Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Victor: Thanks for defining service life vs. shelf life . Makes cents now . Folks have hard enough time trying to figure out "sell by" , "use by" , "best if used by" at the Piggly Wiggley ! I think the important thing to remember if it's rubber if will not last forever ! Monitor and replace as required .
RB

I got my engine hung today. It feels good to have a motor back on the plane. Man, that RV baffling is gonna take ALOT of trimming!

Ryan: Having used the Van's templates it does take a bit of trimming , but the advantage is having the accurate bend lines and the spot on hole locations for the attachment screws . That saved me HOURS of work and a lot of wasted sheet metal ! BIG BOOM ! . Remember Van's templates/kits are for a different AC , but same engine . I think you bought the kit and not the templates ?

RB

Hi Ryan, Before you start trimming too much...did you ever consider making a plenum? I too bought the Vans plans- have yet to start on the baffles, but was planning on making one for my 0-320.

Terry

I have a plenum on my 320, it works, sometimes it works too well. You will never have any heating problems that's for sure.......Dan

OK...I bought the Van's plans to use as a template and made Dan's plenum . Thank you Dan ! The side, front and back are what I used from the templates and had to cut down the top to fit under the cowl with my top of the plenum installed. As Dan said it is VERY effective ! COOL BOOM ! To regulate the temp I installed a damper valve in line with the 3 inch scat tubing from the aft end of the plenum and the oil cooler . The damper is controlled by a cockpit controlled push pull control . No need to use duct tape or cardboard to block off the oil cooler to get the oil temp up !

RB

You have a slick Plenum Rich.......They might take a bit of work, but in the end the results are worth it that's for sure........Dan

Dan: I'll trade you one tray of Gloria's pulled beef for tacos for my plenum ! KVIS is rapidly approaching my friend !

RB

I'm not going to do the plenum right now. If I have cooling issues later, I may try it at that point. I did buy the pre-made vans baffle kit, so I expected the trimming.

As a side note, my oil dipstick tube is too tall, so I gotta swap that out too. Its looking like an airplane again with that motor on it though.

The Tacos are free to any Thorper that flies into KVIS Rich,(although I wouldn't mind having that Plenum), so is the shuttle to get pilots to the house and back to the airport. Gloria and I discussed KVIS Gathering just Yesterday, last years turned out to be a good one and I believe we all had a jolly time. I think we are going to attempt it again this year, think about another presentation like you had last year on survival gear or on any subject you would like last years was well put together and very informative, maybe we can talk Dr.Cubes into doing something with formation training or stunt pulling or something of that nature. Wont say anything about what was discussed for the Menu, I will say that no-one will leave the table hungry.........Dan

That's for sure. That's about the biggest feedbag around. I've got to starve myself for a week just to make it thru KVIS. Danny, you need to take money for the food and drinks, period. No arguments.
Cubes

As some of you probably witnessed at OSH, the mistress's frontal blessings were sagging a little...it's an age thing. Hence, (and as I am replacing a cylinder) I went Johnny Quest to find motor mounts. This was not as easy as first anticipated. Nothing in the logs and a plethora of choices with little dimensional info to reference - As usual, I wasted countless hours trying to make sense of the T-18 plans, the forum, spruces catalogue and google, I finally broke down and called the Lord guy (No, not God - he always just laughs when I call anyway....) and told him I had 2.25 OD/ID donut mount with a..??...oh crap, I forget...something like a 1.25 inch hole - He recommended a mount from Lord, and for kicks and starters, I X-ref'd to VIP and Barry and settled on the Barrys - this all took time given my cataclysmic world, and given my schedule to get the plane properly repaired and off to KVIS - I UPS blued them Tuesday last.....got to the airport that night and realized that the mounts on the way were not going to work, as the Lord guy (not God) had effed up and I had 3 inch pucks coming - POOPSTAIN!!
I started looking agin at AirSpruce and looked at the "homebuilders" mounts at 100 jeters per corner - same as Lord (not God) J7402-5.....checked the plans again - huh...similar....found a reference on the old sight from Richard Ecklund that these are it....then I see the "beefed up version for aerobatic mounts - same as the 100 jeter per corner ones only 69 jeters per corner - less than half the price of the Lord (not God) mounts.....and "beefed" up to boot.....without much in the sporran, that sounded good to me - I got them today and they look perdy good and will fit - a little different style than the old one (on the left) from the backside of the mount (I have not gotten the one off next to the case yet). I'll give a report once mounted tomorrow and the new cylinder on and broken in next week as to how they are doing, but sure am hoping thy blow a nice pleasant breeze up the kilt.
One thing I cannot seem to find is what torque value to put on these......any suggestions?

_________________
Fraser MacPhee
N926WM
Serial #279-1
Angel Fire, NM (KAXX)

You should torque them to the standard torque value for that size AN bolt - they should "bottom out" against the properly sized spacer, giving the proper amount of compression automatically. I can look up the torque value if you need it Frase. Making sure you have the correct length spacer is a little trickier... depending on your mount, you may or may not have the correct ones with the new parts. If yours were correct before, you can use them as a reference (or perhaps just use the old ones if the new ones are too short or too long).

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

Well, John...that's what I thought at first, but then began to wonder if that was too much compression for the squishy stuff - the spacer is the same length as the previous one - at least on the bottom starboard mount - the pucks are same dimensions, except a different rubber "fit" configuration.

_________________
Fraser MacPhee
N926WM
Serial #279-1
Angel Fire, NM (KAXX)

This seems to be a recurring topic, there are several options for sandwich mounts the cheapest is the "homebuilders mounts"

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/e ... ndwich.php

Rumor has it that these are simply the mounts that Lycoming ships their motors with ... regardless they seem to work fine for me.

As John pointed out, (max) torque values are not unique to application each bolt size (in this case AN7) has it's specified torque value (in this case 450-500 in lbs). That being said and I know I've gotten in trouble for this in the past ... I prefer to use the "comfortably snug rule".

I recently pulled N51863's motor and while I was at it I decided to change out the Lord mounts, I agree Frase .. there is no easy way! It requires patience, muscle and a lot of cussing!

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Lee Walton
Houston, TX
N51863,N118LW
KEFD