Aerolab Gascolator

[Kalibr]

Very interesting product. I am planning my fuel system and thought of getting by with just an inline filter upstream of the boost pump. This gascolator looks to be an intersting alternative. I have two reservations, however. One is that I am not sure if this agascolator would be an adequate replacement for a filter. I understand it is recommended to have a filter with around 60 micron filtration rating for a fuel injected engine and this gascolator appears to have has a courser filter than that. Second, it?s a new product/design and I was wondering about possible failure modes. Are there any more pireps?

[vfrazier]

Originally Posted by Kalibr

Very interesting product. I am planning my fuel system and thought of getting by with just an inline filter upstream of the boost pump. This gascolator looks to be an intersting alternative. I have two reservations, however. One is that I am not sure if this gascolator would be an adequate replacement for a filter. I understand it is recommended to have a filter with around 60 micron filtration rating for a fuel injected engine and this gascolator appears to have has a courser filter than that. Second, it’s a new product/design and I was wondering about possible failure modes. Are there any more pireps?

One well known fuel filtration unit has the following specs, taken from their website:

This a maintainable filter incorporating a 125 micron pleated stainless steel filter element...


Update 12-10-17: Interestingly, I received an email from the manufacturer yesterday. I was incorrect in the previously posted filter pore size (which I edited to be correct in those posts).
The Aerolab filtering gascolator has a 50 micron filter pore size, which converts to 0.002" size.

In my opinion, no additional, builder installed, finer filter should be needed.

Vince

[Kalibr]

Originally Posted by vfrazier

One well known fuel filtration unit has the following specs, taken from their website:

This a maintainable filter incorporating a 125 micron pleated stainless steel filter element...

True, but I think they deem the 125 micron filter to be adequate to protect their boost pump, not necessarily sufficient for the entire system. The fuel injection system makers seem to want to see finer filtration.
Before I ran into this gascolator, my plan was to go with an Andair boost pump paired with their inline filter (60 micron, if I am not mistaken) and call it a day. But this gascolator is making me pause to see if using it would increase the safety margin of my planned fuel system.
So far, here is my take on it:
Benefits (compaired to an inline filter) ? (a) easy access for regular preflight water/contaminants check in the fuel system, (b) a barrier against getting water from the fuel tanks to the engine, (c) somewhat easier access for periodic filter cleaning.
Drawbacks (compaired to an inline filter) ? (a) more complex install, (b) weight, (c) level of filtration below what is spec-ed by FI manufactures, which would require an additional inline filter downstream of the gascolator (additional complexity/weight and fuel flow restriction)
Concerns ? new/unproven design/product with limited install base and track record.
So, I am trying to see ihow I can alleviate my concerns and address the drawbacks.

[vfrazier]

I flew happily behind their 125u filter for 10 years.

On my new plane, I plan to use the Aerolab, which has a 50 micron filter pore size.

[Kalibr]

For people who stumble on this thread, the latest information is that the Aerolab gascolator is rated at 50 micron.

[SMO]

Originally Posted by vfrazier

Update 12-10-17: Interestingly, I received an email from the manufacturer yesterday. I was incorrect in the previously posted filter pore size (which I edited to be correct in those posts).
The Aerolab filtering gascolator has a 50 micron filter pore size, which converts to 0.002" size.

Interesting, you might get them to check their website which says it is a 50 mesh screen - which converts to 297 micron!

[BlakeFrazier]

Originally Posted by SMO

Interesting, you might get them to check their website which says it is a 50 mesh screen - which converts to 297 micron!

I have touched base with Aerolab to point that out and have them update that for clarity.

Let's see if I can clear this up by paraphrasing a previous conversation with the Aerolab folks:

In fact our filter mesh is 50 ?m; when we were designing the specifics of our product, the research we did found the finest mesh on the fuel line chain is usually found in the final filter on the fuel injection metering unit (75 or 125 ?m, depending on the producer).

Since the servicing and inspection of those final filters is typically anything but easy, we established that a 50 ?m filter would be the best guarantee of total fuel system protection.

[vfrazier]

Just to put this filter mesh size question to bed once and for all, I took a filter to the biology lab at my university day job and put it under a microscope.

Using a known, accurate 2mm scale, which is readily available in any good microscopy lab, I measured the filter mesh.

The measurement from wire to wire was approximately 0.1mm, which is 0.0039".

Since a portion of the wire to wire dimension is wire, and not an opening, I estimated that the actual openings, aka mesh, aka pore size, were around 0.05mm, or about 0.002" which does indeed come out to a 50 micron filter size.

I hope this settles the question about how fine of a filter this unit contains.

Thanks,

[#74430]

Hey guys,

I'm planning on installing an Aerolab Gascolator/Filter in my RV7A (WIP).

Plan is to install after the fuel selector and before the boost pump.

I haven't really looked into boost pumps but I was going to go with standard Vans pump (minus the filter).

Seems like a no brainer to me. What am I missing? Will the install be a headache?

Cheers,

Dan

[XOverZero]

G?day Dan,

Just today my hangar mate and I finished up installing the AeroLab in his flying 9A. It worked out fine and I would not hesitate to say do it.

You have a big advantage over us in that you're still building. We had to install it in a finished airplane. The reason was that the existing gascolator on the front of the firewall suddenly started barfing fuel back into the cabin ? after 200+ hours of leak free service (go figure). It was a defective thread form on the gascolator inlet port, so we ended up changing everything except the pump. It wasn?t at all fun or even interesting to have to do all that work in front of the rudder pedals. Be grateful you won?t have that to look forward to.

We installed the new unit just forward of the tank selector valve, by far the best location. It is a bit of a reach to sump it, but doable. Since this plane has manual pitch trim, the new gascolator had to be offset to the right about 3/8? to avoid chafing the trim cable. Fair advice here: however you choose to cut the 2-1/2? hole in the floor, use a tool and a method that guarantees a clean, accurate cut. A cheapy hole saw and, or a slightly heavy-handed application could easily mutilate the fuselage floor. We bought a good one, made several practice runs on .040 scrap first, only then proceeded with appropriate trepidation. I cut it from underneath?plenty of room there.

I recall finding a couple errors in the instruction pamphlet. Read it carefully with appropriate skepticism.

There shouldn?t be any issue with using the stock boost pump. The original builder of this plane installed the FloScan transducer between the pump and the firewall bulkhead fitting. We changed the pass-thru location to avoid having a 90 degree elbow on the outlet port of the FloScan. Fabricating and installing the two very short fuel lines that set-up requires was by far the most difficult part, again, exacerbated by having to work in ?The Hole.? If doing it over, I would choose to mount the transducer forward of the firewall. The flow test passed with gushing colors.

Van?s sells a ?doghouse? tunnel cover assembly for the fuel injection option. We bought this and adapted it to the standard tunnel cover. A little bit of tinsmithery was brought to bear. Made it the more interesting.

I?d like to post photos. I opened a SmugMug account and loaded the pics, but cannot find the ?share? icon they say is right there beneath each picture. It is not. One of the nicest things about Heaven is that there won?t be any computers there.