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| Few days after buying new 1,6l engine it was installed to the craft. | |||
| Some other modifications were also done. Most of them have been in list for some time now and because of necessary work with engine time was used to implement these other minor modifications too. | |||
| Routing of radiator hoses: Sevtec plans indicate that radiator hoses as well as control cables and wiring for the engine should be routed to engine bay low and then taken up to appropriate locations in the engine. According to Barry Palmer other Explorer users haven't reported any problems with engine cooling. However, i feel that routing hoses against natural flow in the system decreased the efficiency and this maybe contributing to the heating problems i've experienced. I chose to route top hose in a way that it goes slightly up to radiator. | |||
| New thrust torque tube: I used the method that is used in Sevtec videos. Thread bars hold propeller and sheave together spaced by separate pipes over thread bars. I used aluminium pipes of appropriate diameter, but material thickness was way too thin for the applicationa and signs of wear and tear were obvious after winter. I kept a constant eye on this though and checked often that it's still a one piece. New system consist of 100mm (4") aluminium tube of 3mm thickness and 6mm flanges welded to both ends. Contacts surfaces of th flanges have been machined after welding so they are parallel. Thread bars are still used, but first the outer most nut are tightened and then nut placed in thread bars between flanges are tightened outwards. New system is much more rigid and i believe i don't have to worry about that anymore. Also this new system is made longer than the already updated older system was. This is because blades really seem to shake back and forth remarkably when engine is started. | |||
| Lowering the radiator: This wasn't planned in advance, it was more like instant decision to try this too. We had discussed it sure, but decision to make it occured to me while i was already inside the fan bay making new hole for radiator hose. As one of the fans was removed it was relatively easy to crawl inside of fan bay and make couple of new hardpoints to move the radiator. | |||
| Engine cover: This was more like enhancing the existing structure. Tarp hood had to be pierced for top hose to go through and aluminium plate i have at the back of the engine had shaken broken underneath the screws and we fixed this with really innovative solutions - bigger washers... Seriously i have to come up with something better for this. Maybe using thicker aluminium or shape it in a way it becomes more rigid. | |||
| Skirt patching: I don't if it was the towing and dragging the craft ashore or was it bad seams while patching the skirt in winter time on ice, but partition skirt was partially loose. I did couple of test runs without fixing it and craft was kinda tilted which it wasn't before so i guess it was the dragging ashore that damaged the skirt. It was patched with heatgun and leather gloves: heat gun used to warm the vinyl and leather gloves used pressing seam together withour burning fingers. | |||
| Before finally putting in the thrust prop we ran the engine several times to see it works and has no hidden features. We started these test drives already before transporting it over the river by simply running it a short time before hauling it. First longer test in craft and the temp needle climbed to 90C (194F). We removed the thermostat and it was running 60-65C (140-150F). New thermostat fixed this and we did run it warm couple of times after that too basicly to see it works and to adjust the timing. But there wasn't much load on the engine, just the two fans and after actual test drive we had to change distributor cap and thing rotatign inside of that cap. | |||