Well, this was the worst builder day I have had. That includes the day I
realized I had to build a new rotary engine, which, btw, was running better each
day before this fuel issue developed.
As the collective from the various
list I am on may recall, I have had persistent fuel leak issues. A few weeks ago
I had a visit from the fine men of the Ellington/JSC/NASA fire department when I
leaked a few gallons on to the hangar floor while I was at home sleeping late.
Also, I thought my original clear factory tubes failed due to ethanol. They had
turned color and became brittle (turns out they had not YET leaked.
I
tried sucking new Jeffco into where I thought the leak was (very hard to reach
area behind the spar. I found a loose hard point and since I was having some
fuel seep through the floor of my cabin I thought maybe the fuel was seeping in
behind the hard point into the foam to the cabin floor. Since the two hard
points from the strake fuel line were both put in per plans years ago (before my
choice to use a rotary, thus auto fuel) they were installed with EZ-84/flox.
Since the flox around the loose hard point seemed a bit "off" I decided to redo
both of them with Jeffco. At the same time I also took out the factory fuel
elbow fittings as mentioned above and installed Vance Atkinson's gages. I did
this over the last few days.
I thought all was well, but when I added
fuel to the right strake only, I still had fuel seeping through the cabin floor.
So, I am having fuel leak though the inner foam. I spoke with Velocity, Inc who
stated I could either go into the inner skin around the stake storage area or
cut a hole in the top of the strake to find the leak. I chose to go into the top
of the strake as I thought it would be better to not try to patch a leak from
the outside. So, I cut a hole in the strake to apply Jeffco to try to find/cure
the leak.
EEEEEEAAAAAKKKKK. I opened up the top right strake and the
Jeffco on the top of the strake was sitting in the bottom of the tank. OMG!!!!.
Almost all the Jeffco from the top of the strake had fallen off. It was all
flaky and not adhering. Also, a number of places from the sides and bottom had
also fallen off.
I called Velocity, Inc and they said they had never had
this issue before. They suggested I look in the other stake to see if the
problem was there too. We discussed when I applied it and how. Now guys and
gals, I am not a complete incompetent. I know I sanded stakes before I applied
the Jeffco, I mixed it well and per instructions. Also, the top strake Jeffco
was applied at a different time/batch from the sides/bottom. The Velocity top
strake is a pre-built piece and is laid on the strake sides/bottom in a separate
step and the Jeffco is applied to the top before you seal it, then you seal it
with more Jeffco.
I have never had more than about 20 gallons of fuel in
the system (about 60 total capacity). I have had the fuel sit in the strakes for
a long while though. I used the Jeffco since it is supposed to be more resistant
to fuels like diesel and auto, even with ethanol...at least that was my
understanding. Some ares of the strakes seem pretty good (but I don't trust any
of it now). I did get TWO, one gallon kits of Jeffco back when I did this part
of the build. My first thought is that perhaps one of the buckets was a bad
batch. Donno.
I did cut into the pilot strake too. It was not as bad. The
top of the strake looks good, but I do have some flaking on the sides. There are
four compartments in each strake. I cut into one on the co-pilot side, and three
on the pilot side so far. One on the pilot side seems perfect (so far). The
inconsistency has me confused currently. But to be honest, after dealing with
this for a while and trying to be philosophical about it...such as I would much
rather find it now, I walked away and worked on re-attaching my ailerons after
balancing them.
So, it seems many of those other fuel issue may have not been the problem I
thought they were....this does seem to be the cause for when the fire department
came out as that leak just seem to happen. When I pressure tested this
system a few years back, all seemed fine.
I am posting the pix on the
Canardzone but I am posting this message on a few sites like FlyRotary and the
Velocity Builders site. The factory asked me to post too so they could have a
look and determine if this may be a isolated incident (such as me missing
something big) OR if it could be a bigger problem. Well, here are some of the
pix I took....if they are blurry, don't worry, it is only my tears......