Also, for my information, I would be interested in the volume of your plenum as well as the length and diameter of the hoses from plenum to throttle body.

 

 

Thanks to Tommy, and Ed for the comments. 

 

Ed, I've made a note to verify the sceet tubing length, though I can give a pretty good estimate of 9" from the TB to the plenum.   The sceet is 1.75" ID.  The TB is 15" from the face of the iron housing port.  The plenum itself started as a rectangular block of foam, 8" front to rear, 5" left to right, and 3" top to bottom.  The front side was angled off 45 degrees downward, as you can see in the pics.  The rear, right corner was rounded, also as you can see.  That was the only real shaping, aside from generally rounding the corners that didn't have flanges attached.  BTW, Spruce sells handy aluminum flanges in just about any size you want. 

 

I managed a brief flight today, and established some important fact, such as where the water comes in when it's raining (pretty much everywhere, since I haven't put any weather-stripping on the canopy), and the best position for a drain hole in my oil cooler scoop (big puddle of water in there).  It was the typical FL Summer day, with a few scattered showers around, but it looked fine for a local flight.  As I taxied out, there were a few drops of rain, and I could see a dark cloud, but no lightning or wind to speak of.  I proceeded to take off, and the rain got harder until I could turn to the East.  This silly cloud was sitting right over the airport, but I could also see some heavy rain approaching, so after a few laps, I decided to land before it got much worse.  On descent, the engine was rich, since I haven't done anything with the dual MAP, but I didn't fiddle with it much, since it was still running OK, and I was at pattern altitude in what was now fairly heavy rain.  The landing was uneventful, but the rain really started to come down as I taxied back to the hanger.  

 

There's a lot of debate between RV guys about canopy types, tip up, tip over, or sliders, but one thing's common to all, if you get in or out in the rain, you, and the inside of the plane are going to get wet.  Of course I was wearing the chute today, so it's a little harder to get in and out, so it's soaked now too.  The tropical storm type rain was still going on about an hour later, so I just left.  

 

So, how was the climb you ask.  Naturally, it wasn't an extensive test, but with full fuel, and rain if that counts for anything, I saw an easy 1500 fpm at 5250 rpm, and 120 mph.  I'm sure I could have got more out of it, but I just didn't have time to do any real testing.  Even from this brief flight, I'm convinced that all is well  with this intake, and aside from some more tuning, I'll be in good shape for Rev-3 (C drive and monster prop).   

 

Cheers,

Rusty (a little soggy)