Speaking of the S-Beam, a word of caution & a question.

       On the caution front, I tore down the S-Beam to bead-blast it
       before
       priming & discovered significant amounts of cutting fluid wicked
       beneath
       the mounting blocks.  My presumption is that the local rework of the
       SBeam is the source of this fluid.  In any case, I'm sure it
       would not
       have done good things for the rubber Barry mounts if not caught &
       cleaned up.  Folks who are getting this rework done for them should
       either remove the mounting blocks beforehand themselves, or
       check afterward.

       On the question side -- I did not pay enough attention when
       tearing down
       the SBeam.  I cannot remember whether the rubber mounts are
       installed
       male-side up from the bottom, or male side down from the top.
       Logically, it seems like male-side up from the bottom makes the most
       sense.  Jerry/Paul -- which way is right??

       Mark

       Male side up sounds right.

       Paul Lamar



   We spent most of the day working on the M2, and have run into a few
   more issues.  The other Mark will be posting volumes of photos &
   details, but here is a summary of what we've run into so far:

   1) AN7-13 bolts will not work as replacements for the AN7-14 bolts
   Tracy ships with the RD-1C standard.  On my SBeam, the bolts must be
   inserted opposite the direction Tracy specs.  The AN7-14 bolts from
   Tracy have a shank which is just *barely* long enough when reversed
   to penetrate completely through the damper and flex plate.  About
   1/2 thread  extra.  The AN7-13 bolt shanks do not fully penetrate
   the flex plate -- about 1.5 threads inside the flex plate.  Since
   these bolts carry 100% of the HP from the engine to the prop via the
   flex plate holes, I do not believe it is safe / acceptable to use
   these bolts.  I am having the orginal AN7-14 bolts milled down to
   AN7-13 length + 2 threads.  I am also going to drill holes in these
   milled bolts 2 threads forward of standard position.  This will
   result in castle nuts exactly fitting the bolt with 1 thread showing
   and the holes in optimal position.  This will give me 1/16"
   clearance of the SBeam.

   2) Mounting the engine puts us within 1/4" of where we wanted to be
   from firewall to front of prop flange -- great! We saw the Sbeam
   flex under the weight of the engine as we lowered the engine hoist.
   We measured the deflection and it was an even 1-degree on each side
   of the beam.  We presume this is acceptable.

   3) The VAM muffler *almost* fit.  The exhaust pipe hits one of the
   mount tubes, preventing the exhaust manifold flange from seating
   against the engine correctly.  There seem to be 3 possible solutions:
      A) Make an insert for the manifold flange which adds appx 1/4".
   Not convinced the bolts are long enoungh for this.
      B) Cut the exhaust manifold pipes & lengthen them so the VAM
   moves 1/4" - 3/8" farther away.
      C) Cut the VAM exhaust tube & increase the angle toward aft so it
   clears tube.

   4) We borrowed a standard M2 cowling & test fit it.  Acres of space
   inside, except the SBeam forward (vertical) tubes interfere with the
   bottom of the bottom cowl.  We are concerned by this, since we
   expected to require a custom cowl.  It was amazing how close the
   standard cowl came to fitting.

   More details and photos coming.

   Mark & Mark



Oops -- on #4 above I meant NOT concerned.  Forgot the 'not'.

Mark & Mark

Thats a relief. Seeing how I never had a drawing on the stock Mustang II
cowl I am amazed it fit so well.

Paul Lamar

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