My coupe has the two landing lights mounted to the nosebowl ring. The lights look through openings in the nosebowl but are not attached to it. The opening is sealed poorly with a metal band which approximates the shape of the cowl but does a poor job of sealing the opening. That means that any air which leaks alongside of the light is that much less air available to cool the engine. The last few years I have worked out a system of sealing the opening with foam rubber strips but I am still not particularly happy with it.
For the benefit of those who are new to coupes and aircraft in general, cooling an airplane works like this. The J-3 Cub was cooled by simply hanging the cylinders out in the breeze. That works at low power but has its limitations. The radial engine exists in an attempt to give each cylinder a clean look at the airflow. Fred Weik is responsible for putting the ring cowling on radial engines which improved cooling while reducing drag. At the other end of the cooling picture are aircraft like the Mooney where a box is built over the top of the engine which forces all of the cooling air to flow through the cooling fins to get from the top of the engine to the lower engine compartment, The standard for tightness is that a total of extra openings equal to more than a quarter is too much and needs to be addressed with silicone and baffle material. Leaks on this system can have a large effect on the cooling of the engine. The Ercoupe lies between these two designs. The airbox exists and works but it is nowhere near as tight as on modern designs. Nevertheless it is important that no extra air is introduced into the lower engine compartment and that is my problem with the design. I seem to have removed one cylinder at each annual over the ten years that I have had the plane. The left front cylinder is a Millennium with 50 hours and its' exhaust valve is leaking so it has to come off for repair when the weather warms up a bit. This will be the second time that a cylinder in that position has to come off for a leaking exhaust valve. Considering the difficulties I have had sealing the cooling air and problems with cylinders, the leading edge of the wing looks good to me. A 100 watt bulb attached to the nosebowl could be a nice installation but manufacturing the required covers and parts would not be a small project. I believe that my installation was done by Metcoair in the late 60s but I have not looked up the paperwork in a long time. Bob Condon --------------------------------- to unsubscribe send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________________________ Want to find the best email lists? Check out the Topica 20! http://www.topica.com/topica20
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