Check it out!!! When you put the power to it, it all lights up and beeps. I decided to stay with conventional airspeed since students I'll be flying will probably have one similar to it in in their planes, and it's better to build critical airspeed reflexes that are easy to transfer. I've got to put colored lines on the dual ASI's, but right now I have no idea where the bottom of the green and white arcs are going to be. I'm going to do a throttle under the red mag switches that is similar to ultralight throttles for the same reason; make it similar to what people are going to be flying. Of course, the Cessna purists are going to scoff at a lawnmower throttle, but hey, they can only dream about being able to buy parts at Napa price levels!
Ok, the engine mount is built, the engine bolted on, and the muffler won't fit due to interference with the tube frame. So next, I cut into the muffler and shape a special cutout for it to clear.
But now it's too close to the firewall and I need to have an exhaust elbow made to direct the flow downwards. The firewall is not supposed to have to stop fire on a daily basis. Thanks to Mulligan's muffler shop in Sandy for the free piece of bent pipe! Russ at Finishline Coatings did a great job on the my Thundergull's pipes that lasted for 3.5 years. It looked as good the day day I sold it as the day he delivered it covered in bright blue. New one is a frosted raspberry (NOT PINK!!!) and is semi-gloss. I'll match some fuselage color stripes to it for a splash of color.
I decided to get the prop ordered. A Powerfin "F" blade was called for due to the 100 HP output of this monster engine. But I didn't have enough prop clearance, so I had to raise the entire engine by about 4". Check out the steel mount plate under the engine that provides the lift. I added some triagulation too. Not too heavy due to the lightening holes I cut into it, but still, there has got to be a better way.
As you can see, raising the propellor up put in into the center of the R582 cowling's proper place anyway. So I didn't really have to cut all that fiberglass down below. If I'd know that I was going to end up hanging the radiator down there I would have ordered the 912 cowl that already had the radiator scoop on the bottom. Check out the cool dragster engine out the hood look. If the water pump belt had only been put on the front of the engine instead of the back it would have looked even better!
The exhaust system freshly ceramic coated. For those that remember, the Thundergull has the bright blue coating, which held up perfectly up until I sold the plane. This time, the blue was not available, so I went this frosted raspberry color. Pretty cool.
Working on finishing up engine installation!!!