Today was one of those days where Greg and I spent almost all day in the workshop, and not much seemed to get done. We spent a lot of time planning and thinking forward in the engine hook up and electrical systems. It always seems that whenever I transition from one major phase of the project to another phase, it takes a while to find the path, make progress, and gain momentum. There is always so much to get done in each phase that sometimes it is hard to focus on one task and see it through and then move on to the next.
For example, we are working on making the aft baffle for the engine installation. Well, we decided we should mount the exhaust pipes while we are doing that to see how they interact with baffles. While we were working on that, I noticed that the desiccant spark plugs, used to keep the engine dry, were showing signs of moisture. They turn pink once they have absorbed as much moisture as they can. So we had to pull those and bake them for 20 minutes at 200 degrees to dry them out and replace them in the engine.
Greg then continued on making the templates for fitting the baffle around the starter and alternator. There are many irregular shapes to work around and fine tuning the cut out templates takes some time. But we are getting closer. Now all we need to do is finish the perimeter of the baffle where it meets up to the cowl. 
While Greg was working on the templates, I was trying to plan ahead on the fuel injection system and the firewall. For the fuel injection system, the next thing to do is find a place to mount the fuel flow divider. A good place for that is aft of the oil pan, but requires us to remake the oil cooler mount so that we have enough room to fit all of that in this area. No big deal, but shows how much all of these things are interconnected. Since I didn’t have the material to remake the bracket, I moved on.
Next, I tried to think of all the things we need to mount on the firewall. I then either mounted them if I could, or I used masking tape cut to the size of the component out and placed them in a potential spot. The things I have located, at least for now, are the positive and negative terminals form the battery, the starter solenoid, rudder pulleys, the ignition coils, and pressure transducer manifold.
From there we decided to change gears and locate some of the electrical components in the fuselage. The reason we wanted to start this is because SteinAir is going to be working on wiring up my avionics and electrical equipment soon. They need some location and distance data from me in order to do so. The plan is to again put masking tape marks in the location of each of the electronic components. Then we will run string along each wire path to these components, taping it in place along the desired path as we go. Then we can measure the string and cut each wire in the bundle to that same length.
In order to have better access to the cockpit for this process, we decided it would be easier if we put the airplane in the nose down position. Kinda looks cool taking a bow, doesn’t it? We also took the consoles and arm rests out so we can run the strings.
In the next photos you can see the taped electrical components in their relative positions and cut out to scale. On each of the components we also marked where the wires hook up and what orientation the bundle will come off. There are a few more components to place, but I think we can start running wires soon.
Doesn’t seem like a lot actually got done, but I can guarantee you that my brain was in overdrive trying to think ahead. Hopefully we can get measurements to Stein soon and get back to engine baffling, mounting engine components, etc.
the Garaggio 