Brief Description: Plenum box nutplates and thoughts..
So I'm usually pretty good at confirming every aspect of a design will work before implementing it, but this time, one escaped me that may actually be a blessing in disguise. The angle of the plenum box is designed to clear the lower cowling. The problem is that the long AN-3 Bolts on top can't be accessed using anything but an open end wrench. This wouldn't be so bad if the oil lines and engine mount wasnt in the way. It's going to get congested up there so we have an issue. Well, the only way to access the air filer after 100hrs currently is to remove the entire box. However, this also means the seal between the cooler and the box can't be airtight but rather press fit. SOOO, my thoughts are to seal all perimeters using RTV and never have to access those bolts outside of rare instances. Either way, this means there will need to be an access hatch for the air filter. Now, the air filter is oversized to the point that the access hatch will need to be quite large. I believe locating the hatch on the bottom will allow the best access overall. The other nice thing about a hatch would be the incorporation of the alternate air "Reed" being part of the hatch itself. This means I can build the whole thing on the bench apart from the box itself. I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do, but this is the path I'm taking at this point.
