I’ve decided to mount the 10611R oil cooler on the firewall just above where the nose gear bolts to the engine mount. Here are my reasons for doing so: 1) It doesn’t shake like a wet dog. 2) Exhaust dumps directly into cowl outlet. 3) I’ve got room to build a diffuser on top. 4) I can use 4″ duct in this location. 5) I can pull air from behind #3 OR #4 cylinder. 6) It’s almost one foot further back than the baffle location, helping with CG. 7) Making the baffles just got easier.
Negatives are; 1) when I drain the oil I will not be able to drain the oil that is in the oil cooler as it’s lower than the engine oil input. 2) I will have to slightly re-route the fuel line from boost pump to engine pump. 3) I will need custom oil lines as I doubt that Vans standard lengths will work
I’m using two pieces of angle with vans standard 6061 tubing between the ears (and washers too). These two angles will have two #4 bolts in each holding securely to the firewall. I’ve already pilot drilled those as you can see. I may end up putting something at the front of the cooler and tying that to the engine mount somehow. This thing get’s heavy when there’s oil in it.
Here I have drilled the lower angle to the firewall with #40 drill bit in two places. Looks strange but the cooler is higher than the nose gear bold by more than 1/4″.
Back side of the firewall. The #4 bolt heads will not interfere with the brake fluid reservoirs. The angles holding the oil cooler will get #4 nutplates so the bolts will be inserted from the aft side, keeping the inside uncluttered and removal should be painless via access through the baggage door.
Here are the half round dowels I bought from the dollhouse manufacturer.
And these will be used to create the bull nose on the canopy bulkheads. These get glassed on with flox and will get two or more layers of fiberglass to retain the wood and stiffen up each bulkhead. This is significantly easier than building out this area with micro and/or flox.
