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Hi Darick,

Thank you for your great wing mating write-up! It will be great extra help when I get to this point! -Kevin

The panel is as complete as possible without the engine in place. So I started working on the engine this week.
For those AeroVee owners...the outside of the case looks like a moon landscape...lots of ugly casting marks. Paint will hardly cover all that up. Has anyone tried to finish the outside for a nicer look or am I just too overly picky and wasting time? If you did make it look nice, how did you do it?...Dremel tool with wire wheel...sandblast?

I got the preassembled hub option. If your connecting rods come with the "star" type bolt heads, you will need a 12 point 11mm socket.
Also there is a way to check the connecting rod bearing clearance with "plastigage", as mentioned in the assembly manual that refers to Tom Wilson's VW engine repair book. Mine were all fine but I wondered what you would do if the clearance was out of tolerance.(?)

Just remember all those ugly pits and peaks in the surface increase the surface area of the case. More surface area = more cooling. It's an airplane engine not a 32 Ford hot rod!

Excellent point! That's enough to change my mind. Thanks!

AeroVee assembly push rod ends....
After cutting to the correct length, the small ball ends must be pushed in. Mine had a LOT of interference and would not go in even when the tube was heated with a heat gun. I solved this finally by sanding down the part of the ball end that gets inserted into the push tube, as the first step.

150 grit, slowest drill press speed, for 2 minutes


The second step was to increase the push rod ID by running a 5/16 drill into the end and then sanding a little at a time until the ball end would go in about half way.






Test fit before heating, Ball will slip in half way...


Finally, the tube was heated with a heat gun, ball inserted, then tapped in....


Remember to clean out the tube before tapping in the ball end, much like you would clean out a gun barrel, throughly!

Engine is on the plane!
Next step is wiring the ignition and MGL E1 engine monitor.
Flying goal is first quarter of 2017.

Trying to keep up with Bryan's high standards, I've decided to carve my prop too. It will need a small weight on the short end.

Ok I admit it. I'm not carving my prop. This "torque reaction arm" was how I kept the crank from rotating while I torqued the gland nut.

The only wires remaining to be hooked up are CHT and EGT.

Rather than add a separate deflector to the bottom mount oil baffle I just cut out the opening on just three sides then bent up. It took a lot of trial fitting and cutting but I like the way it turned out.