Darick's Sonex #1646

[Darick]

Cut hose to length, attached ends and put them on the engine. One more step completed. The manual says 12" long hoses but mine are 10-1/4 on the left and 9-1/4 on the right.

[Bryan Cotton]

Darick,
Looks great. I decided to go with the top mount cooler. Just got it last week.

[Darick]

Bryan, I would have preferred the top mount too but I already had purchased everything. From what I understand it takes less time to change the oil with the top mount, but only by the time it takes to remove the four screws that hold the bottom baffle....l guess. I just put the hoses on today so tomorrow I'll see if everything will swing out of the way.

[gammaxy]

If you haven't already, I'd encourage you to do a little research on the forum about oil cooler failures. I don't really know how common they are but there have been at least a few and I am under the impression that they were all bottom-mounted oil coolers.

Of course, plenty of people have had the bottom-mounted cooler work fine, too. I'm only posting this in case you got to this point without knowing much about the options like I did. In my case, the decision was made for me by the guy I bought the engine from second-hand.

I like the simplicity of my top-mounted cooler and feel that overall the engine cools better without having to direct cooling air to the bottom of the engine. It saves cutting a hole in your cowl that you might not want in the future.

[Darick]

Starting at the bottom left, starter solenoid, master, battery, voltage regulator, coils. Even though there is a starter solenoid in the starter, I used the B&C (blue) starter solenoid to energize the internal starter solenoid because I was afraid my starter BUTTON on the panel was so light duty. Guess I should have asked.
Note the negative battery connection is NOT attached just for safety reasons until all the wiring is finished.

Here is my wimpy (but really cool looking IMHO) starter button.

[kevinh]

Great sticker for the switch labelling Derrick. Can I ask how you made/purchased it?

[wlarson861]

I'm one of the guys that had a bottom oil cooler leak. I think it was caused by a stuck pressure control valve. I lost all the oil in flight causing the engine to seize and a forced landing in a bean field. I replaced the bottom cooler with the same type from Jeggs and flew over 100 hours without a problem. I now have the top mount and think it cools as well or better than the bottom mount. If I hadn't added the turbo I would probably still have a bottom mount. One thing I found was the braided hose for the bottom mount cooler ran in contact with the cowl and caused chaffing on the fiberglass. I suggest wrapping the braided lines with silicone tape to prevent damage to the cowl.

[Darick]

Great sticker for the switch labelling Derrick. Can I ask how you made/purchased it?

Just 9mm, white lettering on black label, Brother label maker. I very carefully trimmed the label to the edge of the white box surrounding the letters. Unfortunately the edge of the label is visible on the top label that says "ON". Then gave the completed panel a coat of Rustoleum Ultra Cover Matte Clear rattle can from the hardware store.

There are a few painting mistakes but was already too far into the process to go back to almost square one and start over.

The big black box around the switches is just flat black paint, masked off with really stretchy 1/4" wide professional painters masking tape, which is how I got the corners to be round.

[Darick]

Bought and installed the EZ oil drain. Anybody else using this item?


Aside from the spring loaded lever, there is a heavy safety retaining ring that keeps the lever from opening, not in this picture.

Is there a recommended frequency for cleaning the oil screen?...every oil change?...every other oil change?...etc.

[dallen]

After the first 25 hr maintenance period, it's every 50 hrs.