Baffling cutout

The baffling on both of my cowl intakes has about a 3 inch section missing, leading directly to the (theoretically) lower pressure bottom side.

This seems wrong to me. Is there any potential reason for this? Suggested mechanism for repair? climbing from 0 to 6000 AGL I generally watch CHTs and increase airspeed at some point keep CHTs under 400, but apart from initial climb temps seem fine.



(sorry for title, I can't get enough of baffle puns).

There should be a seal there. On both the RV-6 and RV-10 plans, that seal is mounted under the fiberglass cowling lip and rests on top of the aluminum baffle ramp. On the -6 it is simply riveted in place. The -10's installation is a little more complicated. Yours looks like a riveted flap of black baffle material would work just fine.

ac_oldman said:

The baffling on both of my cowl intakes has about a 3 inch section missing, leading directly to the (theoretically) lower pressure bottom side.

Click to expand...

Nothing theoretical about the pressures, and yep, you have a huge leak.

The two existing rubber sections are wrong also; note what Kyle said about riveting the rubber to the cowl. As shown in the photo, when riveted to the aluminum ramp, they simply blow open.

Thanks for the pointer - turns out the issue was improper cowl mounting.

There is a tab on the underside of the cowl that I had missed when doing the cowl re-attach dance. When mounted correctly it sits above this gap and presumably holds down the other sections as well.

Luckily it only flew for about two hours in this config and I was watching the CHTs.

Regardless of cowl position, the rubber in the photos is mounted wrong.