I've been trying to run a just-in-time airplane factory. Just-in-time is, as expected, the concept that the purchased materials for a product to be built are not warehoused at the factory, but instead are brought to the factory at the last possible second before assembly. Thus increasing efficiency and lowering costs. It seems like I may have jumped the gun on purchasing my engine as it has been sitting in my factory for well over a year. Thus decreasing efficiency and increasing my costs. That's how I roll.
And so, the time has finally come to mount my IOX370. Previously, I had the engine on an engine stand where I attached the vibration isolators to the tubular steel dynafocal engine mount. The dynafocal mount is designed in such a way as to transmit less vibration from the engine through to the fuselage.
To mount the engine, I needed to drill the holes from the engine mount to the firewall. I had previously drilled through the firewall to mount the fuselage to the rotisserie, but I used a smaller diameter bolt for that so that when the time came to mount the engine, the larger engine bolt holes would (hopefully) be drilled through the same holes. But if there were some misalignment with the engine mount, the larger mount holes will overlap the smaller holes previously drilled. Using the dynafocal mount itself as a drill guide, the six holes are enlarged to 3/8 inches.
The mounting order that I used is different from the Van's aircraft recommendation. They have you fix the engine mount to the fuselage first, then hang the engine. I suspected that hanging the engine on the mount to be the more difficult challenge so elected to do that first.
Slip the front landing gear into place.
The front landing gear is held in place with a single bolt.
With the front landing gear secured, I moved on to torquing down the engine mount bolts. Each of the six are secured with a castle nut and cotter pin.
Move the engine hoist out of the way and Ta Da! My airplane is on its gear with an engine.
I'm very happy to have finally reached this milestone. It is a curious fact that it was much easier to hang the engine than it was to install the landing gear. Go figure.
