cfiidon

cfiidon

Well Known Member
I am installing the AFP fuel pump and filter in my -8 QB. The drawing from Vans shows the filter mounted vertically on the front side of the gear tower (after the fuel selector and before the pump which sounds like a good idea).
Has anyone done something different? I'm thinking ahead to maintenance and condition inspections and want to make access maintenance friendly and not dump a bunch of 100LL in my cockpit.
Any issues with the filter being horizontal, perhaps in the well with the fuel selector? Anyplace else?
The AFP drawing shows the firewall as a secondary location but I don't want to pursue that for heat/vapor lock reasons. Pictures would be great if anyone has gone a different route.
Thanks in advance.
 
The prepunch fuselage has instructions to mount the filter on the floor in the bay with the fuel selector. I chose to mount it vertically on the forward side of the gear tower because the plumbing seemed cleaner and I think it might be easier to service without spilling 100ll everywhere.

Chris
 
Last edited:
On the floor

cfiidon said:
I am installing the AFP fuel pump and filter in my -8 QB. The drawing from Vans shows the filter mounted vertically on the front side of the gear tower (after the fuel selector and before the pump which sounds like a good idea).
Has anyone done something different? I'm thinking ahead to maintenance and condition inspections and want to make access maintenance friendly and not dump a bunch of 100LL in my cockpit.
Any issues with the filter being horizontal, perhaps in the well with the fuel selector? Anyplace else?
The AFP drawing shows the firewall as a secondary location but I don't want to pursue that for heat/vapor lock reasons. Pictures would be great if anyone has gone a different route.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

fuelpump3-w.jpg
 
Ease of cleaning is everything. I mounted mine on the back of the tower within close prox of the pump....dumb !! I am now in the process of relocating it to the front of the tower or along the center section rib.
 
Coming to Decision

Thanks for the inputs folks. I've got four suggestions 1) vertical gear tower 2) horizontal fuel selector bay 3) horizontal fuel pump bay, and 4) wing root.

Anyone want to be a tie-breaker :) ?

Actually the inputs are great because at least I know there are other reasonable methods and I'm not doing anything stupid. Thanks for the time and the ideas!

Don
 
Here's mine, under the fuel selector cover. I don't recall Van even having an instruction about fuel filters when I was building, so perhaps I was ahead of my time. Having said that, this location is a pain in the you know what to inspect. I like the idea of mounting two fuel filters, one in each wing root area under the fairing. Should be much easier and neater to access. I definitely would not put it in the location shown again.

http://picasaweb.google.com/pratt.chris401/FuelFilter#

Chris
 
wing roots

Don,

Mine are in the wing roots.
Pros: easy to remove, no fuel spills in the cockpit.
Cons: you need 2 of them.

My pump is located to the rear of the gear tower.
Even thought an unprimed AF fuel pump will draw fuel 20 inches uphill
I found that in this location fuel will flood the pump unless the tanks are almost empty. My set up has been flawless for over 400 hours.
 
Near fuel selector

I mounted mine by the fuel selector and moved it out towards the center as far as possible. This way I figure I can kneel on the wing, lean over the canopy rail, slide a little pan under the unit (built an offset in the mount) and service the filter without getting fuel on the floor.

The second photo is before all the fuel lines were mounted.


By veetail88

 
New location of the photo

chaskuss said:
Don,
I installed a fuel filter in each wing root. This will allow easy access to the filters during your annual inspection. It will also prevent a "single point" failure due to a clogged filter. Check out the thread below.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=42681&highlight=4ILA+fuel+filter

You can see a photo of John Moody's 4ILA wing root installation here.

http://www.rv8.ch/gallery/v/moodyj/IMG_1593.jpg.html

Charlie Kuss
Click to expand...
Sorry, had trouble with my "gallery" and switched to Zen Photo: http://www.rv8.ch/zenphoto/moodyj/IMG_1593.jpg.php
 
Mine is in the same location as veetail's, and it was not a bad job to clean it. I just cleaned it about a month ago, and the mess was minimal. I think it is the standard location listed for a qb fuse.
 
Dual filters in the wing roots

I went with the dual filters in the wing roots. Easy to inspect. Seven years with no problems.
 
under the fuel selector panel

I just mounted mine under the fuel selector panel. I checked out Danny King's filters in the roots but the filter mesh size is different that the APF filter. I thought about putting it on the front of the geat tower but did not want to pull the baggage floor. (Like pulling the seat pan and fuel selector panel was any easier!)

Anyway it's all in and plumbed and test flown as of Saturday afternoon.
 
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