A bit puzzled by Baffles

[DBeaulieu]

Need a bit of insight from those that may be able to help. I'm in the process of slowly trimming and fitting a Vans baffle kit on my IO-360. Overall, somewhat intuitive with nicely detailed instruction and diagrams. It has become apparent from my work so far and reading on this forum that it seems like I will have to get the nose bowl, the cowling support angles placed/fabricated before I can get the baffles completed. Then the cowl skins fabricated and fitted up to trim baffle tops and place the seals from baffle tops to cowl. Does this sound like the process involved? How far can I go with the baffles before I can hang the prop and nose bowl?

Follow on questions (1) I do have interference with a cylinder head oil drain tube and baffle plate on the right accessory case (see pic). Not sure how the completed assembly is suppose to fit, but is this trimmable to a certain degree. I assume the drilled hole in the flange is for safety wire or a rod to connect baffle pieces front to back? I don't know!
(2) The right side accessory baffle is right up against the top aft cooling fins of the #3 cylinder. I've seen one video where that section is cut out and boxed out another 1/2" or so to allow cooling flow thru and down more easily across the fins.(see red outline in pic) Anyone doing this or is it not a problem?

Lots of words for what I think is a simple, though new situation for me. Thanks for any and all replies.

Cheers (Dave from Maine)

Right rear case baffle interference 2 small.jpg Right rear case baffle interference 1 small.jpg Right rear case baffle clearance required small.jpg

[gregc]

I'll take the easy question! Yes, in the second picture the hole is there so you can wire them together, front to back. The Vans kit may have come with some pieces of nylon tubing to thread the wire through and prevent it from cutting into things that it shouldn't. One you pull the wire tight, the curved sections will pull up quite a bit which will eliminate the interference you see now.

[DBeaulieu]

gregc Okay, that helps. Looking thru the pieces there is indeed some nylon tubing!

[rodsmith]

In the Van's 6 cylinder baffle kit they provided 1/8th stainless rod to pull the cylinder shrouds together utilizing those flange holes. You were supposed to size it and cut threads on each end. I tried two different dies and could not cut threads in the stainless. Ending up replacing the rods with mild steel.

[DBeaulieu]

aft center baffle brace.jpg Another baffle issue...I need to place an aft center bracket. Lot of interference with engine hoist attachment and the fuel injector line from the spider to the cylinder. Open for ideas and discussion. I am thinking it would be possible to route the injector line differently (if material is available to do so or fabricate another one?) to go across the top of the bracket and put a spacer(s) for the cushion clamps on the case half and pushrod tube if required. Then I could also just remove the engine hoist attachment. Would be easy enough to put back on after removing the aft center bracket when needing to hoist the engine? Someone give me a sanity check and other ideas!

[gregc]

Just my 2 cents but I would modify/re-design the bracket rather than change the injector lines.

[rodsmith]

Don't be afraid to move what you need to, including the injector line. I had to move one for a different issue. My rear baffle ended up being way shorter, i had to modify that bracket quite a bit.

[Nev]

I was able to move the engine lifting bracket to another case bolt location on mine which then gave plenty of clearance.

[alaskabearhawk]

I found the Van’s kit to be a good starting point, but that’s about it. I did about a 30 part entry in my Kitlog on this subject. I just made a new bracket. It’s not hard to make and you could go around your injector line if you wanted to. http://www.mykitlog.com/users/displa...=304519&row=47

[Bcone1381]

Screenshot 2025-02-26 at 5.58.16 PM.png Screenshot 2025-02-26 at 5.59.43 PM.png
The first photo is your photo. The second one is from this thread an vans airforce. https://vansairforce.net/threads/baffle-mod.37835/

The thread describes a cylinder cooling problem that RV's often times face. The casting on the cylinder is such it dams up air with there tight baffles. There are lots of fixes but they all allow air to pass around to deal with the issue of hot CHT's on cylinder 2 and 3 due to the casting/baffle issue.

RE: the cylinder 3 aft baffle. Make sure you are able to access the oil pressure by pass valve. I had high oil pressure and had to remove the baffling because it conflicted with the By-pass valve housing.