Project 5 build thread

[Geek]

Nice work on the plumbing Alex!! Doesn't look like you were using two left hands at all. Of course you are getting close when I have to go out of town for a week or so. Driving with my daughter who's changing duty stations from Providence RI to Memphis. Keep my beers cold cause I'll figure out a time to come see your work of art after the fact and I'll pretend if you start the engine that it's the first time.

Gary

[alexM]

Nice work on the plumbing Alex!! Doesn't look like you were using two left hands at all. Of course you are getting close when I have to go out of town for a week or so. Driving with my daughter who's changing duty stations from Providence RI to Memphis. Keep my beers cold cause I'll figure out a time to come see your work of art after the fact and I'll pretend if you start the engine that it's the first time.

Gary

Geek,
Family first! I'll squirt some oil in the exhaust when you visit so you get the full effect.

I worked out the throttle cable today. Started on the mixture cable too but stopped when I realized I don't understand how that cross drilled bolt I got with the cable is supposed to work (sure seems like it won't). Pushed that off to tomorrow and worked other items.

Today was the first time I put (partial) battery power to the plane. No smoke, so I'm calling it a win. Tomorrow I'll be firing up at least of of the PFDs along with the engine management.

[alexM]

Tomorrow is the day for first engine start.

Fuel System
Today I pushed the plane over to the gas pump and put 3.5 gallons in each tank. I wanted there to be enough to slosh around and fill up the header tank, and to run the pumps and purge the air, crap and goo - and of course to leak check the system.

After filling both tanks I looked underneath to see if anything was dripping, and it was not. I put away the hose, ladder and ground cable then turned around to see some fuel dripping. Most obvious was the plug on the header tank where the fuel return line would go if I had one. It was finger tight. I cranked it more finger tight, and it almost stopped.

I pushed the plane quickly back over to my hangar where my tools where and left it outside so I could deal with the leaks. One of the last minute changes which slowed me down was that I wanted to replace the sump tank drain with one of the kind you push in and rotate so that it stays "open". I wanted that for two reasons. First, because if I discovered leaks at this stage I wanted to be able to get all the gas out quickly and fix it.
05-01869.jpg
More importantly, in order to fold the wings you are supposed to drain the fuel tanks. What could be easier than draining the entire fuel system from its lowest point? I watched a certain youtuber complain about draining fuel from each wing sump and this just seemed like an easy solution. For the record that's 1/8" NPT , not the 1/4" NPT I ordered the first time around. Curtis CCA-1550 is the part number. Note: There's only one time that you can swap that fitting out, and it's when the system is completely dry. Also, you can't put these on your wing tanks because we have an issue with the doors hitting the sump drains as it is. These would be a real problem up there.

The valve came in super handy today, because I found no less than 6 places that were not completely dry. Besides the unused fuel return line plug, two of the fittings on top of the header tank and one of the fittings to my fuel shut off valve needed to be addressed. All except that plug responded well to just being tightened up a bit.

I drained all of the fuel into a pair of 5 gallon gas cans, but before I did that I performed the task that was the reason for all of this: I ran the both fuel pumps to purge air and anything else in the lines. I did get out some disgusting crap from the fuel pumps but it cleared up after about a quart. My Airflow Performance manual said to run 1/2 to 1 gallon. I ran it just over 1/2 and it was pure 100LL by then, so I stopped.

Then I drained the fuel into the cans. I removed the plug and all three of the lines going into the top of the header tank so I could put that blue goo on the NPT fittings. I let them air dry and reinstalled them. After running the pumps I discovered another fitting (the 6th one) on the forward side of the firewall that I didn't have tight enough.

I removed the temporary fuel line that I had made up to catch all the crappy stuff and reinstalled the line to the fuel servo. I'm quite confident I have a dry fuel system now.

Battery power
Next I decided to make sure my battery was fully charged. I bought it about six months ago and was worried about the charge decaying over time. I had just received a charger from EarthX for the job. In installed the pigtail that will make future charging easy, and hooked up the charger. I was quite surprised when the charger showed better than 75% and only took about 15 minutes before it was completely charged.
I did not want the highlight of my day tomorrow to be pushing the starter button only to hear "R-rr....r".

MGL displays
For a first engine start to be successful I need to be able to watch the oil pressure. I can live without pretty much every other indication for a ground test except for that. Way back in 2021 I messed around with the custom MGL screen design software, aka "the simulator" because it performs the dual function of creating and testing your screen designs. After a steep learning curve I eventually got a set of displays that were about 90% of what I had in mind. My first attempt at installing my custom screens didn't come out great, but at least I could see my oil pressure, and no smoke came out of the MX1.
A couple of weeks ago I took another swing at custom screens, but this time everything clicked and I was able to produce exactly what I had in mind and save those to an SD card.
This evening i was able to update the firmware, update the NAV waypoint database, update the VFR sectional overlays, upload my custom screens AND get the MX1 display to use them! High fives and a beer for the entire crew [me].
PXL_20240107_002047570.jpg
PXL_20240107_002053808.jpg
I need to throw some Kentucky windage at some of the input signals but at this point I'm ready to start the engine.

[Jez]

https://youtu.be/2G1nCaCM23g?si=BbmoySqoA6rxj6XM

Hi Alex, watch this and read the comments. You do not need to empty tanks apparently if you raise the tail.

[Geek]

Best of luck with the engine start today Alex!! I really wanted to be there (mostly to drink your beer that you seem to be bogarting) and hear the beast come to life but not sure I am a full up round just yet. Know it will be awesome with all the great work you have done!!!! Expect video with sound or it didn't happen!!

Quick question on your header tank valve. Are you using the aluminum header tank on your plane? Think it sounds like a great idea and might convert mine over.

Geek

[Eric Page]

Yeah, me too, and I didn't even want to drink your beer! Instead I got to spend 6 hrs 50 min in the Portland airport waiting for a plane to get fixed. So much glamour in this job, I can hardly stand it...

Hope it all went well!

[alexM]

Well I did not start my engine. Not to be confused with "it wouldn't start".

It was raining yesterday morning when I got to my hangar so I decided to keep busy by relocating my brake fluid reservoir, then filling and bleeding the brakes. I had the simple aluminum reservoir located on the aft side of the firewall (per the manual instructions for Lycoming and Continental engine users). That reservoir is held to a fuselage tube with two Adel clamps. I never loved that location because it would make servicing, and therefore condition inspections, more difficult.

In my pile of parts was the nicer looking Grove reservoir, which matched up perfectly to the pre-existing holes on my 912ULS firewall. So I dorked around for 2-3 hours doing all the plumbing. The rain stopped about the time that I filled the system with bubbles and 5606. I wasted way too much time with a Chinese garbage set up for vacuum bleeding and before long I had 5606 in many places it isn't intended to be applied.

As the sun faded away my hangar neighbor came by and offered me the use of his pressure bleeder set up. He humbly described the way it worked and it didn't sound much different than what I was doing, but he dropped it off and went home. It wasn't a pretty contraption but I didn't have much to lose by trying it out. I had never achieved better than about an 80/20 mixture of 5606/air bubbles so I decided to give his version a go.

Ten minutes later I was done. Four rock hard brake pedals and no air. I had used a straight fitting with a piece of brake line out the top of my reservoir to the nearly empty bottle I had poured my 5606 from, so the reservoir was 100% full. I used a syringe to extract just a bit from the top and put the cap on. I put away my tools and vowed that I would return today to run the engine.

Well, today would be the day except it is raining. In another couple of hours I have to drive over the mountains to go to work, and the pass conditions are "chains required except AWD". I'll need to pad my typical travel time by a couple of hours to make sure I get to work on time.

Jez,
Thanks for the link. I'll watch it when able. I'm still a fan of single point de-fueling, so I have no regrets that I waited and installed the sump drain.

Geek,
Yes, I'm rocking the aluminum header tank. Like many parts, my project came with both versions. The plastic version doesn't have a great track record at keeping wet stuff inside, so I sold it to someone who wanted it (and was aware of its reputation).

Eric,
You could have driven home for a nap if you were stuck in PDX that long. Hey at least you have the only civilian job in the world where you can wear epaulets and not be laughed at.

Engine start day has now been postponed until Jan 18. Er, weather permitting.

[Eric Page]

Engine start day has now been postponed until Jan 18. Er, weather permitting.

Fingers crossed -- I'm off that day!

[Geek]

Well I did not start my engine. Not to be confused with "it wouldn't start"...............Well, today would be the day except it is raining. In another couple of hours I have to drive over the mountains to go to work, and the pass conditions are "chains required except AWD". I'll need to pad my typical travel time by a couple of hours to make sure I get to work on time...............

Engine start day has now been postponed until Jan 18. Er, weather permitting.

Hope you made it over the passes last night Alex. We picked up about 12" last night and I heard that both 90 and 2 were nasty at best.

The 18th eh? Might be a player for me too!!

Geek

[alexM]

Lots more to follow. It was a long day.

Now I need to lay in a supply of cold beer and pretend this never happened.