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1. Used the early RV-4 FP prop cowl (40" FW to prop
flange) which is about 1.5" longer than current version
2. Used the RX-5 Cosmo oil cooler which is shorter
but wider than the RX-7 cooler, and has ports more conveniently located than the
RX-7 cooler. It was a gift from my brother Barry who owned the RX-5 donor
car.
Thanks
Tracy. That certainly takes the mystery out of it. I originally
had the RV-3 cowl (they're now the same, but you trim the RV-3 shorter), and
Fred made the mount so the prop would end up where the Lycoming would
have been on the stock mount. When I replaced the cowl, I got the
universal RV-3/-4 cowl, and decided to leave it full length, rather than
trimming it several inches to make it the same as the original RV-3
cowl. I made up the difference with a very nice Saber prop hub
extension. If you have the same length cowl, and no prop extension, then
your engine is several inches farther from the FW than mine. I just
made a note to measure my FW to prop flange distance, so that will confirm
it.
I
would love to put the cooler under the engine like Finn has it, but there's
just no way with my exhaust in the way. I'm pretty happy with the exhaust
system, so I don't plan to change that, which means I have to come up with
another solution.
-I
could easily fit one of the FD coolers, but I don't think that would be big
enough.
-I
could possibly fit an oil to water heat exchanger, and use the original oil
cooler location for a 3rd water cooler. Don't care too much for this idea,
mostly due to the extra weight, and complexity of hoses. Also, I'd still
have to worry about bursting the oil cooler on the exchanger unless I knew
is was robust enough.
-I
could use a stock 2nd gen cooler, and let the back end dip under the
exhaust pipes. This would drop the rear edge of the cowl a few
inches, which would add some drag. On the other hand, it would block
some high speed air from hitting the muffler, and add to the cooling exit
area. Another downside is that it's still putting the oil cooler
very close to, and directly in front of the
exhaust.
-Finally, I could find another type of oil cooler, which would be closer
to the size of the evap core. In the old archives, Mike Wills
mentioned Fluidyne. I had one of their radiators in my FD, and it was very
well built. Here's a link to the oil cooler family I'm thinking
about. They look pretty good to me. What do you
think? http://www.fluidyne.com/pl_theoc.html
Thanks,
Rusty
(waiting for a giant estimate for replacing my dead heat
pump)
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