Oil Tank Door On ROund Cowl

[Bartman1959]

Has anyone cut a door into their round cowl for checking the oil? I've only had my Kitfox 5 for 4 months, and I think it is ridiculous to remove the top cowl every time I need to check the oil.

[DesertFox4]

I’ve seen many oil doors in round cowls through the years. Kitfox Aircraft should have a nice oil door kit available.

[buckchop]

Yeppers, my Yellowfox #0048 has the beautiful round cowl with a hinged door for checkin the 2stroke oil, used a small piano hinge from Lowe's ($2-3) and an extra winged/thumb 1/4 turn latch from an old turtledeck i had. I can get a pic of it if ud like later today. Im going to copy it and do same on my Bluefox #0038 that im almost done building

[Jerrytex]

Easy to do.

I used a cam lock as well to keep it closed.

[Hockeystud87]

Grandpa put one into his cowl. It's a tight fit tho on the Model 4

[Dusty]

Make the access hole big enough to get a good grip on the cap as they can be real tight.I also have a flap for checking water( my spider is back at the firewall)

[HighWing]

Back when I was finishing my first Model IV, I started working with an instructor to clear the cobwebs after not flying for close to 20 years. The airplane of choice was a Citabria. In the pre-flight check list it said something like this - Check oil and check for any damaged or unsecured wiring. I found this curious as I was looking through a 7 X 7 inch door. Soon to be flying an airplane I built myself, I decided I needed a bit bigger view of the engine compartment so I didn't put a door in. In the ten years, the only thing I discovered between annuals was the breaking of one of the stainless steel legs that supported the ignition modules.

[Slyfox]

i too would like to put in an oil door. but for now what I do is unhook the left side and lift up the cowl, check the oil and put the cowl back down and rehook the fasteners on the left side. not too bad really. never take the cowl all the way off.

[P Morel]

I made my own access door just like all the other builders. It was much easier than what I thought it would be. PM me for the instructions that I used.

[THRC12]

I have pretty much decided not to add a door to my model 4 round cowl. When I check the oil, I'm also checking as much as I can see around the engine, exhaust, etc so I just became content with removing the top cowl. As much as I fly it makes sense to me to be able to visualy check everything I can. I usually remove the top cowl after a lot of flying any way to check for anything needed to fix before Flying again. Nothing ruins a great flying day than finding something you previously didn't know about. Of course it's worse to find it out after takeoff!!! 😀

[Bartman1959]

Those are some pretty good looking doors you guys installed. Thanks.

[PapuaPilot]

I cut mine out of the cowl too.

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[Bartman1959]

That's a really good job Phil. Thanks.