Air Induction Box Drain Hole and J Ram Air Removal

[65C_flier]

Is there is supposed to be a drain hole in the bottom of the air induction box as shown in the picture (78J, but I assume it would apply to most models)? I guess it makes sense to drain water if it got in there somehow, but I would have thought  the engine would always be sucking a bit of unfiltered air through there.

We plan to incorporate SI M20-93 to remove the ram air, but we can't seem to get a kit. Looks easy enough to make the kit. Does anyone happen to know the thickness of thr blanking plate? I'm guessing around 0.032".

Thanks.

Edited September 30, 2021 by 65C_flier
add pic

[ArtVandelay]

With the amount of air the engine takes in, that small hole would only let a minuscule of unfiltered air in, and obviously nothing bigger than the hole.
My AP took care of removing the ram air without the kit so don’t know details, but don’t forget to repair the baffling as well:

[N201MKTurbo]

The drain hole is important, If your plane is sitting outside in a driving rain storm, your intake will fill full of water without it. It happened to me recently. I ended up making a cowl plug for the left side so the rain can't get to the air filter.

My turbo system doesn't have a drain hole in its intake so the turbo filled full of water. The plane wouldn't start, I pulled the plugs and they were all wet. I dried them, pulled the intake pipe from the turbo, drained the water and blew it dry with compressed air. Went and flew it for about 1/2 hour. It worked fine.

[Will.iam]

On 9/30/2021 at 1:01 PM, N201MKTurbo said:

The drain hole is important, If your plane is sitting outside in a driving rain storm, your intake will fill full of water without it. It happened to me recently. I ended up making a cowl plug for the left side so the rain can't get to the air filter.

My turbo system doesn't have a drain hole in its intake so the turbo filled full of water. The plane wouldn't start, I pulled the plugs and they were all wet. I dried them, pulled the intake pipe from the turbo, drained the water and blew it dry with compressed air. Went and flew it for about 1/2 hour. It worked fine.

Do you have a picture of your homemade cowl plug? Where did you get the materials?

[EricJ]

5 minutes ago, Will.iam said:

Do you have a picture of your homemade cowl plug? Where did you get the materials?

FWIW, the one's Bruce's makes are quite good and not terribly expensive.    I use a set when travelling if it's going to be parked on the ramp for a while.

https://aircraftcovers.com/M201

[Will.iam]

1 minute ago, EricJ said:

FWIW, the one's Bruce's makes are quite good and not terribly expensive.    I use a set when travelling if it's going to be parked on the ramp for a while.

https://aircraftcovers.com/M201

Thanks but that is for the air scoops in front and i want a plug for my turbo naca scoop on the right side of the cowl that goes to my turbo air-filter housing as i could see how that could fill up with water with a hard rain. 

[N201MKTurbo]

27 minutes ago, Will.iam said:

Thanks but that is for the air scoops in front and i want a plug for my turbo naca scoop on the right side of the cowl that goes to my turbo air-filter housing as i could see how that could fill up with water with a hard rain. 

My plane is a 201 with a turbo. The cowl plugs that Eric mentioned are essentially what I made. I made mine out of 2" polyethylene foam.

[Will.iam]

Humm i guess my search continues maybe mooney went to that Naca side scoop to address this issue although i think it was more for eliminating icing than water. Since my plane stays in a hanger i would be bummed if i was at an outstation overnight with heavy rains and got stranded. I wish my canopy cover went over more of the cowl to include the scoop but it doesn’t. I’ll have to look next time the cowl is off at the bottom of the filter housing to see if there is a drain hole.  Has any 252 owners had this problem come up?

[blaine beaven]

I can confirm my 78J has a drain hole as in your picture. After my last annual I had to pull the cowls for something and got really excited about all the oil in the inside middle of the bottom cowl; I then recalled that shortly after the annual I had been flying through some heavy rain. Sure enough a lot of the oil that was on the new air filter ended up coming out the drain hole and dripped onto the cowl. Something I had yet to experience but made me more conscious of that drain hole.


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