Sound great marzo, I'm also working on one and hope to have it up pretty soon. Hearing good field reports gets the blood pumping. I even brought my stabs to work last night to glue in the robarts. And your right, Mucho deflection even with a tight gap in the surface. I have a BME 50 on mine with a menz 22x8 prop. That big cowl sure does dwarf the size of that prop.

In shipping 3 parts of the cowl ring had came apart, I had to realighn and reglue the sections back in. I used gorilla glue which expanded and filled in any cracks. Know that cowl ring is as strong as an ox. I love the fact that gorilla glue is so strong yet so light and easy to manage. The newer sukhois with the one piece rings should really be a plus.
I'm hoping for a true 3D/ IMAC neutral flying plane. The numbers say yes so we will see.