Reinstalled the coolant elbow and hose. Refilled the coolant and test ran the engine. No leaks detected! Score!
I then turned to working on this tailcone fairing again....
I sorta followed the KAI's by cutting and fitting the two parts of the fairing together and drilling the screw holes that will hold them together.
I then used my nutplate jig to drill for the nutplate mounting rivet holes.
And installed the nutplates. Hopefully my days of installing new nutplates are about done. There must be a million of these things in these airplanes.
I then countersunk the screw holes for the flush #6 screws.
Put the two parts on the airplane and screwed them together. This starts to show just how much of a blast fitting this thing is going to be! I decided to go ahead and rough cut the slot out for the AST/Trim tab pushrod. Not sure how one could wait longer to do this and get everything centered.
Just be aware that the directions are kinda wonky, the scribe lines are wonky, and the mold seams are not in the center of these parts. It takes a ton of put it on and mark stuff and take it off and trim iterations. I must have done this a hundred times.
Completed the first engine start today! Only one squawk....coolant leak on the top elbow of the #2 cylinder.
So it appears that these are a two piece assembly where the elbow threads into the flange. The assembly is then sealed to the head by an O'ring.
The straight fine threads on the elbow and the flange are sealed with Loctite 577 from the factory. Apparently this was not sealed properly or the elbow was turned at the factory breaking the seal.
There is no way that this should have been missed in the test run for over an hour at the factory. The leak was significant. It is suppose to take allot of heat and force to unscrew this assembly but I was able to just unscrew it with my hands and no heat.
I have cleaned all the parts and have Loctite 577 arriving Monday. Will apply and reseal the assembly while clocking the elbow to its original position. Then it is not to be disturbed for at least 10 hours before reinstall. I will give it longer than that to cure and then reinstall it and try it again.
