around more with getting SC adjuster rod ends & hardware "just right". Finish details on new throttle quadrant brackets. Work on throttle/wastegate cables. Clean up end fittings screwed up by previous over-tightening. 2.0 hr
Quadrant with new welded-up cable support brackets installed. It took a lot of
diddling to get the 2 cables to clear each other.
Jan 6 - had a little shooting accident Sunday. Might be a few days before I can resume work on plane. You can see the before & after here, but I warn you, it's quite graphic & gnarly.
Jan 9 - welded a LT-hand-thread end onto SC adjuster rod. 0.5 hr
Jan 15 - primed & installed SC adjuster rod. Reinstalled intercooler. Been sidetracked doing some maintenance on the Challenger II & flew it on the 10th. 3.5 hr
Jan 17 - Spent a huge amount of time laying on a milk crate under the engine, rasslin' the supercharger ducting and RT header pipe into place Everything is a very tight fit & minimum clearances to everything else. It was especially fun doing it while protecting the very delicate remains of my amputated finger. Getting the header support brackets & their mount bolt into place behind the crank pulley was a real bitch. I have multiple scratches all over my RT arms from all the rubbing against all the parts. I thought I'd have to go backwards and remove the SC adjuster rod, intercooler mount brackets, intercooler, alternator, and crank pulley to get the brackets remounted and the bolt into place, but I finally got it done without removing those things, by switching from a 6mm bolt threaded into the block to a smaller diameter AN3 bolt through the hole and a nut on the other end. Now I just need to find the header nut torque value so I can torque and safety the header install, and get on with this thing. 3.0 hr
Jan 20 - Second Coming of Jesus Christ in Washington, DC. As long as he keeps his paws off people's guns, he may not be too bad. Time will tell. I am especially hopeful for some long-overdue (like 30 years!) focus on energy policy.
Jan 21 - Torque header nuts to 26 ft lb. Tighten header support bracket mount bolt. Paint flywheel flat black and apply reflectors to use later with laser tach. Work on reinstalling supercharger-intercooler ducting. It isn't happy about going together after changing supercharger mount point a bit closer to intercooler and changing how supercharger belt tension adjusting rod mounts to frame. 2.5 hr
Jan 22 - finish hooking up supercharger ducting. Hook up RT EGT. Wire up grounds for coils. Clean up grounds bus - with the removable electrics tray installed and in the way, many recent grounds were just temporarily installed. While the tray was out for all this SDS work, I trimmed lengths & straightened up all the ground wires in the harness. 4.5 hr
Jan 23 - more work on engine wiring, installed & secured RT EGT harness. Removed bracket I had fabricated for the old ECU OBD port. 1.75 hr
Jan 27 - I'm still undecided on what to do for a cooling solution. I could stick with the radiators that came from Eggenfellner, with almost 100% chance they will be inadequate. I could get some custom larger ones made. The best, and most complicated and expensive, solution might be to put one big radiator in the back, like a P-51 or how Ross Farnham did it.
Jan 30 - You may have heard "delay taking the plane to the airport until the last possible moment". It's true. Now that the plane is in a hangar half an hour away, I only get over here maybe 2-3 days a week. And even then, it's hard to focus on the RV. I keep trying to force myself to focus on it more when I'm here. Managed to fart around awhile on it. Installed IAT probe. Started to install oxygen sensor for PLX module, but I want to wait & get an 18mm tap or thread chaser to clean up the threads better before installing the sensor. Brought new MIG welder over to hanger & spent some time setting that up. Worked on SDS wiring harness some, trying to remember where I left off and what goes where. 0.5 hr
Jan 31 - last chance to get something done this month. Planning & layout for new supercharger inlet & preliminary planning for replacing the front radiators with an aft one. Also looking into rerouting supercharger wastegate outlet back into the SC. From what I've read, this will make the SC run a lot easier when I am not calling for boost. 3.0 hr
go to FEBRUARY, 2009 engine page
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