Kent's Long-EZ project

[Marc Zeitlin]

4 hours ago, Kent Ashton said:

I like the pipes in the Cozy plans better.  They use a slip joint and two springs that hold the pipe on the slip joint (pic 2).  Only one spring visible in the picture and you will see that I ran some safety-wire through it.

Funny you should mention this and post the second picture. While doing the CI on your Long-EZ for Ed two days ago, I noted that the #3 exhaust pipe (the one in the picture in the purple square) had a crack about 2/3 - 3/4 the way around the pipe on the second weld down from the bend. Luckily, Mike M. was at the hangar and was able to weld it up for us.

[Kent Ashton]

10 hours ago, Marc Zeitlin said:

While doing the CI on your Long-EZ for Ed two days ago, I noted that the #3 exhaust pipe (the one in the picture in the purple square) had a crack about 2/3 - 3/4 the way around the pipe on the second weld down from the bend. Luckily, Mike M. was at the hangar and was able to weld it up for us.

Nice that Ed has a guardian angel looking after him.   I did my best on those pipes but it's very hard to weld stainless as fast as it needs to be welded.   Keep an eye on that engine mount too--it also came out of the Ashton shop.

[fshort]

Hi all:

An idea from motor racing:

We use much thinner exhaust tubing & (usually) in the "amateur" classes, mild steel. Ti and Inconel in the pro series...

The Brits came up with a small gas weld on the INSIDE of the flange to the pipe end, then a large external "collar" of braze fillet from the flange to the pipe - about 1/2" long.

This avoids the tiny HAZ of a TiG weld and supports the pipe-to-flange joint. Note that this is "bronze welding" using SIFBRONZE No 2 or equivalent, not using the US silicon bronze stuff.

In all the crashed tube frame cars I've seen, the tubes have failed, not the (English) brazing. Plus, removal & repair is easy - just heat up the joint until the braze runs, take apart, clean (very well), and rebraze. Since the base metal is never melted, you avoid lots of issues.

I've attached some info about nickel-bronze welding.

My $.01.

+1 on the springs - we used them to hold the collector to the primary pipes.

Regards,

James

Brazing Steel Frames.doc Sifbronzing ‘A Guide To The Technique’.pdf

Edited March 2, 2021 by fshort

[Marc Zeitlin]

10 hours ago, Kent Ashton said:

Nice that Ed has a guardian angel looking after him.   I did my best on those pipes but it's very hard to weld stainless as fast as it needs to be welded.   Keep an eye on that engine mount too--it also came out of the Ashton shop.

Checked every CI :-).

[Kent Ashton]

Somewhere in this thread are pics of my engine dehydrator made out of an ammo can and a fish-tank air pump that I set to run a few hours each day.   Saw this over-engineered idea recently (pics).  The builder says it keeps the relative humidity in the engine at 10-15%.  A couple of points:  (1) my reading suggests that a RH below 50% is enough to prevent corrosion.  For example:  https://www.munters.com/en/munters/cases/stemcor-steel-storage/   (2)  I found that starting-up my dehydrator with oil mist in the engine contaminated the silica leaving it oily when I went to dry it in my wife's oven so some sort of filter is nice.  I used some rags as a filter.  (3)  Then I found that a lot of the oil mist/moisture could be blown out of the engine after flying by putting an air-mattress pump to the oil filler tube for about 30 seconds, blowing it out the breather.  There is a video of that in this thread.    As a result, I don't bother with the dehydrator much since my airplane is hangared here in N.C. where the RH is fairly reasonable.  I plug the exhausts and the breather.

In another case, I stored an engine in my garage for about 3-4 years with a large soda bottle filled with silica gel attached to the breather tube.  It did not change color but the sparkplug dehydrators that were on open valves did need to be removed and dried  once or twice a year.

I have wondered if silica gel leaves an abrasive dust that can be circulated into the engine.  I suppose it could; another reason to use a filter.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrated_silica

[longez360]

On ‎1‎/‎24‎/‎2021 at 2:07 AM, Kent Ashton said:

Saw these pics of Wayne Blackler's EZ.  (pic 1) a nice way to seal up the nose strut.  I presume the black thingy hinges down as the strut extends.  Perhaps it is pulled up by a small spring when the strut is retracted.   (pic 2) His downdraft intakes look nice but I thought he had abandoned them.  Guess not. 

Speaking of intakes, you might find this intersting:   On my EZ, I built top scoops based on Blacker's photos they but did not work for squat (pic 3) ---the engine would overheat before I could get to pattern altitude.  I remade them into forward-facing intakes (pic 4).  Even then the forward-facing intakes did not cool as well as a plans NACA in a climb.  I turned out I just didn't have sufficient exits for the cooling air.  After I built some exits on the bottom cowl (pic 5) just below the cylinders and all my cooling problems went away, in fact, my forward-facting intakes could probably have been made smaller.  

So I would speculate that these sort of NACA-style downdraft intakes would work OK with good exits

 

 

 

Hi Kent

Pictured is an early shot of nose gear sealing work. This is in an effort to do a number of things. 1. Aid a 2 piece NACA inlet on my nose gear doors (pictured) that I use to pressurize the nose gear bowl and feed cabin air to the front cockpit via an eyeball vent  2. Clean up induction inlet flow - I have a small NACA that you can't see in the photo that once diffused feeds induction and the oil cooler. I can close out the oil cooler exit at altitude and I get a significant rise in MAP. I can tune it to ensure I get nil NACA air spill. 3. Seal up the nose from a drag perspective (seal up the favorable gradients on the aeroplane and promote laminar flow).  The carbon flap is indeed hinged, moves with the leg and is spring loaded. 4. Seal up for the cold air.

My downdraft NACA inlets for cylinder cooling work well. Always have. Mine are each 5" x 1.5" at the mouth. Cylinders are well within Lycoming limits. LOP ops low 300F's. AFR 12.7 I'm <400F. In climb they are manageable. I cruise climb at 130-160 knots. I keep q high. One thing though, I tried to add a set of triangular strakes to the inlets like Klaus has to stop any NACA inlet spill and cooling air was significantly compromised so I removed them. This was telling. If the full NACA shape isn't there, or if that back part of the NACA is covered aft of the curved sides, my cooling system doesn't work. I draw air into the NACAs using a little augmentation at the exits. I say "a little" because there isn't enough room for a bellmouth, mixer and exit for a proper augmenter on the exhausts. The exits are typical Long EZ size for now. I may close them down in the future. My system is sealed and the cylinders are baffled per the NACA reports.

Cheers

Wayne Blackler

Long EZ VH-WEZ, AUSTRALIA

[Kent Ashton]

10 hours ago, longez360 said:

One thing though, I tried to add a set of triangular strakes to the inlets like Klaus has to stop any NACA inlet spill and cooling air was significantly compromised so I removed them. This was telling. If the full NACA shape isn't there, or if that back part of the NACA is covered aft of the curved sides, my cooling system doesn't work.

Interesting.  I suppose your NACA scoops are presenting more of a flatter surface to the incoming flow and the small triangles would block-off some of that and trip whatever flow passes by them.  It could also be that most of your air is cleaner air entering at the top of the openings.  Just guessing.  Anyway, it's a nice clean airplane.

[Kent Ashton]

For Ellison TBI users:   I have bookmarked some pages about rebuilding these   http://www.miravim.org/4RE/       http://www.n56ml.com/fuel/     Specifically this page which shows disassembly     http://www.miravim.org/4RE/EllisonDisassembly/     And this page where they can be repaired  http://nvaero.com/

A chap on the Van's list said today the ball valve in these units is a "Grose Jet" valve--new one to me but handy to know about.  I sometimes read about Ellisons leaking fuel which might be the Grose Jet valve--one fellow said a tiny particle of rust in fuel will make them leak.  The Vans fellow said they are no longer made but I see lots of them with a google search for "grose jet float valves".  Also ran across this page with some tips on the use of them   https://mgaguru.com/mgtech/carbs/cb112.htm   and here  https://jimsgarage.wordpress.com/2006/09/14/the-grose-jet/   

I have found that much of what we want to know is on the net but finding it is the challenge.  Here is a Grose Jet valve FYI (pic).    I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the parts in an Ellison were standard parts.  I have 750 hours on mine with no problems but I have the Nat-recommended prefilter.  I had one rebuilt by Ellison once and it was pretty pricey.  Ellison is out of business now.  The NVAero guy bought the rights, I hear.

[Kent Ashton]

More on Ellisons and their "Grose Jet valve":  The one pictured above is out of an Ellison 4-5.  It looks very similar to this Mikuni 1103 (Tillotson 903?) that I saw on Ebay today for $70 (pic 1). It seems that Mr. Grose made them by hand  and in a large number of styles and a few orifice sizes.   See http://www.97330.com/GroseJet_id_sheets/D&G_valve_mfg_co_inc.html

Here is the patent for them  https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US3180354.pdf   from which I extracted an image (pic 2).   It is pretty simple: two balls, the big ball make the small ball seat in the taper and stop the flow.  I can see where a tiny bit of rust or crud around the small ball could make them leak.  I imagine Ben Ellison selected one that was in common use so the Mikuni or Tillotson number seems like a good candidate but they are getting hard to find, hence the $70 asking price.

I see lots of longer versions sold as NOS.  Maybe in a pinch, one of them could be trimmed shorter, threaded and adapted.  They do not look too hard to make from brass stock.  By "too hard" I mean it would only take me 3 or 4 tries to make one that works.  🙂  The trick would be in forming the brass to retain the large ball I think.

Edited March 18, 2021 by Kent Ashton

[Kent Ashton]

Just talking to a chap that bought some throttles and puzzled about how to mount them.  I told him

Quote

Do a google image search for “Cozy mkiv throttles”.   When you see a likely image, click on it and it will bring up other images of Cozy and EZ throttles.   Select “see more” at the bottom right and it will take you to various builder pages that may have more pics.
A little geometry is required.  You need to determine how many inches of  lever throw you need for your carb or F.I. and decide how to adapt the throttle arm to give that much throw or a little more.
Tip: before you order any cables, install the throttles and use a piece of stiff wire to mock up the cable length you'll need (or you can buy one out of my extensive collection of too-long, too-short or wrong-geometry cables. 🙂     )
Mixture and carb heat cables can be made from cheaper marine cables by cutting one end off and curling the inner wire to bolt on the mixture/carb heat arm.
 

Here (pic) is a cheap West Marine cable cut to make a mixture and carb heat cable.  The forward end of the cable is the regular 10-32 threaded part which can be bolted on the throttles.  I cut the aft end of these too-long cables exposing the stiff inner wire and the bundle of reinforcing wires.  Twist the inner cable into a loop to fit a 10-32 screw.  Wrap the cable reinforcing wires with safety wire to keep them bundled.  Make whatever mount you need to pinch/hold the cable.  These cables come in long lengths or at best, one-foot increments.  You might get lucky and find that an even-foot length will fit but usually they are too long or too short.  'Course, the high-buck Cablecraft cables and be ordered in one inch increments if you have a first-born child you can trade for them.

[Kent Ashton]

Couple of interesting pics:  A Varieze being refurbished on an auto rotisserie and a Velocity being flipped at Freeflight Composites.  I have flipped mine during construction by bolting a 2x6 to the strake and with the nose on a pad, rotating it over the 2X6.   I don't think I would try that with the engine on but as I recall, it was a one-man job with the wife positioning the sawhorses.

[zolotiyeruki]

If/when the day comes that I get to build my own airplane, a rotisserie like that is DEFINITELY in the plans.  I can imagine there are a LOT of layups that would be a lot easier that way.

[fshort]

Hi all:

+1 on the rotisserie!

Also I love the large, "off-road" sized casters/wheels on the engine hoist. I'm changing my Y-style fwd outriggers on the hoist to U-shaped ones - you can get to loads so much easier.

Regards,

James

[Kent Ashton]

Good to know:  The chap who bought my EZ had some voltage problems.  He had forgotten that I had modified the alternator for an external regulator--a B&C LR3C-14--so he bought a similar model from an auto store and it did not work right either.  B&C told him an alternator with the usual internal regulator would probably not work.  The LR3C provides the field current to a modified alternator which energizes the alternator  and regulates the output (and shuts off the field voltage if there is an overvoltage) but an internal regulator is also trying to provide a field voltage so who knows what's going on there.

[Kent Ashton]

Question was asked:  How to mount an Alex Strong pitch trim system?   I had one of those once.  It worked but it was a little clunky the way it linked to the control tube.  AFAIK He is out of business now but they wouldn't be hard to make.  Nevertheless, here are some pics from my gynormous 100-gig photo file.   The unit does not come with any limit switches so folks have added various limit switches to some of them.   Strong used 3.6V screwdrivers, cut the battery off and added some wires.  On 12V airplane power they ran too fast and it was tricky to stop them in just the right spot.  Better to use them with a cheap ebay pulse-width modulator reversing relay  (PWM Reversing Relay) that can be dialed down to run them slower.  There is some discussion of this earlier in this thread.

An alternative system is to use a Davenport-style fiberglass trim spring, weld a threaded shaft on the screwdriver motor,  and connect it to the Davenport spring.  The motor moves the trim spring.  Again, limit switches are a good idea.  Back in this thread I show how I did this but I used a trim spring made with spring wires--it was a little more fiddly.  Doing it again, I might just use the fiberglass spring.

Actually, the best idea I had was to mount the motor as shown in the last pic.  I fiberglassed the motor to a piece of aluminum and bolted it to the side of the nose.  The threaded shaft goes to a Davenport-like spring on the elevator.  Shouldn't be to hard to do that on a Cozy.  The 4th pic is a trim by Vance Atkinson, I think.  Origin of the others is lost in time.  Attached is a PDF of the trim wiring without a PWM

TrimWiring.pdf

[Kent Ashton]

Spinners:  I used a spinner twice on different airplanes.  They were not as nice as pic one below, however.  It was a PIA to mount and dismount.  It made it hard to check the prop and hub and to dynamically balance the prop.  If they are not mounted squarely they induce vibration.   If there is any evidence they improve cooling, I'd like to hear it.  I doubt it does much but maybe.  For sure, spinners like the first are a whole lot of money and trouble for very little gain except to look good parked at the FBO.  Now I don't use any spinner.  My life is simple.  I like the simple life (this is why I own an airplane and four bikes).  🙂  In fact, my last spinner was for sale (pic 2).   Cut for a three-blade Performance pusher prop.  PM me.  If you are nice to me I will ship it to you for cost of the postage and a suitable box.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Kent Ashton

[Kent Ashton]

Yep, $1250 seems like a lot to get 5-7 degrees of cooling (pic).  Two 50 cent vortex generators will do that too.  The most important benefit is the last:  "Significantly improves the visual 'lines' of canard aircraft."  No argument there.  🙂

My old spinner is spoken for.  Good riddance!  "I'm out there Jerry, and I'm lovin' it" -- Cosmo Kramer

Edited April 19, 2021 by Kent Ashton

[Bobby Martyn]

I am looking to purchase a Long EZ. It can be complete and flying, or near completion. Does anyone know of any good ones available ?

[Anthony P]

😆

I can hear the blood boiling now!  🥵

Sorry.

 

[longez360]

Yes. Long EZ N888EZ. Built by Dick and Sam Kreidel. A very very good aeroplane, built and operated by people who know their stuff.

3 hours ago, Bobby Martyn said:

I am looking to purchase a Long EZ. It can be complete and flying, or near completion. Does anyone know of any good ones available ?

 

[Kent Ashton]

5 hours ago, Bobby Martyn said:

I am looking to purchase a Long EZ. It can be complete and flying, or near completion. Does anyone know of any good ones available ?

This topic is entitled “Kent’s Long-ez Project”.   What is the relevance of your question/post to this topic?    Kent is happy to help people find EZs for sale but please ask your question in  an appropriate topic or start your own topic.

Your cooperation is appreciated.    You too AnthonyP!    🙂    “You children get off my lawn!” 🥸

 

Try this one:  https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/21972-sales-ive-seen/page/30/#comments

 

Edited April 20, 2021 by Kent Ashton
Wave fist at pesky kids

[Kent Ashton]

Fuel Valve:  I used the Weatherhead fuel valve (pic 1) in the Cozy plans because it is cheap ($16.50 from West Marine).  However, after a while the Deldrin spool gets sticky and harder to turn and you are courting trouble to ignore it.  I lubed it for the second time in 750 hours today.  I use "EZ Turn" lubricant which used to be called "Fuel Lube".     https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/ezturnlube.php     Just use a thin smear on the spool because excess will migrate to your gascolator screen where it will not dissolve.  The valve is nice and smooth now.  Folks that ignore the sticking sometimes find they can't switch tanks when they need to!

The way I do it is to burn down the fuel until it just disappears from the sight gauges.  Then chock the wheels in front of the wheel and put a sawhorse or something under the prop  or prop-extension and raise the nose so the valve is above the fuel level.  The inside of the spool cavity is about 7/8" so have a cork  in case the nose isn't high enough.  I did not quite have the tanks empty and spilled a bit of fuel but it was not much.   A 3/4" wrench was bunging-up the flats on the cap but a 3/4" crows-foot wrench worked better (pic 2).  There are two o-rings in it that would be good to change.  If not you may get a faint fuel odor as the o-rings age.  I could not find a spec but they measure-out as an AN568-011 which is 5/16" ID X 7/16" OD x 1/16" CS and an AN 568-115 which is 11/16" ID x 7/8" OD x 3/32" CS.  I get them from the O-ring Store but a hardware might them.

 

[Kent Ashton]

I've been discussing Ellisons (throttle body carbs - TBI) with a chap who had his engine fail right after takeoff but managed to get back to the airport.   Here are some pics of my Ellison.  Mine has not been touched in 750 hours.  It seems that they need to be removed and cleaned at about 500 hours or so.  We are both seeing a rather gummy avgas residue around the small pressure probe in the carb throat (pics 1).  His was worse than mine.  My slide was very dirty on the upstream side of the slide (pic 2).   My engine has not been running right lately either.  I thought it was ignition but it might be the carb.  I will have a poke around and add "Squirts of carb cleaner in the TBI" to my condition-inspection routine.  I suggest if you have one of these to make a more thorough inspection at 500 hr. intervals.

Ellison TBIs were fairly pricey in their day and it cost me $415+shipping to get one overhauled a few years ago.  I see that Rotec has a $900 model for the O-360s.  In one of his videos, the Rotec guy was very complimentary of Ellison's technology and started making his own when Ellison's patent expired.  I see that Rotec offers a rebuilding kit that Ben Ellison did not offer.  The Rotec looks like a bolt-in replacement for an Ellison.  https://store.rotecaerosport.com/rotec-mkii-tbi-48-4-5

Compare to $3255 for a true fuel injection system with the extra lines, high pressure pumps, flow dividers and nozzles.

At $900 + $125 shipping from Oz, there's no question that I'd use an Ellison/Rotec TBI again.  They are very simple and AFAICT, give you 85% of the fuel efficiency you'd get from true fuel injection.  My engine has always started on the first blade (unless I forgot to turn the fuel on).  I've found there is no rough-transition when leaning a TBI as there was with a Marvel carb.  Due to the good atomization, it just gets leaner and leaner until the engine won't run anymore.  However, they are more sensitive to intake geometry.  On my Long-ez project I had to add a honeycomb air-straightener between the air filter and the TBI which helped that roughness a lot.  See  https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/18661-kents-long-ez-project/?do=findComment&comment=59119  On the Cozy I never had an problem

 

 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Kent Ashton

[A Bruce Hughes]

I got an Ellison for my O-320 from a builder that switched his engine to fuel injection.   I got it rebuilt by Ellison.  It was the last or one of the last that Ellison rebuilt.   I have just 45 hours on it and it has worked very well.    The incoming air flow is filtered and does make a 90 degree turn but it does that smoothly, I believe.   With a Plasma II E.I. from Klaus, starting is quick and smooth.  There has never been a fuel leakage problem.   I am amazed that some owners still use carburetors when they could have bought an Ellison or fuel injection.     

[Kent Ashton]

More pics of my Ellison TBI before cleanup.  I soaked it in Pinesol overnight, scrubbed with a toothbrush and a very light scotchbrite pad and it cleaned up pretty well.  There is a Bal seal that could be replaced (pic 4 is a generic Bal seal) as well as the white PTFE slide pieces but I didn't do that.  The slides look OK for now and replacing the Bal seal is a little more work.

As I said above, I hadn't cleaned mine in 750 hours and a friend found his pretty dirty at 166 hours so I would suggest that a 500 hour cleanup is warranted with a good spray of carb cleaner on the probe at every condition inspection.  After shutdown, the mixture tube leaks a teaspoon of gas out of the mixture tube onto the probe which leaves the greenish residue.  Also my tygon tube was hard as a rock.

In pic 3 you can see how it operates:  the balls in the two Grose Jet valves are glass (yikes!).  I don't why there are two valves.  They seem to do the same thing.  The diaphragm depresses the silver levers in the center which relax pressure and allow fuel to flow through the G.J. valves and into the wet side of the diaphragm and into the mixture tube hole which is in the center, thence to the mixture tube.  With the unit disassembled this far you can blow into the fuel inlet and gently depress the lever to check that the valves seal and don't have debris in them. 

If the small probe in the throat (see pics above) should get clogged or the tygon tube leaks there is no ram pressure to depress the diaphragm.   Maintenance!

Note: the two socket head (allen) screws that attach the arm which secures the control cable are a rather unusual size:  10-24 drilled head.  Spruce does not carry that size

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Kent Ashton