Yamma-Fox

Sweet sound of power!

Congrats Willis!  A lot of work to get there, but I bet hearing it run makes it all worth it!

Way cool guys!

And thanks Teal!   I'll give ya a call here in a couple days.

I'm down in AZ for the month (payson-phx area).  Plan to meet teal and check out his adapter while I'm here.  Can you PM me if you think the AZ Yamaha Avid owner would be open to showing off his machine?(assumimg it is somewhat nearby)

Sure would be cool to see that!

Looking good Willis!

Just make sure you do a Weight & Balance on that setup before you fly.

Thinking she might be a little tail heavy with the Chevy mounted in that location.

Just ordered the newer design that goes in the vent line from kitfox.  Like $180. 

Really not sure what it is going to look like yet, but can send some pics when it shows up.

Ok.  Double checked it.  All the keepers are in there and looking good. Must have been a shadow in that pic.

Also pulled apart the oil pump, and that was looking good too.

So best guess I have is that some stray part (likely a foreign part) rattled around in there and got beat up... ended up mostly in the oil tank, with a few small pieces making their way down into the filter.

Guessing again here, but I think it has been in there for awhile and did relatively little damage.  I would guess it has been running a while like this.

Also, I have been in contact with the prev owner and he has been very helpful with ideas and options.  We did settle on his offer to cover an  half of the estimated cost to rebuild.  I thought that was very fair and was impressed with how he stood behind his airplane (and the condition he believed he was selling it in).

So now I am back to the big decision on whether to rebuild or repower.  Everyone on the forum who has weighed in has advised to go with the rebuild, whereas my gut feeling has been to repower.

So I guess I will probably let it sit here for the deep part of the MN winter here and contimplate the options.  The $11,000 crate from lotus floats has arrived, so i think I will divert to that project first, and take on the powerplant after that is done.

Thanks again to everyone for helping out with this!  And if you are checking in, thanks Paul for standing behind your old bird!!

I have the cheap pair as well.  Over 5000 hours of flying in lots of planes.  Still working amd holding up like new!

Bearing cage wouldn't be plastic though.. right?

I was thinking mangled up zip tie or plastic sleeve/washer.

Mysterious nonetheless!  And that painted piece earlier...

Yeah i checked and all the keepers were there, but ill double check cause the pic makes me doubt myself!

Ok.  Peeked around under the valve covers.... everything looking pretty good.

Noticed some light scuffing / scoring on two piston skirts, but it appears to be fairly minor.  Tried to get a pic of that but it was really a tough spot. Might see a little in the window between the pushrods:

Also pulled a few oil lines and the oil check valve (keeps oil from tank from draining down into motor when not in use).  There i found a little fod in pic below.  One ferrous piece, some red rtv, and a flexible plastic piece.

Next I will pull oil pump and take it apart.  From looking at the oil system, it seems like that is where more fod would get trapped.

Give tony up at Twisted Metal Racing a call.  I got one from him with a clutch last month.  I got a great deal with the can exchange rate.  Sounded like he had a few more.

You can never have too many guns.. 

Ya got us beat too jim.  About 13" in park rapids.

Was gonna take the rx1 out tomorrow and see how.she runs.

Thinkin I better keep the speed up out on the lakes eh?

Right, I rescind.  I made a mistake and confused the headers made for the turbo application.

The only N/A headers I found are for the injected (apex) and apper to be marketed not for performance gain, but to replace the factory titanium headers which proved to be brittle.

http://mbrpsnow.com/index.php?page=products&part=134

The reason I posted the question was to see what people's opinions of the stock header were.  I am trying to collect parts for my project and since it appears that the stock headers perform well in the sled (which I guess is supported by the fact that aftermarket companies have no offerings), I  wondered if they could be fit into the airplane and if they were found to work adequately.

Sorry for the mistake!

Yeah I was just thinking that the stock snowmo is supposed to be in that 130-140 hp range, so it must be breathing fairly well right?

That said, yes they made aftermarket headers for the sled that give further improvements (and look really sweet like Steve and Willis').  Guess it just depends on how much performance you want to eek out.

Did you per chance try to see if the snowmo header would work?

I see that greg at Mohawk Aero runs a few of his setups with the stock header.

Been busy taking care of domestic duties and junk here.  Going to work tonight.  Back mon night so I'll plan to have a look next week.  I'll put up some pics from under the valve cover.

More for the archive:  CARB CLEANING 

The guys in the rx1 snowmo forum talk quite frequently about the importance of keeping these carbs clean.  Most of them do it once a year.

Here is a great post with schematics, how to, and tips:

http://www.ty4stroke.com/threads/carb-cleaning-tips-and-procedure.97997/#post-869705

Of course there are some YouTube vids as well!

Next two pics are plumbing through firewall.

The fwd of firewall pic shows the "t" that sends fluid through firewall where my finger is pointing.

Controls include a switch for the fans, and a cable to the shut off valve

For the archives:  anyone interested in cabin heat add on.

Here's a few pics from my KF5 

It has the cabin heat option from kitfox

Pic below shows heater core with 2 fans on top, inlet and outlet lines.  Valve that shuts off coolant flow.

This is cockpit side of firewall, above rudder pedals,  heater is behind the instrument panel.  It has pvc plumbing that runs hot air up to defrost (white tube in pic) and another aimed towards feet.

Ok had to head to the barn to pick up snowmos (supposed to get a foot of snow here tomorrow night).  

Got some pics of the cabin heater, I'll post a new topic so that anyone else looking can find it easier, and I dont want to hijack here.

My kf5 has a heater core and fan (kitfox option)

I'll shoot some pics of the system for ya as soon as i get back to the plane.

Another thing you could do is duct off the back of the main radiator.  Run the duct up into the cabin with an air gate.  Just make sure that you are not downstream of the exhaust outlet!!

Keep your pics and updates coming!!

It really does look like a valve keeper!

And the prev owner did do a valve job on it, but it was about 100 hours ago.

And most of of the f.o.d. was in the oil tank (just downline from the oil pan).  Only those two small flakes in the filter.  I bought a filter opener and found nothing (big or small) in the filter material

Thanks guys!

Yeah the paint on that one big piece really makes me scratch my head!  It's got a washer like look to it.  Valve keeper is about right, but engine was seemingly running fine.  Pulling valve covers next time I'm out there is easy enough though.

And the quote from Colorado rebuilders is 2500-4000+ depending on what got "crunched" (ie crankshaft).  He was also concerned that the 118hp variant may use different pistons, cams, shaved head, ect. Which would complicate the rebuild.

That is a bit out of the budget.

So a less professional rebuild is the next option I guess....

Just don't know how far I want to go trying to revive this old injured horse!

Low Ball him Jim!