Thursday I managed to get out to the hangar for a few hours and made some progress on getting stuff back on the engine. Up til now, the exhaust system had not been fully torqued in place - it was sitting against the plastic plugs in the exhaust ports, and the exhaust pipe gaskets weren’t installed. Now that I am getting ready for the engine run, I removed the plastic plugs, installed the gaskets, and properly torqued the exhaust pipe nuts. The result was that the exhaust pipes ended up in a very slightly different position than they had been before, and that had a knock-on effect that meant a few other adjustments were needed.

Today I was at the hangar for ten hours, and got most of the engine stuff reinstalled. I put the tail wheel on a support to get the engine horizontal, then drained all the remaining preservative oil from the engine, and replaced it with Phillips 20W50 mineral oil. Then I spent hours puzzling out how to check the timing on the magneto. My first mistake was only looking at the procedure in the Owner’s Manual. I eventually discovered that the Lycoming Direct Drive Overhaul Manual had a more complete procedure that filled in some of the missing links. My second mistake was not realizing that the magneto timing box I had worked backwards to the way the overhaul manual describes. The overhaul manual timing procedure is written on the assumption that your magneto timing box lamp illuminates when the points open. My timing box lamp extinguishes when the points open. I knew something was horribly wrong when I turned the prop over by hand, and the “click” from the release of impulse coupling was happening a long ways away from top dead centre. I’m glad I found this before attempting an engine start.

Then, I had a real fun time getting the magneto to end up at an angle that missed both oil cooler hoses. I would pull it off the accessory case, rotate it one tooth’s worth to get the desired orientation, then put it back on the accessory case, adjust the timing, and find that I ended up at the same angle as before. So next time I rotated it even further after I pulled it off the accessory case, and ended up with the angle too far in the other direction - I had moved it two teeth’s worth. I finally got the magic combination, and it ended up at a suitable orientation, with the timing bang on.

I have a few more odds and ends to finish off before the first engine run. The biggest item is putting some fuel in the tanks, priming the Airflow Performance boost pump, confirming no major leaks, and doing an initial fuel flow test on level ground. If that all goes OK, I’ll pull the aircraft outside, gather up some fire extinguishers and helpers, and see if the engine will start. After that, I might have time for the real fuel flow test, which will happen with the tail wheel well below the main landing gear to put the aircraft at approximately the maximum climb pitch attitude.