Thunderbolt IO-540 in a RV-10

With the engine out of the box (beautiful job on packing by the way) I was able to start seeing how this was going to fit in the RV-10. Putting a IO-540 in a 10 is not new by any means, but there are a couple of differences in my Thunderbolt build over the standard IO-540. Mainly, this engine was built closer to the specs of Red Bull setup rather than the stock balanced setup.


The first hiccup were the mounting ears. I had pulled out the dynafocal mounts and something didn't seem quite right. After a bit of research I found out that there are two sizes the large hole 19770 mounting ears are typically used on the 300 Extra and the Rockets. Unfortunately, the RV-10 engine mount is setup for the small hole 70456 mounting ears. In all honesty, I figured this was my problem and I was about to purchase a set on e-bay when I had sent Thunderbolt (Jeff Schans) and email with my situation. I sent that message late on Saturday and received an immediate response saying that they would get a new set of small hole ears color matched and sent out ASAP. Hurray!

Those came to my house within a couple of days and solved problem number 1!



Problem number two I was expecting, but I was not sure if it was going to be true or not until I got my mounting ears in place and the mount up next to the engine. I ordered this engine with the cold air induction. This cold air setup is again, off of the Red Bull series planes and can be found on the AEIO-540-L1B5. From a dimensions standpoint it looks a bit like the BPE setup. As you probably know, the BPE setup needs a modification to be performed on the engine mount in order to clear the sump. The Thunderbolt has similar clearance requirements.


With the top mounts in place, the oil screen boss *ALMOST* clears the engine mount. In all honesty, I did not try putting the lower mounts in first and then the top mounts to see if everything was going to clear. It may have, but when I saw this, I decided to just go ahead and lower the bar.




I had been expecting this, so a couple of weeks ago I had purchased a pre-bent bar from BPE.


If I were to do this again, I would probably the bar just a little further. Everything looks good, but there is no reason with the mount off of the fuselage at this point to not weld something in that should be compatible with other setups.


That is it for now. I just placed an order for the PlanePower vacuum pad mount alternator and a B&C oil filter spacer and adapter. Hopefully that will be the next post to detail how the rear of the engine looks with some of the accessories installed.

Thunderbolt YIO-540-EXP43

While the engine is off of the plane and none of the accessories are mounted I figured it would be a good time to take some photos of the engine. This is a YIO-540-EXP with the cold air induction off of the AEIO-540.



I had Thunderbolt remove the magnetos because I wanted to put in electronic ignition and there was no reason to pay for something that I was going to take out right away.


I will admit, I was not expecting this to be in the order. A FM-300R was a nice surprise. This is their light weight high flow unit with adjustable main jet, used on race planes (it was designed for the Red Bull race series). It makes sense, because I ended up getting a lower compression Red Bull engine from Thunderbolt... I talked a bit with Airflow if I should be running a 300R in a plane that I want to just turn the key and start after getting crabcakes in Tangier and here was Don's succinct response.  "The FM-300R is the Mac Daddy of our fuel control line.  I don't really know why you would want to switch from the FM-300R to a FM-300A.  If you are after the purge valve function you can just add the purge valve to your flow divider, of course your will need to install a return line to one of the tank feed lines and install a push-lock cable in the cockpit to operate the purge valve.  With the FM-300A you would need to use the purge valve for stopping and starting the engine (The mixture control valve is a rotary valve therefore ICO is not zero leak although it does give you the added ability to circulate fuel through the fuel injection system to purge hot fuel and vapor from the engine before starting).   The FM-300R has a different designed mixture control valve which is zero leak so the purge valve is not required for starting and stopping the engine."



Hartzel 200F-5002 Fuel Pump


The engine came with the large hole 19770 mounting ears and Thunderbolt quickly shipped me a new set of small ear 70456 models that work with the dynafocal mounts that we use in our RV-10s.


API Flow divider


Sky Tech Starter




Fly wheel and mounting boss


Chrome Rocker Box Covers


Cold Air Induction

Getting legs

I finally got to the point where I was far enough to get the plane up onto the table in order to get the gear under it. I have been putting this off because of the order in which I needed things done. The first thing that I wanted to do was get the engine. With the engine I was able to check to see if the engine mount interfered with the engine sump. I wanted to do this while the mount was not on the plane so I could weld with everything on the table.


The mount was touching the sump screen, so I decided to lower it just like the BPE setup. In fact, I just ordered the bent pipe from Rhonda at BPE



 Everything fit-up right before TIG welding everything in place. With the engine mount modification complete I was able to paint everything and re-install the mount. The mount is a good lifting point to attach the engine hoist to. In total, I had 3 points to lift the plane and this was solid enough that I ended up doing this by myself (not recommended). On the back of the plane I put the tail on a step stool. In the middle of the plane at just aft of the baggage door I put a 4-inch strap connected to the garage rafters via heavy duty ratchet straps. On the front of the plane I used the engine hoist connected to some 48-inch (double arm length) runners. On top of that I put one more strap mid-fuselage for a fail-safe.

Low-Profile Door Handles

Yesterday I started the install on the low profile door handles that I ordered from aerosport products. A couple of weeks ago I started work on the vans hardware that is integrated into the low profile handle. Everything was pretty straight forward, but I did run into a problem when I tried fitting the gears to the main cylinders. The major issue was that they did not fit. I chucked up the main gear as well as the cylinder and hit them with emory cloth, but that was not good enough as when I put them on the arbor press I had a feeling I was never going to get them off. Additionally, the cylinder has a roll pin that needs to go through it as well as the gear. If these things are too tight, well, good luck...

Unfortunately I do not have a lathe (not yet!). I do however have a mill, and a boring head setup. I put some spare 3/4" aluminum into the vice and bored a hole (half way through the plate) slightly larger than the cylinder. This allowed me to put a wrap of electrical tape around the cylinder so I did not destroy it.



From there, I locked the bed into place to save the center point and then dialed the boring head to just scratch the interior dimension of the handle cylinder. I was able to take off a couple of thousands at a time until I got a nice snug fit between the door cylinder and the gear.


Done!

Door Strut: Making a drill guide

The aftermarket door strut brackets that accept the McMaster seals are really well designed and look great, however they have a lot of angles to deal with during the installation. Additionally, the cabin top also have a lot of fillets to work around. If those angles are not followed exactly, you will never get the screws to line up unless you oversize the holes. To aid in this task I decided to make a (2 time use) drill guide to get all of the holes in alignment. I say 2-time use, because I did not have the patience to wait for mcmaster to send me a tool hardened drill guide so I sacrificed a #10 screw to make a set of #40 pilot holes in the cabin top.

Getting the bracket and screw in alignment.
 


Taking off the screw head and finding the screw center.



Putting a #41 hole through the center.


Thankfully everything was tramed and came out center.


Drill guide in use.


Don't mind the positioning of the actual bracket, there is still some fiberglass to take off of the edge.

Beringer brake assembly

Today was a cold rainy day, so Mackenzie and I sat by the fire and assembled the Beringer brakes.



Everything went together as expected with the exception of a part number labeled AV-VANS-016. This appears to be a wheel fairing bracket spacer, but it was neither in the install instructions nor does it appear to fit anywhere logical. It is the same height as the standard spacers but the spacers do not step down in hole size in order to accept the caliper assembly the way that the AV-VANS-013A spacers do (leaving a lot of play in the caliper to AN-4 bolt).

*Edit: There are new assembly instructions on the web, which call out the usage of AV-VANS-016 rather than AV-VANS-013A. I have to give them a call on this one. The AV-VANS-016 look good, and are I am guessing the preferred install as they give more support to the wheel fairing (a known problem). However, the AV-VANS-013 have a turn down on them adapt the caliper hole size to the AN-4 hardware. 

Engine Arrival

I owe so many posts that still need to be edited, but this one is quick and easy. The Engine is here! I ended up going with a Thunderbolt. They were a dream to work with. I will post more as I get it opened and mounted.