I had a very long chat with James at Belite - super guy. Based on that conversation it looks like he favors the idea of having both wing tanks feed into a small header tank, then onward to the fuel pump. The return lines (on an injected engine only) would still go back to the wing tanks, not the header tank. A single probe would be placed in the bottom of the header tank where it would see all of the "weight" of the fuel.
James felt this would be the best configuration given that the tanks are a bit shallow for the probe (6 inch minimum requirement) so there is the risk it might not work.
I had a pretty heated conversation with my buddy the A&P yesterday about this (he a good buddy so it was not a bad conversation) and we eventually came to the conclusion that I should stick to the way Zenith is doing it - with no header tank and the floats in the wings. I'm dreading cutting them out but will probably do it today, or one night next week.
Well, I have good news because I fly cut my first tank for the VDO fuel sender today and it was not hard at all!!! The fly cutter I got was for wood and plastic (Harbor Freight by the power drills) but it worked on the aluminum just fine. I'll let you know if it leaks - will be testing it this week. You can keep track of what I'm up to here: http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/member-project-logs/20648-...
and I'm always happy to chat - I think the journey of building the plane and meeting people is most of the fun :)
I bet the Corvair will work out very nicely and it would be a shame to have to do the header tank thing and add all that complexity when you have such a nice and simple system.
I feel terrible you guys are getting hit with snow - what a nightmare! I live about 40 Miles SW of Chicago - we have crappy weather too :(
I'll update my build log tonight or tomorrow so you'll see some pics of the install.
Gary Burdett
My email is gburdett1@frontier.com .
Aug 30, 2013
Wayne Brazinski
Hey Greg!
I had a very long chat with James at Belite - super guy. Based on that conversation it looks like he favors the idea of having both wing tanks feed into a small header tank, then onward to the fuel pump. The return lines (on an injected engine only) would still go back to the wing tanks, not the header tank. A single probe would be placed in the bottom of the header tank where it would see all of the "weight" of the fuel.
James felt this would be the best configuration given that the tanks are a bit shallow for the probe (6 inch minimum requirement) so there is the risk it might not work.
I had a pretty heated conversation with my buddy the A&P yesterday about this (he a good buddy so it was not a bad conversation) and we eventually came to the conclusion that I should stick to the way Zenith is doing it - with no header tank and the floats in the wings. I'm dreading cutting them out but will probably do it today, or one night next week.
Wayne
May 17, 2015
Wayne Brazinski
Hey Greg -
Well, I have good news because I fly cut my first tank for the VDO fuel sender today and it was not hard at all!!! The fly cutter I got was for wood and plastic (Harbor Freight by the power drills) but it worked on the aluminum just fine. I'll let you know if it leaks - will be testing it this week. You can keep track of what I'm up to here: http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/member-project-logs/20648-...
and I'm always happy to chat - I think the journey of building the plane and meeting people is most of the fun :)
I bet the Corvair will work out very nicely and it would be a shame to have to do the header tank thing and add all that complexity when you have such a nice and simple system.
I feel terrible you guys are getting hit with snow - what a nightmare! I live about 40 Miles SW of Chicago - we have crappy weather too :(
I'll update my build log tonight or tomorrow so you'll see some pics of the install.
Wayne
May 17, 2015