More cabin heat work
I bought a 2″ hole saw a while back, but it has the “quick release” style mandrel. I finally picked one of those up on the way home. I used the hole saw to cut a hole in the back right baffle wall. I then used the flange as a template to drill the holes. It’s going to be tricky doing the riveting in there. I’d prefer not to remove the baffles, but I might have to.
After deburring everything, I then used some high-temp RTV to seal the flange to the baffle. At this point I looked at the plans and realized I was supposed to put the screen in there as well. I took off the flange, re-applied more RTV, and clecoed it back on with the screen in place. I decided to wait on riveting until the RTV set up.
I then worked on getting the cabin heat muff secured. I tightened down the nuts that hold the end caps in place and put the band clamps around the whole thing. It’s definitely cramped on this section of exhaust pipe and the end caps aren’t straight, but it works.
It was around this point that I started to think about this location more. Having the slip joint inside the heat muff is not a good thing. If for some reason the exhaust gases were to leak out of the joint, they’d go right into the cabin. Not good. I posted a message on the VAF forum to confirm that it could be a concern. Since I didn’t want the flange permanently installed to the baffle if I decide to move it, I unclecoed it from the baffle. I set the flange down on some wax paper so the RTV could still hold the screen in place. Looks like I’ll be making a patch for the rear baffle wall. Oh well.