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Peeling slosh

TruTrakAndrew

TruTrakAndrew

Well Known Member
So...I am trying to finish the 4 and just found peeling slosh. Of course now that most of the work is done on cleaning it all out, I learn that there is a company that makes a solvent that will cut it with much less elbow grease. The company is rpm technology, www.rpm-technology.com. The product is polygone.

Maybe this has already been posted, but...

And for a little humor I thought I would show how I have been doing my engine runs and taxi tests:

d7614be8.jpg


Yep...a one gallon gas can strapped to the spar...I'm a little ashamed, but it's so funny I had to share.
 
Polygone is probably not the correct thing to remove slosh.

It is also a ProSeal remover...:eek:

PS ...neat tank...:)
 
That's why I waited until Friday to post it!

Rob Hickman told me to put one on the other side and go fly...he must be from Arkansas at heart.

Yes, we decided it was a drop tank too!
To be fair, I was told it would eat the proseal too. You would certainly have to cut holes in the back baffles to clean it all out and then seal it back up again. They may make a product that would dissolve the slosh and not the proseal, but as bad as mine were I would have been fine with everything going away and being able to start over!
 
Make sure that tank is "placarded" as to minimum fuel grade and quantity!
 
Just one more example of ya'll's fine redneck engineering! Did you inherit some of your skills from the "old man"? The only thing missing is some sort of complex but elegant plumbing and linkages! :)

Cheers,
Stein

PS, that should last for a short hop, huh?!
 
Is there a "flop tube" installed?
Or does the entire tank "flop" over while inverted?
 
> I learn that there is a company that makes a solvent that will cut it with much less elbow grease. The company is rpm technology, www.rpm-technology.com. The product is polygone.

Which polygone product did you use? Any chance you documented the procedure so that you could write up a little 'this is how I did it' ? I am on the fence about whether to try cleaning out the old slosh or just build new tanks. No peeling yet ....
 
Slosh can be cleaned out with MEK. It is not a fun job, but just like building the tanks, it's not all that bad.

Cut a 4" inspection hole in the bulkhead for each bay, scrub the slosh with MEK. Install cover plates with pulled rivets.

It's much easier than building new tanks.
 
Flop tube...

Mel said:
Is there a "flop tube" installed?
Or does the entire tank "flop" over while inverted?
Click to expand...

This is a positive G tank only...although it could be modified as a complete flop option easily!

As to the procedure, Mel hit the nail on the head...I didn't learn about the polygone until after we cut the holes and scrubbed it all out with MEK (would have to cut the holes and scrub no matter what cleaner we used). My original plan was to build new tanks, but quickly ditched that idea when I realized my wings were the old ones and I couldn't use the prepunched tanks (bought my 4 with wings and fuse mostly complete). Cleaning them was much preferred to removing the wings and starting over on the tanks...and besides I wouldn't have been able to show my arkie engineering to everyone had I done that! :D
Like stein said I learned it all from the old man or as he is known in many circles "grandpa".

Yet another funny note, I almost ran the tank dry doing taxi tests today! That would have been REALLY embarrassing!
 
Your photo of red "fuel cell" is great,glad you could share with us all...HOWEVER your photo answered an impoprtant question for me..have older #538 slow build RV4 bought from orginal owner who barely started ,been working on for a while,and both old and new instructions mention lightning wholes in spar doubler,but neither old or new plans show, so I would appreciate your input as to size of holes and location and number of holes. Your photo showed and confirmed that I am not bonkers...
MANY THANKS, Tom Hankamp,,,Tomcat RV4 ....upstate NY
 
Hmmmm...

Tomcat RV4 said:
Your photo of red "fuel cell" is great,glad you could share with us all...HOWEVER your photo answered an impoprtant question for me..have older #538 slow build RV4 bought from orginal owner who barely started ,been working on for a while,and both old and new instructions mention lightning wholes in spar doubler,but neither old or new plans show, so I would appreciate your input as to size of holes and location and number of holes. Your photo showed and confirmed that I am not bonkers...
MANY THANKS, Tom Hankamp,,,Tomcat RV4 ....upstate NY
Click to expand...

To be honest I didn't ever measure them, as the wings were done when I got them. Funny though my tail and and wing kits are actually pretty close to yours...694. My fuse is 899, and thats the s/n I chose to use. I have often wondered how many there were older than mine still in the works. Guess at least one!

Here is another picture when the wings were still in the transport rack.
add4ce73.jpg
 
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