Damazio family's RV-10 project: Aft baffle trimming and mods

I continued the baffles by priming and attaching the aft baffle bracket to the top of the engine case:

Aft baffle bracket secured to the engine

I also trimmed the corner of the right rear baffle to clear the EFII injector:

Rear baffle corner, trimmed to clear the #6 injector

I aligned the Aerosport engine mount cover to the baffle, then drilled attachment holes and nutplate holes on the baffle, carefully positioning those holes so they don't interfere with the engine attachment "ears" behind the baffle:

Drilling engine mount cover attachment holes into rear baffle

Marking position of the left engine mount cover on the baffle

Rear baffle with engine mount cover nutplate holes drilled

The position of the attachment holes is pretty important in this case, to avoid hitting any part of the engine - notably the bottom one, which leaves the nutplate nested inside the engine mounting bracket:

Engine attachment ear structure

Engine mount cover nutplate holes, avoiding the engine attachment ears

Bottom engine mount cover nutplate holes, narrowly avoiding the engine attachment ear's inner structure

It was then time to make the famous baffle mod to increase airflow around the #6 cylinder - I cut off a corner of the rear baffle, and then trimmed and bent a cover to allow air to flow with an offset:

Rear baffle marked for trimming

Baffle mod cover match-drilled to the rear baffle

Baffle mod cover with flanges bent

I then trimmed the bent flanges to roughly fit within that structure, and it'll ultimately be sealed with red RTV.

After some trimming of the rear baffles themselves, I also match-drilled the aft bracket into them, firmly positioning them on the engine:

Aft braffle bracket match-drilled into rear baffles

I then used the clip method to trim the top of the baffles (starting with the aft 4 cylinders and rear baffles, progressively trimming until until cowl both sat at the right height (supported by the Skybolts and our spacers, not by the baffles), and then further until the clips showed a gap of 3/8" from the cowl:

Clips showing the distance from the cowl top edges to the baffles

Clips inside the cowl showing the distance to the rear baffle top edges

Clips inside the cowl showing the distance to the side baffle top edges

The corners required some visual attention too, since the cowl was hitting them first, and some spaces are too narrow for the clips:

Cowl hitting the baffle corner even though the clips show some distance

Last but not least, I couldn't (to my surprise) find spark plug wire seals for the wires to securely go through the baffles, so I designed some (and included a 4th hole in one of them for the EFII temperature sensor) - I initially printed a prototype with MJF (which doesn't tolerate as high temperatures), assuming I'd need to adjust them:

Prototype spark plug wire passthrus, printed with MJF

Of course, since I built a prototype first, there was nothing to fix - so I ordered the final versions printed in Ultem 1010. The Ultem printing doesn't look nearly as nice the MJF, but it's more resistant to heat, so I'll keep it: