This sunday morning, some non noisy activity in the workshop : the drawing of some of the cuts on the cowl.
First the cut-out for the nose leg on the lower cowl.



Then I draw a line 2" back of the forward edge of the fuselage skins. This line will be used to draw the cutting line on the cowls.
I also reinstall the camlock support strips and mark the camlock positions.



The upper camlocks strips will be scalloped to be easier to bent a bit to conform to the upper cowl. This is one of the strips marked with the cut lines.



Then I install the upper cowl. Using a shim on the engine the height is adjusted so that the cowl is 1/8" lower than the rear spinner bulkhead to allow for some possible engine sagging.
The gap between the rear spinner bulkhead is 1/4" and maintained by using a wooden shim.



The cutting line is then drawn on the cowl by measuring 2" forward of the line on the fuselage. I will remain shy of this line when cutting so as not to be too short in the end.



Next step is trying to assemble the two cowl halves so as to get the forward hole looking round. Despite a few tries, nothing really worked. Vans information is scarce and on the Internet the tips are somewhat confusing. I will try to get more informations before going on.



Here is a picture with both cowl halves and the rear spinner bulkhead. Doesn't look round to me!!!!!

Bog day today, as it was engine hanging day. I first get the engine of the transport box floor. The picture was taken before the engine was turned to be hoisted from the propeller side and not from the engine mount side.



The engine installing procedure is not straightforward as the engine mount is called dynafocal, which means the four bolts used are pointing towards the center of the engine and will align with the mount once the shock mounts are compressed. The following link on VansAirForce explain a way to do it, and it worked.
The two upper bolts were installed without any problem. Here I a am, with my friend Jean-Pierre trying to see how to install the third bolt at the lower right. A little rocking of the engine and it was installed without difficulty.



The fourth bolts is another problem. The shock mount is not aligned with the hole in the engine. We tried a few thing to get the alignment correct : unbolt the other bolts, hoisting the engine and the fuselage, but nothing worked. The answer was in the procedure, but I had not fully understood it. The idea is to use a tool (screwdriver or punch) to move the hole of the rubber mount in alignment with the engine (and not move the engine).
We needed the same time for the last bolt as for three first. And after 1h30mn of work, here are three happy workers.
Still some work ahead though.



Sabine had to check that the engine was bolted on correctly.



After the bolts were bolted down, the difficult part was installing the cotter-pins as they are almost impossible to insert and bend.



Then we installed the propeller spacer, the spinner rear mounting plate, some wodd to simulate the propeller thickness and the spinner forward mounting plate.
This is needed to position the engine cowling as the it needs to positionned with a reference to the rear spinner mounting plate.



And just for fun, the upper cowl in position.

Still deburring the parts were there won't be no more cutting. The fabricating process leaves some marks that have to be filed and sanded. This is one of the parts before deburring.



And the same part after deburring.

The engine hanging being nearer and nearer, I work on the engine equipment that's easier to install with the engine off the fuselage.
First the elbow oil pressure fitting gets installed. I used the aft pressure port, but had to remove one bolt of the magneto.
The side port makes for an easier install now, but once the engine installed there is no more access to the fitting.



Then I install the fitting for the hose from the engine to the oil cooler. In the plans, this fitting is an elbow fitting, but I only had one and had to use it elsewhere. We'll see later if Ihave to change that straight fitting for the other one.



This is the port where the line with the cooled oil from the cooler is brought back to the engine. The port is behind the oil filter which has to come of to gain access. I also have to use an elbow fitting to clear the filter.



And the result, the engine is ready for installation.

Before hanging the engines, I decide to install all the baffles parts that can be done without the cowl.
The picture shows all the parts I could install. Quite a lot of tweaking had to be done, mostly around the rocker covers.



This is a viaw from the rear left. The oil cooler will be installed there, but it's final position can only be known after the cowl has been installed.



This is the front right with the oil line for the propeller governor (the grommet is missing).



This is the aft baffle support bracket. To install it I had to remove two bolts on the engine case and one end of the right rear cylinder fule injection line.
The small bracket that hold the fuel line clamp can not go back to it's position on the crankcase bolt as the bolt would be to short. I will bolt it to the baffle support bracket.
I also begun to deburr all the parts that won't have to be touched again.