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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date:  1-1-2015
Number of Hours:  2.50
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Oil cooler installation

The oil cooler installs on the aft side of the left rear baffle, and the plans call for waiting until the cowling has been fitted before finalizing the location for the cooler. The reason for waiting has to do with the location of the cooler relative to the #4 cylinder, as it sits directly behind, and slightly above the cooling fins. It is not immediately obvious, but placing the cooler too low would put it squarely in the path of hot air coming across the cylinder, and most likely prevent it from cooling effectively.

In order to fit the cooler, there is a significant amount of preparation that must be done to the baffle and supporting brackets. Some of this I had done in a previous session, but today I spent the bulk of my time cutting the opening, match drilling & deburring the components, making spacers for the bolts, and finally test fitting the whole assembly.

I probably won’t assemble this part with rivets until I’m much further along in the baffle installation, as it became obvious early on that trying to install this fully riveted is going to be a tough job. The biggest challenge, as always working around the engine, is that there isn’t much space to spare, and the baffle assembly (as the picture shows) is a convoluted collection of right angles and compound curves that won’t just slide in place easily.
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Left rear baffle with opening cut for oil cooler

Left rear baffle with opening cut for oil cooler

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Oil cooler in place

Oil cooler in place

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Aft side of baffle with oil cooler temporarily fitted

Aft side of baffle with oil cooler temporarily fitted

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