Baffles

[The-sky-captain]

I am going to replace my lower rubber baffeling at my next oil change being that it is starting to show wear. Any suggestions on a specific type or place to purchase?

[KSMooniac]

Bodie, do you been the baffle seals?  I replaced my entire set of seals with a pre-cut kit that I got from Willmar...it was probably a Mooney part number that could be ordered through any MSC though.  Alternatively, you could just get a 3" wide roll of the silicone stuff reinforced with fiberglass from Aircraft Spruce or similar and cut your own using the old stuff as a pattern, but if the old stuff is worn too much you might not get the full pattern and you would have to guess a bit.

[The-sky-captain]

I purchased the precut kit from Gee Bee. The owner of the companys name is Guy and he is extremely helpful and very friendly to talk to. It cost me $135 including the rivets. He said replacing rubber seals that are only five years old with new seals can reduce CHT temps up to 20 degrees. Apparentely the rubber disenegrates fairly quickly. I hope to get some good results being that it looks as if my bottom set of seals are original. I've been have trouble keeping my #4 cylinder cool so we'll see... Plus they are a pretty blue:)

[The-sky-captain]

New baffling seals dropped my CHTs about 10-15 degrees. The old seals were not customized for a 201 so the big hump in the cowling had not been accounted for resulting in a lot of air loss in that area. The job took about 6 hours to do the upper and lower.

[Mcstealth]

Quote: The-sky-captain

New baffling seals dropped my CHTs about 10-15 degrees. The old seals were not customized for a 201 so the big hump in the cowling had not been accounted for resulting in a lot of air loss in that area. The job took about 6 hours to do the upper and lower.

[The-sky-captain]

Quote: Mcstealth

 Congratulations.  I bet you could do the job in four hours next time

[MikeinFL]

Hi guys,   I tried to find the "Gee Bee" Baffle kit on the Internet and and on aircraft spruce's website and could find anything?

 

Can someone please point me in the right direction?

 

THANKS!! 

[OR75]

Call Guy Ginby at Gee-Bee Products 800-556-3160 

[jetdriven]

I also have the Gee Bee kit, it took 4 hours to install on an M20J and lowered my CHT by 30-40 degrees on average.   It was about 110$ but it saved me a few hours of labor cutting the straight silicone stock. The old baffles were in terrible shape.

[tony]

I need to replace mine too.  There is just so much other TLC that needs to come first.  I was going to use this stuff, when the time came.  Do you think it's worth the extra money?

http://mcfarlaneaviation.com/Details.aspx?ID=72638557&Article=187

 

[bnicolette]

Good article about doing your baffling:

http://www.n252q.com/2007/09/baffled-about-baffling.html

[jetdriven]

I've never seen a worn out cowl. I think this is a fear created by the seller of something to alleviate that fear.  One guy has 10K hours on his M20J, ask him if he has a worn out cowl from seal chafe.

[bnicolette]

I've never heard of that either from the baffling.

Question for you guys though?  Off topic but it has to do with the cowl.  My cowl will shift ever so slightly up during flight?  Is there anyway to correct that?  Is it from the fasteners being a little sloppy perhaps?  What is a good fix?

[jetdriven]

Ours does it too, the top cowl rides up onto the boot cowl.

Speak with Robert at LASAR. They make a cowl repair kit for 120$ for the M20J. Basically, they replace some top boot cowl camloc receptacles with fixed instead of floating mounts, put screws and nutplates instead of camlocks in the 4 spots behind the spinner, and add a riveted piece on the bottom of the cowl to rigidly fix it into place with some screws. The cowl cannot ride up any more and chip your boot cowl paint.  Then you can epoxy the worn holes in your cowl where the camlocs go and they won't wear anymore either.

 

[bnicolette]

Great!!  Thanks Byron.

I thought I remember reading here or somewhere online that some of the cowls do this and there is a fix for it.  I will definitely get in touch with them.  Do you happen to use any anti chaff tape on your cowl where it meets the fusealage or cowl halfs?.  There is something on mine, but it appears it has been there for a while so I thought I might replace it.  Any suggestions or experience with a product for that?

I did my cowl flaps a while back with a kit from Lasar to tighten them up and they are as solid as can be.............at the moment.

 

[jetdriven]

At the annual we are likely going to install the cowl fix kit and apply anti chafe tape from Aircraft Spruce to the boot cowl, the gear doors, and maybe the fuselage where the tail pivots.

[bnicolette]

Quote: jetdriven

At the annual we are likely going to install the cowl fix kit and apply anti chafe tape from Aircraft Spruce to the boot cowl, the gear doors, and maybe the fuselage where the tail pivots.

[jetdriven]

Let us know how it goes regarding the LASAR kit.  Our cowl rides up onto the boot cowl too.   You will like the Gee Bee baffle kit.   I should send you a photo how it goes on there is not detailed directions, and they are all cut into different pieces.

[bnicolette]

Byron, anything you have that will help would be outstanding and I would be most appreciative. 

bnicolette@yahoo.com

I will definitely take pictures/video along the way.

Thank you!!

[KSMooniac]

When you install the LASAR cowl fix kit, make special effort to force the cowl all the way down before drilling the holes for the lower strap pieces that are connected to the cowl with the machine screws, otherwise it won't work as well.

[fantom]

Quote: Bnicolette

 

[jetdriven]

It is 4 machine screws behind the spinner and two more on the firewall toward the bottom.    

[jetdriven]

It would be easy to put nutplates behind the spinner.  Parts catalog I think shows screws there.   Jim, can you check if it's fixed or floating nut plates on your upper boot cowl?

[jackn]

Just Insalled new pre-cut baffling kit.

[KSMooniac]

The OEM configuration uses small camlocs (2 per side) on either side of the cowl right behind the spinner.  I suspect your holes got enlarged enough over time to let the camlocs slip out easily, and they were replaced with the nutplates and machine screws.