Acdii thanks for the response! I thought that might be what you had in mind.
I managed to get enough of my home made motor mount together to hang the whole thing. My idea seems to have worked!
Well, it only worked in theory because it pushes the motor out too far and prevents the cowling from attaching properly.
I have several options now, I would appreciate the thoughts of anyone that is actually following along on the build.
1. I can remove the existing firewall and push it back towards the cockpit. I am not sure that I want to do this as I think it would open up a can of worms, leaving me to rebuild the entire front section.
2. I can extend the balsa behind the cowling to cover up the gap.
3. I can enlarge the hole around the propeller shaft a bit so the cowling can be moved back.
4. I can cut off a bit of the inside portion of the metal motor mount so it can slide back a little more.
5. I can completely rethink how the motor attaches to the model.
At this minute, I think I am leaning towards option 4. However, I am not sure how difficult it will be to cut off part of the motor mount.
The gap between the cowl and the fuselage can be seen here.
The motor is right up against the cowl.
This view of the mount shows the two inner pieces that can be trimmed a quarter inch or so to allow the motor to slide backward a little more.