Greetings,

 

Thanks to all who pointed out (and correctly so) that I'm an idiot :-)  

 

OK, so the oil was meant to come back to the lower port that I can’t get the fitting on.  On engines without this port, such as shown here - http://www.kgarden.com/cozy/engparts.htm   where would the oil return from the cooler?  I’m wondering if maybe there’s another port that’s plugged, though I know that’s a long shot.

 

I’ll look further into my options for getting that fitting in place.  I should never have used AN12 fittings for the oil cooler and filter.  They seem way bigger than necessary, and are certainly contributing to the problem here.  An AN8, or maybe an AN10 would fit over the mount bolt, but unfortunately, it looks like there’s relative motion between the mount bolt and the engine.  In other words, it has to have some clearance, and not just barely fit.  There’s also the possibility of modifying the mount to provide more clearance, and I’ll talk to Fred about that.  Unfortunately, the engine is wrapped in plastic, inside the cowl, and the cowl is covered in Great Stuff foam at the moment.  It will be days (if I’m lucky) before I see the engine again.

 

Attached is a pic of what used to be the oil filter boss. I can’t say I really understand what Bruce did internally.  It seems like you can’t just plug these without blocking the flow, so I wonder if he didn’t connect them internally somehow.  If so, maybe the two ports combined would be adequate to return the oil from the cooler?  There’s always the oil pressure port to consider as well. This may be a call to Bruce at some point. 

 

Thanks again,

Rusty