Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Vans sells a premade baffle kit for an 0-360. I am thinking about buying the Vans baffle kit and tweaking it to fit the Thorp cowl. I would think it may take a bit of tweaking when it comes to the height of the baffles meeting the top cowl and the front of the baffles at the inlets, but other than that, I would think it would be the same.

Anyone have thoughts or comments on that idea?

I've heard of Thorp builders doing just that, but I'm not sure how well it turned out. It would save you a lot of time if it works well. Like many others, I built mine from scratch, with nothing but a picture of how John Thorp did it to follow. I'm proud of how it turned out, but it was one of the most frustrating projects on the airplane for me.

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John Evens
Arvada, Colorado
T-18 N71JE (sold)
Kitfox 7 SS N27JE

Get the paper plans for the 0-360 baffle from Vans and make your own . When I bought the plans they were $7.00 , not sure about now ? The plans saved me MANY hours making the baffle . You are correct it will need to be trimmed a bit to fit , but not difficult . Screw hole location on the plans are spot on ! I also put hard points on almost all the screw attach points (blow up the pic to see them) using 1/16" steel strip riveted to the baffle . Zinc Chromate before assembly . I also converted it to an enclosed phelum , very happy with the results. It will be the best $7.00 you ever spent ! I had a pic of all the baffle pieces laid out , but not sure where it went ?

RB

Im glad to hear others have used the Vans system. Now I guess the question is how difficult is it to get it tweaked for a proper fit?

The reason I am leaning towards the pre made baffle system is because I am eager to get my plane back in the air and it will probably be tighter than what I could build. Also, Im afraid if I making the baffles from scratch it will take me longer than I want. I may add the plenum though.

Rich, did you close the gap from your plenum inlet to meet the cowl inlet, or is it left as open space?

It did not take long at all to cut out the paper templates and trace them on the material . Cuting out the individual pieces was also very fast. I think I cut, traced and cut all the individual pieces in less than 1/2 day . The hard part is if you go the plans route or the "kit" it is the time it takes to trim the stuff to fit...about the same for each . Either way it has to be trimmed . With my hinged cheeks I installed a gap cover to bridge the opening from the back of the cowl to the front of the phelum . It a single piece of alum. formed to fit the contour of the back of the cowl inlet . A rubber chafe strip was installed to insture a good seal between the gap cover and the front of the "box." Not sure what the Van's baffle kit runs , but I think I made mine from the Van's plans for about $25.00 ?

RB

I just bought the kit, Ryan. Will report back how it goes.

The way I see it, baffles have two fiddly edges... the engine side and the airplane side. The engine side is BY FAR the most difficult to fit/make/shape. Vans has already done the engine side to perfection. (Great value IMHO)

I used the Vans kit. Well worth the money, and quality was good. There is one mod I would recommend. The RH aft baffle needs to be spaced away from the cylinder a bit for better cooling of that cylinder. Per plans, it is bolted up to the back of the cylinder, and air can't hardly get around it. I think there is pictures on the vans site.

Van's 0-360 engine Baffle plans cost $ 10:00, just looked at their site.
Pre-built kit for 0-360 runs at $ 270:00.

https://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/st ... ine-baffle

Suggestion: If I was to modify my cooling baffles (likly to do so anyway) I would box in the cylinders as Rich has.
Better cooling and you are not continuously replacing seals.
Rich is on the right track with stiffening up the attachment points of the Baffle.
I am partial to bolts vs screws ~ while bolts do add a bit more weight and are a bit more expensive, I have never stripped a bolt head.
Can't say the same with philips screw heads, they always strip at the most inconvient time.
Cooling Baffles tend to have a bazillion fasteners and a 1/4 inch ratchet or/ speeder and socket beet a screw driver and any tip set up hands down.

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Victor J Thompson
C-GIRQ
In memory of Dad

I wussed out and went with the pre-made baffle system from Vans....thanks for all the tips.

Ryan - you did the right thing....the front pieces are not all that tough, but the pieces behind the numbers 3 and 4 jugs are a pain. I'm gonna throw in my 2 cents about plenums as well....I know some plenums that work real well, I know a couple that provide their a-retentive owners with differential cooling that gives them fits.
Ahm agin 'em....When I yank the cheeks, I wanna see as much of that engine as possible - If I wanna pull a top plug....easy stuff - personal preff is all - I think a plenum makes my ass look fat - and my scratch built baffling is to date, keeping my engine too cool.

Ryan...plan your cuts very carefully . I had to redo a couple of pieces . Good thing I had the plans . I would imagine Van's would sell an individual piece should it get FUBAR ?

RB

Fraser;
It just makes your ass look fat because you had the stripes going the wrong way
Actually, I'm with you. I want to see my engine. Even the top can show you things you want to see regularly.
Today was too cloudy and wet for flying, but I did get the winter cover on the oil cooler, and spent a pretty good while looking over the engine & gear mounting system in light of current events.

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Scott Emery
EAA Chapter 326
T-18 N18TE

FUBAR....my specialty. i better invest $7 in plans too. I really shouldnt be in too much of a rush since the prop wont be here for 2 months. It'll give me more time to consider the plenum pros and cons.

Well...the plans are now $10.00 because you waited too long ! The $10.00 investment would be a very good idea in case you misjudge your cuttin . I forgot to mention the plans also have where the bend lines are and along with the screw hole location the bend lines are right on !

RB

I've never seen baffles from Van's, but I understand as read in previous post that Van's baffles have to be modified in order to properly fit the T-18. I have no idea what the mods consist of and some make it sound to be as "easy as pie". To fit them to the T-18; just how much work is there?

I have Tony Bingilis' "Firewall Forward" book and he placed layouts of baffles where he wrote about them. I looked at those layouts and decided to copy the layouts, expanded them to life size, cut me some manila folders in the shapes he had in the book. I then took those manila folder paterns and clamped them to the engine. A little trim here and a little trim there, I got them to fit the engine, top cowl and cheeks right where I wanted them. I then cut pieces of hard cardboard sold at any local auto body shop supply house for used to make doors inner panels and covered with upholstery. from those I cut the baffles materials and started the shaping as shown in Tony's patterns.

Two issues of concern were the rear baffles strength and the space between the baffles and cylinder at the front-left (#2 cyl) and aft-right (#3 cyl). For strength I used 6061 T4 .041 sheet aluminum and for space between the baffles and cylinders I provided 1/8" space right at the area where the cylinders fins do not exist.

How long did it take me? One weekend.

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In CowTown USA,
Don D-Day
NX18DD