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Keiths Web Site
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Date: 9-17-2010
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Number of Hours: 0.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Testing the fuel system
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Fuel tank woes were finally extinguished after four months. The LAA agreed that I could cover the sight holes with a metal strip (I just glued it on with Proseal), although a letter from Vans said they did not condone this.
I finally managed to keep the tank pressurised for 48 hours. This was good enough for Tim, so I promptly installed it in the plane. So far I have added just 20 litres of fuel, but all seems well at present. Lugging a 20-litre jerry can up to the filler hole is no fun, so I have ordered a £50 pump from Demon Tweeks (car tweaking outfit) to save my skin, and than of the plane too.
Running the electric pump resulted in floods of petrol in the centre section where electricity and fuel are transported around the plane. Not a good mixture methinks. Again, lots of diagnostic and recovery work. Most unions leaked because I had not done them up tight enough, so the plane now stinks of petrol. Worse yet, the nut in the centre section bulkhead fitting worked loose. That's the one that joins the two halves of the return pipe. It's virtually impossible to tighten this, so I cannot do the adjoining union up tight enough either, and this is still weeping very slightly. I spent many hours on this working with a ground-down crows-foot, only partially successfully. Don't make the same mistake, tighten this joint up good-n-proper while you still have access to it. In hindsight, I wished I had found a way to pressure test the pipework when I first installed it.
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