Well, WIXers, it's been a cold and snowy day here in central Indiana, a terrible day for working outside. Luckily for us, we got our outside work done yesterday! It was cold, but not bitterly cold, and light winds and sunshine helped make for a tolerable day as we hung our rebuilt engine on the wing, at last.
We opened the day by wrapping up our last remaining detail work. An item or two needed to be installed on the firewall--easier to work in that area when there's no great big engine in your way--and the starter and generator needed to be bolted to the accessory case. The overhauled starter arrived last Wednesday, and that's all we were waiting for. As soon as it came in, I put the word out, and we all had our fingers crossed, watching the weather. Because when doing an engine hang, we call in resources we don't always have access to, such as Sideshow Ted the heavy-equipment man. Once he commits, we're doing it, whether it's nice outside or not.
There's a view of the whole shebang, hauled outside and waiting for the firewall crew to finish. They (Gaylon the machinist, PJ, and Johnny Gearpin) were putting in the oil cooler shutter actuator.
There you see Gaylon working from the forward side, and the feet of PJ protruding from the gear well. She's in there putting the nuts on the attachment bolts. Some jobs just call for a tiny person, and for this sort of thing, PJ's frequently elected.
When it's time to safety the damnably inaccessible motor-attachment bolts, nobody's better than ol' Johnny Gearpin. He's a fellow who's always in a good humor, even when the rest of the crew is standing around suggesting that he hurry up and get the lead out already, 'cause we don't have all day, you know ... (but in a humorous way, 'cause darned if I want to do those bolts!)
And with that, it's on to what we've all been waiting for, since months ago ...
Here we are with the hoisting gear all attached to the engine. Having done this before, we know that getting that engine aligned just so is the key to getting the engine-mount bolts in place. It can be a damnable wrestling match. This time, we went with a three-point suspension (prop shaft and the two upper engine-mount legs), as shown in the book, but with a chain hoist on the prop shaft and another chain hoist on one gear leg. This gave us the ability to fine-tune the engine position in both pitch and roll. Still was a festival of frustration and difficulty, but really, far less so than in previous outings. I think this was a good way to do it.
Back to the camera is Hot Rod Steve, our rigger. He does that sort of thing for a living, and supplied the certified chains and hoists. He's wearing his brand-new carharts, which proved to be windproof both inside and out. A consumer report from ol' Steve: if, like him, you eat the burritos the night before, you've gotta make sure you have a good neck-seal. Because when you let go with the gaseous byproducts, it's got nowhere to come out but at the neck, and ... uh, eww. On the other hand, if you seal 'er up, you may end up inflating the suit like the Michelin Man.
And here we go: the engine's in the air and off the maintenance stand, and there's nowhere to go from here but up ...
Yep, keep it coming, slowly but surely. You've got to take your time here, because that engine assembly weighs in at a whole ton. Lots of mass and inertia there, and if you get in a hurry, something's liable to get broken, or worse, someone's liable to get hurt. We have never lost a finger yet, though!
And now we're really getting close. Lots of fiddling with the hoists, and one instance of backing out and coming in again, because if the engine's alignment is even a degree or two off, those lugs will just refuse to line up. No amount of wrestling with it will do; those bolts and the holes they go in are close tolerance, and you've either got it dialed in, or you don't.
Here's the perspective of one of the bolt installers, lower outboard lug. It's coming into alignment. Notice that Johnny Gearpin, there, is keeping his hands out of danger, and doesn't get himself underneath the engine. We've never dropped an engine, but you just never know. I worry myself sick over this stuff, and don't sleep very well the night before an engine hang. Somebody getting hurt would be the worst possible outcome.
And here's the view from the other side. Oh, we're close, and when this was taken, three of the four forks were coming onto their mating lugs. But look at that outboard one--it will never go together like that. The engine's longitudinal alignment was pointed just the tiniest bit too much inboard, and it is weird, how that screws up the whole works. This is where we backed it out a few feet and came in again.
And then first one bolt tapped through its hole, and then a second, and before you know it, all of them are at least partially in there. Once you've got that, you're golden. Three of the four bolts can, with patience, be tapped into place with a hammer and a big punch. The one under the exhaust pipe has too much stuff in the way for that, but enough threads can be exposed to get a nut started, and then you can draw it the rest of the way through.
Then you torque 'em down to book value (250 ft-lb) and pin 'em, and that is that. All that's left is to get your cold, tired, but happy crew up on the wing for the commemorative picture:
We still have all the hooking-up to do, and the oil cooler has to be installed, and the prop. But the big heavy work is done, and that engine is sitting there right now, cowlings all installed, buttoned up and weather-tight. She looks so much better with engines on both sides!
We'll get the prop on next weekend, weather permitting, and I expect that we'll be running this engine within a month. That'll be a great day, you know it!
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Crew doesn't look bad either...want to see her run! Best of luck
