Smoke System Help

[Xkuzme1]

A buddy of mine installed a smoke system in his RV-3. He is getting smoke in the cockpit when he turns it on. He thought it was through the flaps… but after sealing it up with tape, it still happened.

Any advice that I can pass along for him of things to look forward to sealing up

Thx.

[FireMedic_2009]

Don't turn On the smoke

The most likely is the flap area which you covered, That's strange cuz there aren't very many openings it can enter through. Have him check the cabin heat vent although I can't see how or why it would enter there if open a bit. Sometimes they don't seal very good.

[Christopher Murphy]

You would be suprised where it can come in...tail even.
If you have a fresh air vent open it and the slight increase in cabin pressure will help keep the smoke out.

Cm

[JDeanda]

I've only installed a few smoke systems and none of those recently, but all of them had smoke in the cockpit. Not sure you can stop it completely. But yeah, opening the cabin vents should help. Side note, it's always interesting to watch the smoke system work on the ground with the cowl off. Smoke comes out of all the slip joints and ball joints, even downstream of wherever the oil is injected. Shows us there's a lot of back and forth flow in even a free-flowing, healthy exhaust system.

[RicoB]

I will have to do that next time i have my cowl off! That will be interesting to see.

[Xkuzme1]

He has taped up all the holes and it’s still coming in.

The one thing I/he didn’t think about was the carb heat. All exterior holes are filled and he said that it’s IFR in 20 seconds.

Thanks guys.