Baffle Fitting - Is this right?

IO-360 and Vans latest baffle kit (early 2014). I know nothing about fitting baffles and VAF is my best resource. Please look below and give me some guidance. Thanks,

The screw is into the case, so the baffle is tight against the case, the center is held against the angle for reference. The gap results from a non planar contact with the case, although more trimming can not be done without losing the attachment at the noted screw.


This is with the center brace in place, and there is still a gap on the left side also. Surely I can pull the back in alignment with the plenum cover, but is this how these things fit? What am I missing here?

A little bit of waviness is about as good as you can get that to fit. The gap seal material won't care that the baffle wall is not straight.

I had small gaps in that area too (baffle kit circa 2008). I built a plenum and sealed seams with red RTV. Still holding after 1,300 hours

I have a 7A+Io-360 also, I used van's baffle kit though is was a 2012. I do not think that a little wave will hurt as you will have seals against the cowl. You will know it, but function should be ok. I cannot remember that I was concerned.
Dave

bruceh said:

A little bit of waviness is about as good as you can get that to fit. The gap seal material won't care that the baffle wall is not straight.

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Thanks Bruce, I am never sure if something is missed or just a typical bad fit.

Vlad said:

I had small gaps in that area too (baffle kit circa 2008). I built a plenum and sealed seams with red RTV. Still holding after 1,300 hours

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Nice rail, Vlad, I am thinking of this option. The SJ plenum over has a turned down lip, but connection to the flimsy baffle material seems like a sealing problem. Thanks for the picture and the link!

[email protected] said:

I have a 7A+Io-360 also, I used van's baffle kit though is was a 2012. I do not think that a little wave will hurt as you will have seals against the cowl. You will know it, but function should be ok. I cannot remember that I was concerned.
Dave

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Thanks, Dave, this collective response indicates this is just a typical issue.

Thanks to all. This probably won't be my last question on baffles!

Baffles

I built the baffles and seals exactly per the Vans instructions. I did not try to "correct" any problems like this. My engine is a YIO360M1B. I get truly excellent cooling to the point that I had to install a shutter on the oil cooler to get it to run warmer. I did install a spacer on the cooler to move it back about an inch to solve some clearance issues.

Berchmans said:

I built the baffles and seals exactly per the Vans instructions. I did not try to "correct" any problems like this. My engine is a YIO360M1B. I get truly excellent cooling to the point that I had to install a shutter on the oil cooler to get it to run warmer. I did install a spacer on the cooler to move it back about an inch to solve some clearance issues.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, I was not trying to correct anything, just to understand if it is a characteristic or I had done (not done) something correctly. There are plenty of Vans instructions that tell us to put parts together that don't fit. OR angles that don't match.

As it turns out, I got the Lycoming installation blueprint out and it has the dimensions for the side-to-side cylinder offset. It is 2.34 inches. Taking measurements on the engine and baffles, that rear baffle is perpendicular to the crank by design. All the measurements on the baffles indicate this is the design intent. The old baffles (apparently) had this rear section going in diagonally (to the crank). So does my SJ plenum cover . It is one inch to the diagonal, not just wavy - -it is off. I see more fiberglass skill building in my future.

It doesn't matter if it is Vans or SJAircraft, I just want the dimensions of the parts to match the engineering intent, not "close enough". It is just as easy to make them correctly, so they fit.

To Sam's credit, my cover is 10+years out of the mold, and baffles could have changed since then. If the baffles were hand made from Sam's instructions, it would fit the cover.