Engine Installation - Part II

 While I was waiting / saving for the engine, I planned ahead on component mounting, firewall layout, etc.  The bad news is almost everything I planned had some kind of issue.  The ECU is not exception.

My original plan was to mount the ECU on the right hand side of the 'shelf', forward.  Well, the cannon plugs and wiring is to large to fit under the right side avionics tray.

Original plan

New plan

I turned the ECU 180 degrees, and moved it aft about 3".  This was easy, except the UL aux box is mounted under the shelf with captive fasteners on top.  Made a quick drill guide and done done.

The current top of mind issue is the firewall passthrough.  The wire bundle is ~0.85" across, but the connector is just shy of 2" in diameter.  So you need a 2" hole to get the connector through as the engine is prewired.

Talked to the US distributor, and a local gent that has a UL on a zenith.  Consensus is to make 2 C shaped pieces that interlock and cover the 3" hole, and leave 1" for the wires.

My last attempt at cutting stainless was poor, so I checked out SendCutSend.  I very quickly designed a part (using their standard parts catalog) that would do the job.

Minimum order is $29, so I ordered qty 14.  Each of these will be cut so they overlap.  Total of $32 USD including tax and shipping (to my US post box).  

Ordered Saturday, production started on Monday morning.  Looked like they were going to ship on Monday, but then their progress meter got stuck at 60%, and the estimated ship date went to 4 days later.  Guessing they are out of material or something like that.

Parts received.

I cut 2 disks into C's, and split the firewall passthrough in half and assembled the whole thing.

Works as intended.

Next steps:

1. Plan out engine wiring integration.  John Wood told me about this pretty good free / open source software called QElectroTech.  So far I am quite impressed.

2. Cowling.  Need to get this done before the weather turns cold.  Ideally I am waiting for the prop to arrive so line up the spinner.

3.  And a lot of everything else...