3. Cutting the cowl and mounting the engine.

a. I had to find out how deep the firewall to engine cowl opening was. I found it was 7". The DA50 with 3" mount legs is 6 7/8" tall so by adding 1/4" spacers I can get 1/8" clearance between the nose cone back plate and cowl. I used 1/8" flat aluminum doubled up as spacers. They aren’t pretty but they work.
Basicly if you are using a DA 50 you need a total of 3.25" between the engine and firewall.

b. To get the center marks for the engine mount bolts on the firewall I used the method on edge540t.com. Basically you place the engine right where it needs to be on the firewall, using the cowl to center the spinner back plate. Afterward carefully remove the cowl trace your mounting bolts, drill and you are golden. Very easy to do this way.