Patrol Engine Mount

[VentusA]

I'm looking for a source to quickly build an engine mount for a Patrol/IO 360 (ideally someone who has built one before!).
We've been ready to hang the engine for several months now, and really need to find someone to build us a mount.

[Utah-Jay]

Have you thought about buying one from Virgil?

[spinningwrench]

The Dynafocal engine mount I received with my Bearhawk Quickbuild kit was seriously off to the point it would not mount on the engine despite two A&P's helping me and struggling several hours with it. I ended up building one starting with a Dynafocal Ring from Aircraft Spruce. All bolts now go in with light finger pressure. I believe Virgil has addressed this problem but you might want a discussion first.

[VentusA]

Thanks for the inputs.

I've been speaking with Virgil for the last four months about this, and while he has been working on the problem, there are as yet no correctly fabricated mounts available (and no projected delivery date).

I'm to the point I really need to hang the engine, and Spinningwrench's suggestion to build one around the Aircraft Spruce Dynafocal Ring may be the best way to go...

[Steve W]

I think I may have found a factory mount available. Not sure if the mount was of the same batch that had trouble fitting to the engine. A buddy made a conical mount for Oriana Kononchuk and she still should have her kit mount available. If you have a scratch built fuselage I might suggest you build one for yourself. Scratch built parts are normally a “one of” when it comes to mating to factory built parts. There isn’t much you can do if it doesn’t fit other than cut and weld so you might as well go that route. Too bad the fuse isn’t bare to help with alignment. If you do go that way, may be a loaner case would help too rather than placing a fully assembled engine up front for the mockup. Also if you have access to a metal lathe, turn down some round stock and make up aluminum bushings that simulate the thickness of the compressed rubber mounts. I think they compress to a 2”’spacer.

[VentusA]

Thanks Steve W.!

I sent you a PM

[podo]

Ventus, I have the same issue as spinningwrench and am also waiting for a solution from Virgil. I heard from him last on June 27 and he had just received his Patrol prototype ring and attempted the fit up. His comment was, "We are going back to the drawing board." You can get a very nice Patrol mount from VR3 in Canada but it is breathtakingly expensive and and come August 1st, 35% more breathtaking.

[spinningwrench]

I actually designed my mount in Solidworks and had VR3 cut the tubing. They offered to weld it up which I hadn’t considered but I took them up on their offer. Their weldments are a thing of beauty. It turns out they make all the engine mounts for Cirrus so they get lots of practice. There have actually been several lengths of engine mounts for the Patrol that VR3 was familiar with. I chose to duplicate the length of the one I received with my kit.

[Steve W]

Just for curiosity sake, were all the Patrol engine mounts not useable or just a run of a production period? Serial numbers affected?

[Steve W]

From my little bit of experience with dynafocal mounts, one must struggle to get an engine mounted to it. The alignment of the bolts through the cups and engine are only centered in the cups when the isolators are compressed against the inside bushing. If there is an easy insert of all four bolts before torquing, then I would think that they will not be centered in the cups when torqued. I do know the larger Barry mounts with the gel packs are a much easier fit but the smaller isolators, especially the heavy duty models are tough to do. From what I’ve learned the last few days, don’t give up on your factory mounts. And I’m not trying to kick the bee hive here, I’m just relating my experiences as others have.

[spinningwrench]

A difficult to use Dynafocal mount is really an urban legend. The Dynafocal ring I received from Aircraft Spruce easily mounted to the engine with no wrestling. I also made a trip to American Champion Aircraft to investigate Dynafocal mounts since they use and build them on several models of their aircraft. They demonstrated how the bolts easily slide into position. It takes a very good welder with good technique and an accurate jig to pull these off as any distortion in the mounting ring will make for a difficult mount on the engine. When tackling this project I was very concerned to hear of builders going to extremes like using a Come A Long to distort their engine mount to get it to fit. One doesn't want that kind of residual stress in a very important structure.

[paulodonnell]

I have a stock (recent) kit build engine mount for an O-360 that I won't be using as I'm going for a UL520 motor. I'll be travelling to Oshkosh next Sunday from Ireland if that's of any interest to anyone?