Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Daniel Niendorff on March 17, 2022 at 6:48am

Consider flushing with Argon or other heavy inert gas to displace all O2 in order to eliminate risk of unintended fireworks ??

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Thomas Heiting on March 17, 2022 at 2:43pm

Hi Michel,

The finger screens to the tank fuel lines have a huge mesh and there has been no mention of them clogging on this site that I am aware of, so if you open the tank drains to check for impurities regularly or remove the drains, anything smaller than a pea will flow out. If you did the build you probably vacuumed and rinsed the tanks after drilling for the fuel gauge senders. Right?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Michel Ruf on March 20, 2022 at 4:04am

Hi Thomas,

yes, I cleaned well (I hope). I just wanted to check once now If there is anything left in the screens after the first 60 hrs. I agree that the mesh is quite big and there shouldn't be anything. But one never knows. So my intend was to check it once now after the build and then let it alone.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Austin on March 18, 2022 at 3:46pm

In 2020 when my VDO fuel senders started leaking, I drained the tanks to replace the senders and while I was at it, inspected the screens with an inexpensive flexible "snake" video camera.  They were absolutely clean and I looked back in the corner behind the screen (the lowest point in the tank) and there was no debris there, either.  FWIW, I do have a final filter on my fueler trailer but of course have occasionally purchased fuel at various FBO's - I think they all have a final filter on their pumps, too.  Likewise, the fine screen in the fuel filter between the selector valve and the carb has never had a speck of debris in it, either.

When I did the inspection, there was still a few cc's of fuel in each tank.  The "snake" video camera's head seemed cool and it used the 5v off the smartphone's USB port for power, so it seemed the risk of sparking was very low.  However, I don't know if an LED can explode or spark when it fails?  As a precaution, I always energized the camera before inserting it in the tank and waited to switch it off after it was removed from the tank - seems in my experience, most lamps fail when turned on or turned off - don't know if that's valid for LED's, but it made me feel better! Ha!  In retrospect, I should have purged the tank with Argon - while reading this thread, it occurred to me that I had a tank of it sitting on my welder cart parked in the hangar! Duh!  Thankfully, Darwin did not get me this time! LOL!

John

N750A

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Michel Ruf on March 20, 2022 at 4:05am

Hi John,

thanks a lot for the picture. As expected totaly clean. I think I will try it as you did it and hoping I am such a lucky guy like you :-)....

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David J. Beaulieu on March 31, 2022 at 7:04pm

I've heard from "older" working auto mechanics/welders that they simply purged fuel tank vapors with a hose from the vehicle exhaust while doing repairs...YMMV 

• ▶ Reply