** It takes time to trim the baffling to fit the cowl. They go on and off about a dozen times, trimming and marking each time. I've finally got it to fit just right. The rubber seal still needs to be added but that won’t happen until the cowl is fastened on.

** I took a trip to Erie, Colorado and picked up my MTV-18 prop. It was getting refurbished. When I got home the Vetterman exhaust and new lower cowl were waiting for me.

** I installed the exhaust and it fit well. I don't know where I will be placing the heat muff yet but it looks like it will only fit on the crossover right under the engine.

** The engine mount was again separated from the firewall so the penetrations could be made for the throttle and mixture cable eyeball feed -throughs.

** The aluminum elbows for the oil cooler hoses were changed to steel.

** I connected the cable to the cabin heat box door.

** The major crisis now was discovered late on the 21st. To fit the cowl, the prop needs to be installed so the location of the rear edge of the spinner is known. The cowl gets spaced off that location. I found that the prop has 1/2" bolts and the engine prop flange has 3/8" inserts. The insert bushings cannot be replaced with 1/2" inserts. MT says since the prop is a constant speed and going on a 180hp engine the bolts must be 1/2". Continental Engines was informed of this before they assembled the engine. Nick at Arion Aircraft is working the problem. They need to replace the engine with the right one. The plan for now is to keep on fitting things to the engine and whatever else I can do. This is in the hope that Continental will exchange engines for the right one. They send a replacement, I pull the one I have now and ship it back using the crate the replacement comes in.

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