FFS. I need a new hobby.

iamtheari said:
Regardless of intent, I think Zeldman’s dad did a great job of giving him a story or two to share with the next generation and keep his memory alive. I guess I need to go buy an old barn.
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My dad's version of that is he had the fire department come out and burn down the old barn. I should have him send me a photo of it burning it was quite impressive.
Afterwards he paid my 2 nieces a dollar a pound to go out with magnets and pick up all the nails from it. He didn't expect them to pick up nearly 300lbs of nails:)!

Brian
 
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This reminds me of a YT show. LR Time. German couple work on their Land Rovers. He makes his own tools and measures things down to microns. They are entertaining and informative. Reading the posts made me think of them. Carry on
 
Racerx said:
@AlphaPilotFlyer

Care to chime in here?
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i will but will keep it short as I don't like diverting threads off original subject

first off. any one who says one can never certify a non-certied/ experimental category component or an auto conversion engine is ignorant and has no knowledge of FAA or EASA certification basis ... plenty have crossed over, such as Dynon EFIS being "certified " for Cessnas, and Continental diesel engines being MB car engines. And will likely see more after the part 23 rewrite allowing for wider performance based methods to demonstrate compliance.

in fact, such items used in EXP or even other industries (such as likely 100's of million MB car engines in service over decades), may likely support the cert effort by performing a statistical analysis of over all reliability in those non-aircraft applications; think about the numbers of GM V8 LS engines around the world over last deccade in everything from Corvettes to trucks to boats.... this produces a lot of what's called service history.....This could significantly reduce cert time and cost...especially if those industries use any standard such as SAE or DOT requiring standards and tracking of problems and lot #'s, typically used for white paper/service bulletins or recalls.

hope this helps the conversation.
 
All my parts showed up yesterday, so I'm making forward progress again. Saw this sign taped to the door of the old engine shop where I'm working. Thought it was worth sharing. Makes me feel a little better about all these recent delays, even though it's not my signature on the logbook entry (yet).

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^that is an awesome philosophy.
 
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Jim K said:
All my parts showed up yesterday, so I'm making forward progress again. Saw this sign taped to the door of the old engine shop where I'm working. Thought it was worth sharing. Makes me feel a little better about all these recent delays, even though it's not my signature on the logbook entry (yet).

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So, is it running yet? :)
 
Now you're gonna have to paint the plane to match the engine. And start a new thread when that gets delayed.
 
Jim K said:
There was something like .0003 clearance at the tight spot, assuming I can measure that precisely, which i probably can't with a bore gauge transferring the measurement to a micrometer. The spec is .0008-.0038 iirc. The oor must've been more like .003, because the largest measurement was still within that spec.

And now it's UPS ****ing me:
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The things with 3 zeros after the decimal point are spooky to me. Reminds me of fitting things in a handgun, where some guys would use a dry erase marker to measure clearance. They discovered by accident that the different colors had different thicknesses...black being thickest I think. So it would transfer or rub off where red would not.

Just random bits of things that popped into my memory.

Glad you're making progress again!
 
Closing in on it. Measured dry tappet clearance and ordered the necessary pushrods. Found another bad drain back tube... that's 50%... no wonder my belly was so oily. Anyway, ordered that too. That stuff and the fuel injection lines are the last (first?) parts that I took off.

Pushrod tubes were a *****. I finally drilled a 3/4" hole through a block of wood, and then split the block through the length of the hole, which made a clamp i could grab them with using water pump pliers. I found reference to a Lycoming special tool (st-489.... list price ~$2500), but was unable to find any image or instructions for it. Would love to know if there's a better way....

Looking pretty sexy, if i do say so myself:

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What caused the pushrod tubes to be a problem?
 
kyleb said:
What caused the pushrod tubes to be a problem?
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New seals and new springs just made them super tight and hard to twist into place. This design uses a ramp on the tube that' turns against a sheet metal spring that forces the tube up against the head seal while simultaneously compressing the block side seal against a washer. Here's a photo of one I buggered up a little before I touched it up:

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How you get the engine off the stand when done without dropping?
 
It really does make me unconfortable seeing it on that stand (especially knowing I built it...). It's stable, but that's a lot of money balanced up there.

Actually the thing is shockingly heavy. Just the case and crank was all i could handle when we stood it up on the stand, although the other guys did say i had most of it. Plan is to bring the engine hoist down to lift it and back their utv into the double doors. The stand has casters, but the engine is heavy enough they don't roll well and pushing it over is a very real risk. The tricky part of course is going from vertical to horizontal, but i think with a load leveler it will be doable.
 
If you move it on the stand, apply the force at the floor level, and horizontal. A cable come along would be best, no fast moves with them.

Pushing or pulling at the engine level is dangerous. If the caster hits a crack, easily goes over.

Beautiful engine!
 
What's the blue paint on the cylinders?
 
That's beautiful. Now I don't know if I should build an RV or find a used core and start building a motor. Great work !!
 
So usps definitely lost my Spruce order. Never again. This was supposed to be priority mail. Spruce handed it off Monday. I could've walked up there and got it by now.

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I’ll let you know when it shows up here. With the USPS, it’s as likely to find its way into my PO Box as is my own mail.
 
I wish Spruce was closer to DPA. Luckily they're not far from the bobcat branch down there. They're a tenant of dads so I just call up my buddy to see if he's at the West Chicago branch if I really need something.
 
Racerx said:
I wish Spruce was closer to DPA. Luckily they're not far from the bobcat branch down there. They're a tenant of dads so I just call up my buddy to see if he's at the West Chicago branch if I really need something.
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that would be brilliant. i bet they'd get a boost in sales too. heck, half of the terminal building is still empty, they should move into there
 
I totally agree that USPS needs work on their Priority Mail system--very frustrating. I ordered a Valve Wizard valve spring compressor tool from Arkansas, to be delivered to me in California. It was supposed to be a four day delivery, but it took 7.

I've attached my package's circuitous tracking information as an attached image (read from bottom to top). I didn't get a screenshot of its last bit of travel which got it from Colorado to Oakland, CA, and then to my home. The package revisited the same states multiple times, and made long distance trips in short time periods.

My question is, did the package ever visit the places listed in the tracking information, or was it just stuck in AR for a few days and the tracking system made up some stuff? At least I couldn't walk there faster!

Never again with USPS package shipping for me either!
 

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USPS does not provide tracking like UPS and FedEx. The site LOOKS like they do, but they do not.

To get hand to hand tracking from USPS you need to go to Express mail.
 
Jim K said:
So usps definitely lost my Spruce order. Never again. This was supposed to be priority mail. Spruce handed it off Monday. I could've walked up there and got it by now.

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Update:

They found it.

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So seven days to go 147 miles. According to grok, that is approximately the speed of a three-toed sloth, crawling on the ground.

It might get here tomorrow, if it doesn't get lost again. Meanwhile, I re-ordered the parts on Sunday. They had to come from GA this time (Chicago had no stock, for some reason). I selected UPS next day. They arrived yesterday (that's Tuesday, for those of you in the future) and I took them to my mechanic this morning.

In other news, I didn't post about this when I did it last week, but I was proud of it. The inter-cylinder baffles are in decent shape so we're re-using them. One however had a loose part, and it had already been re-riveted. Looking at it, I realized that I now had the tools, skills, and materials on hand to fabricate and rivet a new piece. So I did. :rockon:

IMG_20250306_193005076.jpgIMG_20250306_194610500_HDR.jpgIMG_20250306_201725848.jpg

And yes, i painted them all black to match my cylinders.
 
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