08-05-2013: 2.5 hrs
Did miscellaneous stuff to prepare engine mount and landing gear installation. I mixed and applied pro-seal yesterday to seal the firewall recess, heat box, and penetration for control cables. The pro-seal is cured enough for me to rivet the recess, and that is what I did. then, I spent quite some time to trim the fuselage corner where it will interfere with landing gear leg. I had to remove one rivet hole on each side to clear the leg. After that, time to have the engine mount permanently bolted on. I torqued the AN6 bolt to 160-190 in-lbs range and have the safety pin hole aligned for 5 of the 6 bolts. The lower left-mid (face fwd) bolt needs slight over torque to have the hole aligned well.
The aft engine mount/landing gear attaching bolt holes were not drilled to final size in factory. without realizing that, I used a 5/16" reamer to ream the holes on left side for AN5 bolts. I was wondering why so much material was removed by the reamer from the aft hole. After searching the internet and VAF, I saw some builders expericenced shimming landing gear due to loose fit of the landing gear bolt. That raised my concern, since I already reamed the hole to 5/16", and I can insert the AN5 bolt easily. But there is no play once inserted though. I will call Vans tomorrow to see if it is a real concern. For the right side holes, I only used 0.3115" reamer to remove the paint layer from fwd hole, and will drill the aft hole to final size in assembly.
PS. I called Ken of Vans the next day. It is not a concern. Some builder had loose gear after hundreds or thousands hours, but there is no serious accident. The fix is relatively easy if it even happens, just ream to oversize hole and use oversize bolts. As long as there is no play now, he suggested not to worry about it. The loose gear may never happen.
Bottom skin is trimmed to clear the landing gear leg
