Yesterday I finally got around to the post 1st flight inspection on my Delta.

Checked all the controls, skins, airframe stuff and then removed the top cowl.

Everything looked great until I got to the muffler.

The muffler was fine but the heat shield between it and the intake manifold was MELTED!

About a 4" x 4" hole directly above the center of the muffler with gobs of aluminum slag in the bottom of the cowl.

I believe that the heat shield got hot enough to droop and then contacted the muffler surface and was history after that.

It's a good thing that the plenum (also aluminum) did not melt and get sucked into the intake.

That would have ruined my day.

I fabricated another piece of alum and wrapped it up around the plenum this time to prevent it from contacting the muffler.

This is a temporary solution at best.

I have an idea for a more permanent one but did not have the material on hand at the time.

With temporary fix completed I proceeded to fly the second test flight.

The OAT was 60F, 10F degrees higher than the first flight and the engine acted accordingly.

The coolant was up to 212F and stable by the end of the runup.

Luckily the oil was only about 170F so I proceeded to takeoff.

Climbing out at 110-120MPH the coolant temp was 212F with the oil coming up.

After level off at 3000 feet the coolant eventually came back down to a more comfortable 190F with the oil about the same.

My eyes were almost glued to the EGT though, because I was concerned about another meltdown. The highest EGT that I noticed was about 1580F.

I kept the mixture a little richer than last time hoping to keep the temps down.

After circling the airport for over a half hour I decided I better land, as the I was loosing the sun again.

I turned base and final too short, so I was high and fast (flying the pattern at 120MPH takes a little getting used to),

But I did have 9000 feet of runway below me so I managed to get it down but not in the first 3000 feet like last time.

It was more like the second 3000 feet.

Any other airport it would have called for a go around.

But it wasn't a bad landing and I didn't break anything.

Didn't have time or light to look under the cowl after this flight as it was already well after 4:00PM ( I hate standard time).

Can't wait to get the airplane back to it's home airport.

An hour and a half is just too far to drive.

Jim Maher

Dyke Delta N11XD 13b (2.1 hours flown)