Fuel strainers

[C5Engineer 1170]

Anybody know if these will fit into the bottom of a STOL tank?

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/fingstrainers.php

I know the 90 elbow that I screwed out of the bottom of my wing last night is 1/4" but I think the fitting it came out of is a fixed part of the wing? My elbows were totally full of junk when I pulled them out. I have a lot flushing ahead of me to do!

[akflyer 1427]

no they wont fit.  Mine were plugged off too, but just letting the new gas sit in them for about an hour and all the crud loosened up and flushed out.  I did get new elbows, just cause I did not want to stick old tarninshed ones back in a new wing and paint job.  I used the old one to flush, then put the new ones in after I was done flushing.  I am torn on finger strainers.  In some instances they may save you, but in most cases they can F you real hard.

[C5Engineer 1170]

Thanks Leni. I figured out today that today that those fittings are 1/8" NPT. The ones I linked to are 1/4". I bought a 1/8" NPT fitting that is 3 inches long to screw in and I grabbed 4 feet of some old rubber line that I had laying around. I figure that crap will flush better with a straight shot than through the elbow. I'm gonna just clean up my old elbows. I hear ya on the screens screwing you Leni. My thought was they could plug up and you would never know it unless you totally drained your tanks and pulled them out periodically. At least with a clear filter you can see the impending doom and maybe do something about it before it's too late.

I went through all the Avid AD's on the Yahoo site the other day to make sure I was compliant with them and I found one that said they recommended a filter between the wing tank and the header. I currently have a filter right after my shutoff valve which is past the header and then a gascolator right on the other side of the firewall. Should I put one between each tank and the header or is that overkill? Sorry for all the questions you guys are all I have as a resource.

[dholly 718]

Getting close now, nice final push! Personally, I would not remove the finger strainers at the tank outlets. There is a lot of debris from construction glue that could come loose even after you've done a thorough flushing. If you ever use auto gas with ethanol, you should simply plan on your older fiberglass tanks that were made with polyester resin being effected and bits loosened over time. I used coarse rather than fine mesh, and straight rather than elbow. Rational was it would obviously stop any large bits that might otherwise get hung up in the bend or line and there was still a great deal of surface mesh for the fuel to get around at the outlet. The only downside I can see is if you have previously sloshed your tanks and the sealer begins to fail and flakes or sheets are coming off that are large enough to completely cover the finger strainers, in which case you're screwed no matter what. I would also not put inline fuel filters between the wing and header tanks. At one time, pre-ethanol, they might have been ok but now that the alcohol slowly eats away the tank resin, small glass fibers are released over time that can completely clog them. The glass fibers are invisible in fuel and you most likely won't know it's an issue until it's too late. If you search the Yahoo posts you will see Steve Winder was very vocal about not using them, and several owners piped in with their agreement after experiencing fuel starvation ultimately traced to the filters. Others say they have (so far) had no issue but since auto gas is in my future I think it's one of those instances where it makes better sense to head off any potential trouble at the pass. Just my .02, but yer azz...

[C5Engineer 1170]

Thanks for the great post. That's what I was looking for. My tanks don't have finger strainers in them. Unless I can find some 1/8" ones I would have to do some serious modding of my tank to get the 1/4" ones to thread in. I guess I will just let the header tank do it's job and collect the crap at the bottom and hopefully flush it out when I take a fuel sample of out the bottom during each preflight. Does anybody make 1/8"NPT fingers? Guess I have some research to do.

[akflyer 1427]

You could make your own by soldering some screen on there.

I have a filter under my header tank just before it flows into my transducer for the fuel flow gauge.  I HIGHLY reccomend the use of a fuel flow meter.  If for nothing else, it will tell you when the fuel outlet or filter is plugging off.  You can get them for 110 - 120 bucks.  I would have never known my fuel filter was plugging off unless I had the flow meter!  Mine was caught in plenty of time when she had just started to reduce fuel flow, but was far from killing the engine.  The filter looked pretty damn good till I pulledit off and really got a looking at it close, then you could see the fine crap and fibers that Doug was talking about.  120 is the best money I spent on that plane yet, cause where I was going that day, a plugged filter would have put me in the trees at best with a long damn walk home, and a helicopter to get the bird outa the damn pines.

[Bandit 286]

I have a finger strainer in my tank, then a main line fuel filter after the fuel shutoff, with a filter in each line going to the carbs. Never had any trouble. I have taken my finger strainer out a couple of times with no sign of plugging. Still getting crap out of my tank on preflight drain after 714 hrs. of flying. Never had any visible crap drain out of my header tank on preflight checks. Never have ran a once of booze gas through it either. All premium gas.

[dholly 718]

This pic of failed Kreem is why I won't use it.

[akflyer 1427]

With the catastrophic failure of Kreem likeyou have shown, I am sure that you would be fully F'd whether there was a fuel strainer in there or not.  That is gonna plug the line, the outlet or the strainer in VERY short order!

[Trackwelder 12]

I don't know how it would work on fiberglass, but on motorcycle tanks they have switched to POR 15 instead of kream