11/24/2006
As with many operations on this project I have worked myself up into a state of extreme paranoia on the task of mounting the engine. I have read the instructions from Vans and have read the articles on the internet on how to mount the engine. I read Firewall Forward.
To compound the paranoia, at first appearance it looks like the accessories will not fit in the engine mount. I took some measurements and this now appears not to be the case.
My plan was to ask for help from couple of folks since no doubt a lot of man-handling is required.
This morning I hoisted the engine into position just to verify that there isn't an accessory clearance issue. I pulled the fuselage into position and the engine mount fit perfectly around the magnetos, fuel pump, etc. It fit perfectly with a lot of room to spare. Clearly I am not the first person to have ever done this.
I thought I would trial fit one of the top lord mounts and see if there were any issues there. No problem. I installed the other one on the top and it took a little tugging but it went in. I turned the bolt to get it through and just enough to get a nut on the other end. Then I tightened both mounts just until the rubber began to compress. So far so good. Why stop now? It wasn't my plan to install the engine this morning but things are going very well.
I lifted the engine and fuselage just a little to get the lower rubber mounts in position and get the bolts started. Again I turned them until I was able to get nuts on them and further tighten them until the rubber started to compress. The rubber mounts did not seat properly until all four bolts were in position and tightened a little.
I fully tightened all four bolts until they bottomed out and aligned the cotter pin holes.
A few observations:
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Attaching the upper mounts and lifting the engine and fuselage to get the bottom ones to line up didn't seem to do much for me. The fuselage seems too light to cause the mount to flex very much. I still attempted this and followed the instructions in Vans builder's manual.
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Pay attention to the washer and bolt sizes. They are not all the same.
