There were just a couple of little "boogers" in the end of the filter.
Here you can see it more clearly. There was a dab of fuel lube and some lint type crud. I just blew this crap out and reinstalled the filter. I'll probably check this every 100 hours or so, or maybe just once every Condition inspection. We'll see.
I had the cowl off because I pumped the fuel out of the lines before removing the filter. It's fortunate that I had the cowl off at that time, because as I was just poking around I noticed this.
At first I thought it might have been just dirt or a pen mark or something...but I don't draw lines that jagged...
Upon closer inspection, I found that the left rear baffle quadrant was pretty badly cracked in a few spots. This is the biggie, and the source of the problem. The rear baffle wall is just a sheet of .040", and this bolt attachment point was not reinforced. In many spots on the baffles where fasteners attach it to the engine, there are reinforcement doublers. I followed the plans in this area, though, and there's no doubler called out. 20:20 hindsight...it really needs a doubler badly!
There was one more tiny crack down low on the back inboard side of the baffle wall.
So...I started taking everything apart. I removed the AFP purge valve cable and drilled out all the air seal pop rivets in the left rear quadrant.
I removed the oil cooler.
It sucks to take all of this apart.
It seems like just a few weeks (months?) ago I was putting all of this together. I had kind of dreaded taking the baffles apart if I ever needed to, but really, it's not that bad.
So here, with the baffle removed, you can clearly see the crack along the corner flange. This really needs to be doubled.
And here's a good shot of that non-reinforced bolt attach point...again, in dire need of a doubler.
This is where that tiny little crack started forming.
There...you can see it clearly.
No sweat...I'm gonna beef the hell out of all this stuff and rebuild it. Just a tiny stumbling block in the grand scheme of things. Glad I caught this.
You guys who paint before you first fly are friggin' NUTS. I've had the cowl on and off at least a dozen times in the past few weeks. Especially those nosewheel weenies out there...if you paint before you fly you're just askin' for scratches and chips, because taking off the lower cowl with a nosewheel there is precarious to say the least. I'm so happy I have no paint on this thing. There's chafing, rubbing, scratching here and there. I get to resolve all of those issues before I put the expensive pretty stuff on. In the words of Hans and Frans: "Hear me now and belive me later."