Brief Description: Initial Jabiru 3300 Gen 4 Engine Mounting
Uncrated the new Jabiru 3300 Gen 4 engine to hoist it up and mount it on the engine mount. My father helped me get it securely lifted with the hoist and aligned for bolting on the mount.
We managed to get three of the four engine bolts inserted and secured to hold the engine on the mount, but the fourth was going to take some playing with. I also installed the Jabiru provided spacer washers on the bottom two mounting posts to tilt the nose up a little as I understood this to be needed in most installations.
After securing the engine with the three bolts, I found the fourth bolt could not be installed from either direction without pulling the engine and inserting the bolt as the engine was aligned and pushed onto the mounts. Before pulling the engine for this, I checked all alignments.
A six-foot level was supported with a “third-hand” jack support to hold it in contact with the belly of the forward fuselage, and extend along the centerline out to under and slightly past the propeller hub. After confirming the pitch angle of the bottom skin and the top surface of the extended level were in agreement, I compared the pitch angle of the top flat of the engine. The engine’s pitch angle was higher, so the engine had a slight nose/pitch high angle relative to the fuselage axis. This meant the spacer washers would have to be removed to lower the pitch angle of the engine.
The left/right axis engine alignment looks good.
Initial hanging of the Jabiru 3300 Gen 4 engine.
Lower-port side motor mount bolt could not be inserted after engine was slid onto the mounting posts.
Checking the engine pitch angle relative to the pitch angle of the forward fuselage floor.
