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[June 27, 2008]


Today was the big day. For about 3 months I have planned to hang the engine today. In fact, my friend Andy flew into town from Chicago to take part in this epic moment in the build. We started by just getting everything ready - fuselage pushed back all the way into the garage and the engine in place.


Last shot of the engine on the dolly.


Here I am getting the engine hoist assembled. Yeah, I know flip flops aren't the proper shoes for anything dealing with heavy items....I put on shoes right after I got the hoist together.


We decided it was better to flip the fuselage around 180 degrees so the tail stuck out the garage. This gave us a ton of smooth concrete for the hoist to roll on. We picked the engine up from the dolly and detached it.


Local RV-8 builder Jack Savage stopped by to help out. He also has a flying RV-4 so I know he had done this a few times. We started by putting the vibration isolators in the top and taping them to the engine mount to keep them from falling out. VansAirForce.net has a great article on how to hang engine with bolt order, etc.


Here the engine is with the top right bolt in. This one was super easy to get in. No problem whatsoever. However, that's where the fun stopped. The top left bolt was super stubborn. We needed to tighten all the way the upper right bolt to pull the engine right, and them push the engine back to the left to compress the top left mount for the holes to align. Luckily, when we were fighting with the top left bolt, local RV-7 builder Bill Rogers stopped by to help out. Bill is an absolute expert on Lycomings and has hung a crapload of them. In fact, he hung his solo! Well, I felt a little better because Bill was struggling with the top left bolt as well, but he finally got it.


Once the top bolts were in and tightened, it was time for the bottom bolts. We lowered the hoist to compress the bottom mounts and then worked on the bolts. The bottom left bolt took some time, and the bottom right slid right in.


Here's a shot of me tightening down the bolts initially. I still need to torque them - Bill has a special wrench that he said will make getting a torque wrench on the bolts easy, so I will do that another day.


After the engine got on, I took the boys on a tour of the RV storage room (aka basement) and showed off my Whirlwind prop. After that we cooked up some burgers and chilled out on the back deck talking RV'ing and flying for a couple of hours. Once everyone took off, my friend Andy and I turned the RV around and backed her back into the garage.


Here's a shot of the top mounts.


And a shot of the bottom mounts. GREAT DAY!

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Last Modified: August 13, 2023