Thanks to all for the replies on the fuel line heat shielding. A few
mentioned carb icing and I see a topic so I'll put in my two cents worth.
I live in Seattle where carb icing is normal and the intake scoop on the
cowl top looks more like a rain water collector than an air duct (I have the
912S). Wanting to fix both problems plus provide some cabin heat and
additional cabin air vents (for the three days its warm here per year) led
to this solution.
First the NACA cowl vent is unused in the 912 installations so I routed a
duct up to the panel then split it into two eyball vents on the panel face
for additional fresh air. On the opposite side of the cowling - bottom - I
built another NACA vent for ram air to the carbs - replacing the "rain" (I
mean Air) vent on the top of the cowling (hey it rains here 200 days per
year!!!).
I made a lid for the Europa airbox out of bid and the filter was then
mounted down inside the Europa box with an RV metal airbox mounted to the
bottom. My ram air now goes in the bottom of the Europa airbox - up through
the filter and into the carbs. Now here is the heat part;
Cliff added two Vent rings to the back of the metal tunnel behind the
radiator to pick up hot air from the radiator. We looked at the exhaust but
decided it was to hot. Cliff also made a few extra baffles to make sure
some of the radiator heat went up into the vents. One vent goes up into the
panel and gives two heat outlets above the feet and then is ducted through
fiberglass tubes built into the panel up to the panel top for window
defrost. The other duct goes into the RV airbox on the bottom of the Europa
airbox. Pull one way you get ram air from the new NACA cowl vent - pull the
other way and you get hot air from behind the radiator. The system looks
great, was light and gets rid of a lot of problems all at once. I have no
idea if it will work or not - but I should know in a few weeks.
Laurie (my wife) is working on a website now so pictues of all of this
should be availiable soon, will post the address when its up. See I can
REALLY build an airplane and not just give Tony K a bad time.
Bob Jacobsen
N165BB (beep beep)
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