RV-6A cooling airflow mod?

I purchased an already flying RV-6A with the pictured "shield" and fairing mounted near the center lower engine mount. I am wondering if anyone has seen something like this before and what the intended purpose might be.



https://photos.app.goo.gl/UoWZdpaMyEARqTdH3

My guess is either to try to reduce turbulence at the exit for the cooling air flow or perhaps to protect the area from heat. Note that the fairing over the gear leg mounting tube is airfoil shaped.

I ask because I plan to remove it so I can get better access to the nose gear leg mounting bolt. I'm not sure that it needs to go back in afterwards.

Thanks for any input.

Bruce

Looks to me like a very nicely done fairing job for the purpose of decreasing cooling drag. If it were mine I would want to keep it intact. Of course, you can still do what you want without my .02 but think about this:

How often do you need to gain access to that leg gear mounting bolt? You wish to remove a fairing that has beneficial qualities every single time you fly for the purpose of easier access to a bolt you might touch once a year, or decade, or never!

Yes, for smoother and increased air flow out the exit.

Erich

RVbySDI said:

Looks to me like a very nicely done fairing job for the purpose of decreasing cooling drag. If it were mine I would want to keep it intact. Of course, you can still do what you want without my .02 but think about this:

How often do you need to gain access to that leg gear mounting bolt? You wish to remove a fairing that has beneficial qualities every single time you fly for the purpose of easier access to a bolt you might touch once a year, or decade, or never!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I get your point. I asked because it is going to be a bear to get in and out of there for various reasons [limited accessibility and cables run through it on the other side for starters] and I wondered whether it would be worth the trouble putting it back in in terms of how effective it is and how much difference something like this really makes since it doesn't appear to be a common add-on.

I personally would not judge the value of any modification by how common it is......There is a lot of information in the archives on the value of an exit duct. Pros and some cons too. Dave Anders has a couple of stories in recent issues of kitplanes that also touches on the topic. I would like to add one to my airplane.

I did exactly this on my 7A. My reason was to try to address high cylinder temperatures. It helped by about 5 to 10 degrees F. It does add some steps in the nose gear inspection. If you want to see the effect of removing it I would suggest you carefully collect speed and temperature data, then compare with and without the fairing. I believe that RV8 comes from the factory with a similar exit design. I don't know about the 8A but it would be even more useful in the A designs.

P.S. Don't tell the tailwheel guys about this. It gives them more ammunition

jjconstant said:

I did exactly this on my 7A. My reason was to try to address high cylinder temperatures. It helped by about 5 to 10 degrees F. It does add some steps in the nose gear inspection. If you want to see the effect of removing it I would suggest you carefully collect speed and temperature data, then compare with and without the fairing. I believe that RV8 comes from the factory with a similar exit design. I don't know about the 8A but it would be even more useful in the A designs.

P.S. Don't tell the tailwheel guys about this. It gives them more ammunition

Click to expand...

Thanks - this is helpful and good to have some actual numbers before and after.

I guess it stays!

I wonder if anyone ?saved? the original poster?s picture of his nose gear shield. It appears to be gone and the link replacing the picture is not working for me. If anyone has that picture or a picture of a similar setup, I?d really like to see it again. I think I tried contacting the poster but either didn?t or didn?t get a reply.

Thanks,

Eric Schlanser, N44WP
South Haven, MI
[email protected]