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Baffle material - pireps please

flyboy1963

Well Known Member
I have some old black stuff, not in good shape..... It has left some marks on the cowl, but not eating it's way thru.....yet.

seems the 'standard' is blue or orange silicone, although some say it 'sticks' to the cowling ( is that so bad?)
Then there's the Ram red stuff, hard to find info on their site.
.....is it worth paying for the fancy McFarlane material?

since Google hasn't provided a lot of answers, hoping folks that have tried a few different kinds will chime in!? :rolleyes:
 
I also used Mcfarland. Installed with nutplates for easy removal if needed. At the decision point the $$$ were immaterial to me. YMMV.
 
I used McFarlane on my RV-10 but haven't started flying it yet. However, I had enough of the McFarlane material left from buying it to re-baffle my Grumman Traveler.

My A&P/IA strongly recommended the McFarlane material, which is why I went with it on the Grumman. That was about 4 years ago, and it is still in excellent shape.

It was relatively easy to install on the RV-10, using the Van's provided steel pop-rivets.
 
....seems the 'standard' is blue or orange silicone, although some say it 'sticks' to the cowling ( is that so bad?)
....

I have the standard orange stuff on my Cessna 180. It's 1/8" thick and has fiber inside. In spite of that, after around 600 hours, a couple of places have torn. The tears originate adjacent to the rather large engine bay doors.

The baffling material has not visibly worn and it hasn't stuck to the cowl.

It does leave wear marks on the aluminum cowl, though, proving that it's free to slide there. Don't much care for that aspect of it.

Haven't decided yet what I'll use on my RV-3B, so this thread is going to be interesting.

Dave
 
Brown aircraft

I used the 1/8? silicone from brown aircraft. Not the least expensive but was easy to work with and should last a long time. Not flying my -10 yet but have used it on other aircraft with excellent results.
 
I changed from Vans black stuff to McFarlane Cowl Saver material and saw a drastic improvement in cooling. I was able to make each side and rear baffle out of one continuous piece (3 pieces total) that form well to the top cowl. Make sure the side baffles tuck behind the cowl inlets.
 
I changed from Vans black stuff to McFarlane Cowl Saver material and saw a drastic improvement in cooling. I was able to make each side and rear baffle out of one continuous piece (3 pieces total) that form well to the top cowl. Make sure the side baffles tuck behind the cowl inlets.

I also used the MaFarlane Cowl Saver material on my RV-10. I was sold on the stuff at their Airventure booth and the demo set up they had going. I was not happy with the fit on the rear of the engine baffle as it is a bit stiffer than the stuff from Van's so I used the Van' material on the rear baffle and where it met the top cowling, I marked the area and cut a piece of the Cowl Saver and pro-sealed the piece of Cowl Saver to the cowl itself. I plan on Cowl Saver for -9A.
 
different strokes?

...aha! ....so it is possible the McFarlane is ideal for the long, curving runs, but not so great for the tight flip-flop corners at the inlets?
....or is it the opposite? I don't want to cheap out on a big job, only to re-do it later.....but just wondering if it's easier to form the black softer stuff into tight spaces?
 
Thinner at the front

...aha! ....so it is possible the McFarlane is ideal for the long, curving runs, but not so great for the tight flip-flop corners at the inlets?
....or is it the opposite? I don't want to cheap out on a big job, only to re-do it later.....but just wondering if it's easier to form the black softer stuff into tight spaces?

Don't know about the forming bit, but I used thinner, and more flexible, 1/16 silicone material for the "flap" that is attached to the lower cowl.

This makes getting the lower cowl into place over the front baffle ramps much easier and lets you save some swear words for other tasks. :)
The air pressures in flight keep the thinner material in place at that location since it's only bridging a 1/4" gap or so.
 
People complain about the stuff Van's provides in the kit, but mine has worked well for 17 years and 1100+ hours.

I'm with Kyle on this. 700 hrs for me on the Vans stuff and it shows no evidence of needing replacement anytime soon. Great markoff on the top cowl but insignificant wear too. I did get some red (silicone I think) from Spruce during the build but I did not use it because it was thick as lumber.
 
Also interested to see the consensus on this thread.

Doubtless there are a ton of people on here who know better than I, but my experience (RV-4 bought already built) is that I had a couple of wrinkles (gaps) in the black Van's stuff at the right rear cylinder (#3?), so I decided to install new baffle seal all around. I can't really say the wrinkles were due to a problem with the material or the installation; and based on the people here who say they received great service from the black stuff, as well as the fact that Vans prescribes it, I lean toward the latter. But I decided to replace it using the orange stuff for no reason other than I thought (a) it looked good on other planes (not RVs actually), and (b) since it's thicker, maybe it will provide a better, longer-lasting seal.

As it turns out, the stuff is significantly stiffer than the black stuff, and exerts a lot more resistance against my cowl as I push it down to install it. It feels like it's probably too much resistance, and worries me whether it might ultimately lead to some cracks in the cowling paint or even fiberglass from the strain and vibration. I'm actually considering whether I made a mistake and should revert back to the more compliant, plain black stuff.
 
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