leadsledfan
New member
Well, I made it through my first Annual on my 1957 Cruisemaster. I was expecting some squawks, as with any new airplane, but was overall pretty happy with the outcome. I took my time and really went through the bird with a fine tooth comb, and was pleasantly surprised on most of what I found. Here is what I ended up fixing or replacing:
First off, I decided to convert to an Alternator from my Generator. This took most of my time (25+ Hours). If interested in this process, see my other post that goes into further detail.
Engine Mounts:
My front engine mounts were crap, 20+ years old, sagging onto the cradle, and sagging enough that the oil pan rubbed against the Airbox. It turns out you have to pull the engine forward to install the Alternator, so I decided to replace all 4 engine mounts as well. Four Lord mounts came out to $914. Not cheap. Also, aligning the new mounts *Perfectly*, sliding in a washer, and finally getting the mounting bolt in takes patience and a big screwdriver.
Result: Engine no longer sags, and I noticed a HUGE difference in how smooth the engine feels.
Intake Seals:
My intake seals were also similarly worn out, and several were very obviously leaking. You have to pull the engine mounts to get to the Alternator, and you have to pull at least 1 intake tube to get to the Engine Mounts. I decided to go ahead and replace all the seals and gaskets. As I was unbolting the Intake tubes, I found 4-5 bolts that were barely finger tight. The back right bolt on each tube is very difficult to get to properly (Requires a swivel and rocker extension) and I guess whoever installed them last didn't get them properly torqued. I am sure that intake leaks were in abundance. Once re-installed, I noticed a much smoother idle. Maybe it was partly the engine mounts, but I am guessing that I also likely sealed up some old intake leaks. The seals are $24 each and you need 10, so $240. OR you can but a complete overhaul gasket kit made by the same company, that includes all of the intake seals and intake gaskets, for $260. Seemed like a no brainer to me.
Intake Seal Heat Shields:
I had 1. 1 single remaining heat shield out of 6, and it was barely hanging on. The other 5 had come loose of the single rivet and were long gone. Luckily, the mounts were still strapped under the intake seal worm clamps.
I made 6 new Heat shields out of Slightly thicker .035 Stainless sheet. I also made them slightly larger as to cover the entire Intake Seal. Hopefully this will give me a little more time before the seals wear out. My IA thought it was a good idea so 8)
Engine Pre-Heat:
I am moving to the northeast (Williamstown, MA) in the fall, where they actually have seasons, and a real winter, so I figured installing at least a sump heater was a good bet. The sump heater was actually fairly inexpensive ($175) and install was a breeze. You just clean the oil pan well, scratch it lightly with fine sandpaper where you are going to install, squeeze some aluminum RTV onto the pad, and clamp to the oil pan for 30 minutes. This was made even easier by the lack of intake tubes etc blocking the way. A worthwhile investment in my opinion.
Baffling:
Holy crap. I don't even know where to begin. The baffling on my bird was at best, worn out crap, and at worst, non-existent. (Talking about the rubber baffling, not the aluminum). The rubber along the top baffle looked like old heater hose shielding, and didn't even touch the cowling. One side of the cowling door baffling was cut to fit against the door instead of being folded up, and didn't seal anything. The rubber at the front of the cowl was missing on one side, and worn beyond use on the other. Overall effectiveness: 2/10.
I replaced all of the baffling with new rubber from Aircraft Spruce, and the fancy baffling screws. It makes the engine look so much better, and I feel much better having installed it. I also went through and used red RTV to seal all of the aluminum baffling to the engine (A tip I picked up from Scott Thomas). It is amazing how many old holes, grommets, etc are in our baffling leaking air, not to mention the gap between the baffling and engine case.
All in all, it looks great, and best of all, I noticed a 30 degree drop in head temperatures on climb out. In cruise, all of my head temps were within 5 degrees. No bad.
Little Stuff:
I pulled out about 20-30 feet of useless terminated wires from the engine bay, firewall, and under the panel. Example: one firewall grommet started with 7 wires. 3 went to nothing, and 2 were removed as part of the Alternator Install. I was left with 2 wires. This was all over the place. It seems like anytime they removed a sensor or instrument, they just clipped the wires and left them in place instead of removing them. I also re-routed some of the existing wiring that seemed to be rubbing against the control column, and generally tidied up under the panel and in the engine bay with lots of zip ties, adel clamps, and heat shrink tubing. I estimate I saved 4-5 pounds in old wiring alone.
I re-routed the primer feed line which was both in the way of the New Alternator and rubbing against the old generator. Fuel lines and rubbing seemed like a bad combo to me. The new install follows the oil drain tube, and is much neater.
I sealed numerous old holes and grommets in the firewall with RTV, which should help the cabin not smell like engine anymore.
I re-routed the throttle cable which was zip-tied instead of adel clamped and had shifted to rubbing on the Scat tubing for the carb heat.
I replaced all of the SCAT tubing, much of which was worn out or has holes. Side-note: the new design SCAT tubing has rubber coating on all of the internal wire. Kinda neato.
New air-filter: had to order from Brackett Aero direct. The old filter didn't fit the mount very well. Brackett Aero is super nice. Also, they just send you the filters and a bill and wait for a payment check in the mail. Not many companies that trusting any more.
Topped off all the 5606 during the gear swing. That stuff is still nasty.
Changed the oil and filter and installed cleaned the plugs (New Tempest Plugs, after bad luck with champion resistors)
And best of all, cleaned the entire bird head to toe. It took about 10 hours of work to clean everything and put a new coat of wax on the belly, but it looks like a millions bucks! The engine bay was especially pleasing to see de-greased and cleaned.
Overall it took seven 12 hour days, $2500 in parts, and enough swearing to make a sailor jealous. She looks and runs great now, and I am looking forward to easier annuals going forward.
I am interested to see what other performance gains I might see. I have only had the chance to stretch her legs for a 45 minutes flight to Tahoe, but I am heading to Idaho tomorrow and will have a chance to put some more hours on her. Results to come.
Happy Flying, and Happier Wrenching!
-Adam
First off, I decided to convert to an Alternator from my Generator. This took most of my time (25+ Hours). If interested in this process, see my other post that goes into further detail.
Engine Mounts:
My front engine mounts were crap, 20+ years old, sagging onto the cradle, and sagging enough that the oil pan rubbed against the Airbox. It turns out you have to pull the engine forward to install the Alternator, so I decided to replace all 4 engine mounts as well. Four Lord mounts came out to $914. Not cheap. Also, aligning the new mounts *Perfectly*, sliding in a washer, and finally getting the mounting bolt in takes patience and a big screwdriver.
Result: Engine no longer sags, and I noticed a HUGE difference in how smooth the engine feels.
Intake Seals:
My intake seals were also similarly worn out, and several were very obviously leaking. You have to pull the engine mounts to get to the Alternator, and you have to pull at least 1 intake tube to get to the Engine Mounts. I decided to go ahead and replace all the seals and gaskets. As I was unbolting the Intake tubes, I found 4-5 bolts that were barely finger tight. The back right bolt on each tube is very difficult to get to properly (Requires a swivel and rocker extension) and I guess whoever installed them last didn't get them properly torqued. I am sure that intake leaks were in abundance. Once re-installed, I noticed a much smoother idle. Maybe it was partly the engine mounts, but I am guessing that I also likely sealed up some old intake leaks. The seals are $24 each and you need 10, so $240. OR you can but a complete overhaul gasket kit made by the same company, that includes all of the intake seals and intake gaskets, for $260. Seemed like a no brainer to me.
Intake Seal Heat Shields:
I had 1. 1 single remaining heat shield out of 6, and it was barely hanging on. The other 5 had come loose of the single rivet and were long gone. Luckily, the mounts were still strapped under the intake seal worm clamps.
I made 6 new Heat shields out of Slightly thicker .035 Stainless sheet. I also made them slightly larger as to cover the entire Intake Seal. Hopefully this will give me a little more time before the seals wear out. My IA thought it was a good idea so 8)
Engine Pre-Heat:
I am moving to the northeast (Williamstown, MA) in the fall, where they actually have seasons, and a real winter, so I figured installing at least a sump heater was a good bet. The sump heater was actually fairly inexpensive ($175) and install was a breeze. You just clean the oil pan well, scratch it lightly with fine sandpaper where you are going to install, squeeze some aluminum RTV onto the pad, and clamp to the oil pan for 30 minutes. This was made even easier by the lack of intake tubes etc blocking the way. A worthwhile investment in my opinion.
Baffling:
Holy crap. I don't even know where to begin. The baffling on my bird was at best, worn out crap, and at worst, non-existent. (Talking about the rubber baffling, not the aluminum). The rubber along the top baffle looked like old heater hose shielding, and didn't even touch the cowling. One side of the cowling door baffling was cut to fit against the door instead of being folded up, and didn't seal anything. The rubber at the front of the cowl was missing on one side, and worn beyond use on the other. Overall effectiveness: 2/10.
I replaced all of the baffling with new rubber from Aircraft Spruce, and the fancy baffling screws. It makes the engine look so much better, and I feel much better having installed it. I also went through and used red RTV to seal all of the aluminum baffling to the engine (A tip I picked up from Scott Thomas). It is amazing how many old holes, grommets, etc are in our baffling leaking air, not to mention the gap between the baffling and engine case.
All in all, it looks great, and best of all, I noticed a 30 degree drop in head temperatures on climb out. In cruise, all of my head temps were within 5 degrees. No bad.
Little Stuff:
I pulled out about 20-30 feet of useless terminated wires from the engine bay, firewall, and under the panel. Example: one firewall grommet started with 7 wires. 3 went to nothing, and 2 were removed as part of the Alternator Install. I was left with 2 wires. This was all over the place. It seems like anytime they removed a sensor or instrument, they just clipped the wires and left them in place instead of removing them. I also re-routed some of the existing wiring that seemed to be rubbing against the control column, and generally tidied up under the panel and in the engine bay with lots of zip ties, adel clamps, and heat shrink tubing. I estimate I saved 4-5 pounds in old wiring alone.
I re-routed the primer feed line which was both in the way of the New Alternator and rubbing against the old generator. Fuel lines and rubbing seemed like a bad combo to me. The new install follows the oil drain tube, and is much neater.
I sealed numerous old holes and grommets in the firewall with RTV, which should help the cabin not smell like engine anymore.
I re-routed the throttle cable which was zip-tied instead of adel clamped and had shifted to rubbing on the Scat tubing for the carb heat.
I replaced all of the SCAT tubing, much of which was worn out or has holes. Side-note: the new design SCAT tubing has rubber coating on all of the internal wire. Kinda neato.
New air-filter: had to order from Brackett Aero direct. The old filter didn't fit the mount very well. Brackett Aero is super nice. Also, they just send you the filters and a bill and wait for a payment check in the mail. Not many companies that trusting any more.
Topped off all the 5606 during the gear swing. That stuff is still nasty.
Changed the oil and filter and installed cleaned the plugs (New Tempest Plugs, after bad luck with champion resistors)
And best of all, cleaned the entire bird head to toe. It took about 10 hours of work to clean everything and put a new coat of wax on the belly, but it looks like a millions bucks! The engine bay was especially pleasing to see de-greased and cleaned.
Overall it took seven 12 hour days, $2500 in parts, and enough swearing to make a sailor jealous. She looks and runs great now, and I am looking forward to easier annuals going forward.
I am interested to see what other performance gains I might see. I have only had the chance to stretch her legs for a 45 minutes flight to Tahoe, but I am heading to Idaho tomorrow and will have a chance to put some more hours on her. Results to come.
Happy Flying, and Happier Wrenching!
-Adam
