Well Today would have been much more productive if I didn’t go in the garage. The first thing that happened was the power supply I bought a month ago would not work. I wrote an email asking for a replacement so hopefully that gets sorted.

I then mistakenly threaded an NPT fitting into my oil cooler only to realize after it wouldn’t get very tight until all the threads were engaged that it was in fact M22 threads and I ruined the threads on the oil cooler... hopefully I can weld a new boss on.

After being mad at myself for that, I assembled my injector fittings. I was having clearance problems so I tried some new fittings. Once I was happy that it was going to work I went to take off the fitting so I could apply thread sealant. I didn’t realize the threads were galled until I put a little too much arm behind the wrench and twisted the injector boss. The top is destroyed and the threads may need to be drilled and upsized. If that doesn’t work, I need to weld a new boss on the intake manifold.

After being mad at myself for that, I thought I needed to do something productive. My new oil thermostat came in the mail so I thought I would install that. It was advertised as having brass barbed fittings but when I opened the box they were aluminum. I wasn’t super happy about that but I thought I would use them. I applied thread sealant to the first one and threaded it onto the thermostat. I realized as it started to tighten up that I did not put the sealant far enough down on the threads. As I went to reverse the fitting off the thermostat I realized it would not turn. More muscle and it just budged a little. The aluminum fitting in the aluminum thermostat galled. By the time I got the fitting out, it took half the threads out of the thermostat. Hopefully I can pick up a 3/8” NPT tap and fix it.

As you can see, threads didn’t like me today. I feel like I created a couple days work instead of getting a days work done. I guess it comes with the territory but man can building a plane be frustrating some days...

Hope everyone else has better luck than me this weekend!