Zenith Aircraft Builders and Flyers
Online Community of Zenith Builders and Flyers
Update
Sorry I haven't posted lately but this has been a crazy year. But I guess that's not news to any of you.
Anyway, I did decide to go with the AM 15 engine. As I mentioned in my first post, my Jabiru 2200 engine failed me while on a trip about 400 miles from home. Rather than rebuild the engine which has given me nothing but trouble since day one, I decided to install a new engine. I did decide on the Aeromomentum AM 15. I went all-in with the complete installation package except for the cowl. The mechanic that's doing the work for me feels he will be able to use the original cowl. The engine arrived the first week of October along with the other firewall-forward components minus the prop. Delivery was right at the stated 60 day lead time. The prop was backordered and it looked like several months before it would arrive. As a "Hail Mary" I called Mark and asked if he was aware of any other customers that might have ordered the prop I need who may not be requiring it for a while. Maybe we could arrange a trade. While we were talking Mark said he was initially unaware of anyone but in the background I could hear Lili say she might be able to help. Mark said he'd call back in a while and let me know. About 15 minutes later he called back and said they had contacted another of their customers and made arrangements for him to ship me his prop in exchange for future delivery of my prop to him. This was all at no cost to me!! Now that's what I call customer service.
Current status is that the installation could be complete by mid-January if all goes well. I will take numerous pictures of the installation when complete and report on the initial test flights. The plane is in Wisconsin so flights in January may be iffy. Might have to wait until warmer weather arrives. If all goes well I will also share the name of the shop doing the installation.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Perreau on
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Sounds like a good option the heat shield should work specially if you wrap the headers as well.
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Permalink Reply by John "Allen" Walker on
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Were you airborne when this happened?
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Permalink Reply by Mike Brenner on
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Sorry I didn't reply sooner John. Don't know how I missed your message. Just noticed it today. I don't check this thread regularly, to say the least.
Anyway, I don't really know if this meltdown occurred while I was airborne or if it happened after shutdown with the heat trapped under the cowl combined with the radiant heat still coming off the header pipes. I'm inclined to believe it was the latter. There was no indication of a voltage drop while I was airborne. I wrapped heat shield on the header where it's closest to the battery. In addition, I've fully shielded the battery with fins going upward and downward from the battery retaining strap. I've also added a pair of louvered strips on the top of the cowl. Now, at shutdown I can feel the heat pouring out of those louvers and during flight the coolant is running below 200 degrees. The louver fins are angled aft so they pull air through the interior of the cowl and discharge it rearward. The cowl itself now feels warm at shutdown rather than extremely hot as before. I think I've finally got this solved. We'll see if things still look good once the summer temps arrive.
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