Chassis for sure, maybe a mod, maybe maintenance… sort of. Anywho, I put it here.

The air intake is large enough for small birds or squirellies to get in. Several owners have reported nests in the intake ducting. One owner reported a rodent that worked its way THROUGH the air cleaner into the Turbo!!  Of course insects will get in too. Mud daubers etc. etc. So I wanted to close it off. Screening small enough to keep insects out would obstruct air flow too much, so a solid cover was in order.

There’s a couple of solutions I have in mind that will do the job without fail, but as I was walking through the hardware store I saw these…. Magnetic vent covers. Hmmmm…. Well let’s give it s a shot. Easily cut to size with scissors. Ironically only the brown side is magnetic enough to stay on… So white side out and some black paint.

The adhesion is not super strong so it may blow off, and not sure how well they will do in the UV light. Then again, $7 for a pack of three.

Must not forget to add to LBCU checklist…..lol.

And a little arts and crafts…. Just some acrylic with a brush. If this really works we’ll get the spray cans out.

 

UPDATE…. two years later.

It works for all the good reasons above, but there are drawbacks.

1: You can forget to take it off. Even though I added it to the LBCU checklist, that usually gets done AFTER engine start and results in “oh shit” and running out there to take it off. Good news is you’ve only been at idle, or high idle up to that point and it doesn’t seem to harm anything. Do have to reset the vacuum gauge in the aft compartment though.

2: By the same token you forget to put it on. Or, “we’re only here for two nights”…. and that’s actually long enough for a critter to get ideas about moving in.

3: It wears out. Over time the edges curl a little and it seems to lose some of its magnetic property. After a few serious windstorms I did find it on the ground.

So…. here is the latest iteration of keeping the wild life out of my engine: Screening.

After removing the four screws I carefully removed the intake air register using a putty knife. Work it around, don’t be in a hurry…. I then used metal window screen material to fold a “box” that slid over the backside of the register. I secured it with a bead of caulking. Then I put it back in the hole with ample caulking around the edge. Some black paint for touchup here and there at it looks like it never happened.

An interesting note was that I found water in the area marked “A”. My theory is that it comes in through the register, but instead of coming in all the way and down and out the drain that’s at the bottom of the air chamber, it sits on the bottom shelf, and drips around at “B” hanging on to the bottom of the register. To fix this I put a bead of caulk at “B” You can see it in the bottom of the picture.

So there it is….. looks very unobtrusive.