PIREP: LASAR Oil Cooler Relocation Kit

[Mooney-Shiner]

Since I had to replace my 20 yo oil cooler hoses, I decided to do the oil cooler relocation since the price of materials are pretty much the same. 

I decided to do the PIREP since I have seen SOME info on MS about this kit, but the details were always lacking. 

I received the kit pretty fast, but right away noticed some discrepancies:

1. The provided doubler plate with was not aligning with existing left rear baffle plate. The inboard fold was closer to the engine mount than on the original baffle.  LASAR told me to go ahead with the install as is.

2. The holes on the doubler plate were not aligning with my oil cooler. LASAR recommended to rim out the doubler holes until they align.

 

3. We (A&P and I) noticed that the cover plate didn't fit the hole left by the removed oil cooler. Not all the rivet holes were aligning to the cover plate and several would have a sufficient "bite" distance to hold the plate.

 

 

We made a template of present opening and rivet holes, and noticed that the cover was not aligning to cover all of the holes.

  

So it seems that we will have to skip some of the rivet holes to make this cover fit. I will contact LASAR to see what they want me to do.

More details to follow as we continue an install. This is an In-Progress Review, so thoughts and prayers are welcome.

[Sabremech]

One other thing you might check before cutting through your baffle and adding their doubler is to check the clearance of the oil cooler to the engine mount. I did one and found the cooler was too close to the engine mount for my comfort. Had to do some more modifying it to get clearance. 
I can’t really fault them for kit fit as each one of these birds was hand built and none are the same. 
David

[Mooney-Shiner]

1 minute ago, Sabremech said:

One other thing you might check before cutting through your baffle and adding their doubler is to check the clearance of the oil cooler to the engine mount. I did one and found the cooler was too close to the engine mount for my comfort. Had to do some more modifying it to get clearance. 
I can’t really fault them for kit fit as each one of these birds was hand built and none are the same. 
David

Thank you. I did read your post about it and was going to ask you a question about it. So far I didn't notice any potential striking of cooler against the mount. Do you have any photos of your install so i can visualize the problem?

How did your chin cover plate install go? Unrelated: I wish they still make the second taxi light STC replacement of cooler.

[Sabremech]

1 hour ago, ukrsindicat@yahoo.com said:

Thank you. I did read your post about it and was going to ask you a question about it. So far I didn't notice any potential striking of cooler against the mount. Do you have any photos of your install so i can visualize the problem?

How did your chin cover plate install go? Unrelated: I wish they still make the second taxi light STC replacement of cooler.

Let me dig back through my photos and see if I took any of that area specifically. I didn’t end up using the cover plate as I had a whole new lower cowl skin I riveted on after removing the aluminum skin. 
Thanks,

David

[Guest]

A sheet of aluminum and an English Wheel might allow you to make your own filler for the oil cooler hole.

[jamesm]

 

Did the  Oil cooler relocation kit come with power and ground battery cables was it more than just  oil cooler relocation involved i.e. Power Relay and/or starter relay ?

I take it you had to relocate your battery on the firewall to the old tube radio rack  near the tail?

 

Thanks,

James '67C

[47U]

7 hours ago, ukrsindicat@yahoo.com said:

I decided to do the PIREP since I have seen SOME info on MS about this kit, but the details were always lacking.

Not meaning to disparage… I agree that in this day in age we should expect form-fit-function.  But the Mooney line, especially true in the vintage airplanes, were hand-built.

In my active duty days, one OEM was consistent in their Service Bulletins to use the term “best shop practice.”

I hope your maintenance entity is able to overcome these limitations and you will be happy with the end result.  Hang in there.

[Mooney-Shiner]

1 hour ago, jamesm said:

 

Did the  Oil cooler relocation kit come with power and ground battery cables was it more than just  oil cooler relocation involved i.e. Power Relay and/or starter relay ?

I take it you had to relocate your battery on the firewall to the old tube radio rack  near the tail?

 

Thanks,

James '67C

James, my F has battery in the back. I do know that C has battery in the front

[Mooney-Shiner]

32 minutes ago, 47U said:

Not meaning to disparage… I agree that in this day in age we should expect form-fit-function.  But the Mooney line, especially true in the vintage airplanes, were hand-built.

In my active duty days, one OEM was consistent in their Service Bulletins to use the term “best shop practice.”

I hope your maintenance entity is able to overcome these limitations and you will be happy with the end result.  Hang in there.

Thank you. I definitely understand the need for manufacturing. I am far from being a perfectionist.  But I figured that I should communicate what I see since it is a PIREP.

[Mooney-Shiner]

I’m just doing some tinkering with dry fitting the set up and noticed that the included hoses are pretty long. It will be fun, stuffing them to avoid any kind of chafing. Kind of wish that they were half a foot shorter

[Mooney-Shiner]

Actually, not too bad once I turned the fittings on SW oil cooler. (Which was a pain to do since Pacific Oil Cooler Service used a Teflon tape to reinstall these 90s).

[jetdriven]

14 hours ago, M20Doc said:

A sheet of aluminum and an English Wheel might allow you to make your own filler for the oil cooler hole.

That part is art work but the joggle is even more work. FWIW the LASAR kit filler piece is chopped strand mat fiberglass. Easy to make with a mold. . 

[Pinecone]

7 hours ago, jetdriven said:

FWIW the LASAR kit filler piece is chopped strand may fiberglass. Easy to make with a mold. . 

And lighter and strong if made from cloth.  And chopped strand is normally polyester resin, not epoxy.

[jetdriven]

It’s made with polyester resin. In this case it’s adequate but it isn’t for gear doors, for example. 

[Pinecone]

No reason these days to use polyester resin, except for chopper gun.  And no reason to use chopper gun for ANY aircraft part (higher weight, lower strength).

[Steve0715]

The class of resins, polyester (also known as “boat resin”) refers to orthophthalic resin.  This is a relatively cheap resin that has poor strength properties.  If used on parts subject to vibration, they will fail.  A next step up is isophthalic resins.  Big improvement from orthos.  The next step up would be vinyl ester resins.  This is a hybrid of the polyester and epoxy chemistries.  This would be, for me, a minimum level if i were making an aircraft part. 
 

all of these resins can be used identically in fabrication.  Chopper gun, hand layup, or resin infusion.

Then you have to consider the reinforcement.  C glass?  E glass?  Kevlar?  Carbon fiber?  Chopped strand mat?  Cloth?  Axial designs?  Combo?

Lots of choices.  Each has a place.

If I were building an aircraft part, I would use epoxy (west systems) with a light e-glass chopped strand mat then carbon fiber.  The minimum would be vinyl ester and e-glass.

my opinion as a chemical engineer who spent 30 plus years in FRP before turning it over to the kids.

[Pinecone]

Why would you use mat or chopper?  Very low strength compared to any of the cloth options.  And thick, therefore heavy.  Also, hard to get the glass resin ratio near optimum.

For most uses, I use WEST System epoxy and some form of cloth.  For most parts, you don't need anything special in the cloth, just the appropriate weight.

Best is to vacuum bag, but blotting well can get a good glass/resin ratio.

 

 

[A64Pilot]

Any fiberglass part that’s forward of the firewall needs to be made from fire resistant resin, I don’t think West Systems is, but agree it’s among the best and easiest to use with the pumps etc.

Chopped is junk, it’s one use is to bulk out a part, used in cheap boats because it’s cheap and fast and requires little skill, but builds an over weight under strength boat.

For compound curves etc composite is much easier than an English wheel, reason you see it on wing tips etc, where back in the day it was either wheeled of hammered out with sand bags, both requiring skills that are rare now, but sometimes pressed of course.

[A64Pilot]

1 hour ago, Pinecone said:

 

Best is to vacuum bag, but blotting well can get a good glass/resin ratio.

 

 

Squeege, ones like the plastic spatula’s used for bondo, big parts even the ones used for windows.

[jetdriven]

On 12/5/2022 at 1:23 PM, ukrsindicat@yahoo.com said:

Since I had to replace my 20 yo oil cooler hoses, I decided to do the oil cooler relocation since the price of materials are pretty much the same. 

I decided to do the PIREP since I have seen SOME info on MS about this kit, but the details were always lacking. 

I received the kit pretty fast, but right away noticed some discrepancies:

1. The provided doubler plate with was not aligning with existing left rear baffle plate. The inboard fold was closer to the engine mount than on the original baffle.  LASAR told me to go ahead with the install as is.

2. The holes on the doubler plate were not aligning with my oil cooler. LASAR recommended to rim out the doubler holes until they align.

 

3. We (A&P and I) noticed that the cover plate didn't fit the hole left by the removed oil cooler. Not all the rivet holes were aligning to the cover plate and several would have a sufficient "bite" distance to hold the plate.

 

 

We made a template of present opening and rivet holes, and noticed that the cover was not aligning to cover all of the holes.

  

So it seems that we will have to skip some of the rivet holes to make this cover fit. I will contact LASAR to see what they want me to do.

More details to follow as we continue an install. This is an In-Progress Review, so thoughts and prayers are welcome.

You can add more fiberglass to that close out plate to give it some room to pick up those rivet holes but still you shouldn’t have to build onto something that you already bought

[jetdriven]

We’ve rebuilt and reinforced a lot of fiberglass around here, and we pretty much always use 7781 Aircraft fiberglass and you can use MGS or Aeropoxy seeing as how they’re  both structural Aircraft epoxies. The latter is easier to buy in a quart kit.