J

JimWoo50

Well Known Member
A friend bought a kit from a private party who had already sloshed the tanks. Now he would like to remove the slosh because of the likelihood that the slosh will come loose and clog the fuel pickup screens. Does anyone have any reccommendations on how to do this. He filled one tank with MEK last Friday and the slosh is still not coming off. Any suggestions?
 
Jim,
Sorry, but it ain't that easy. You have to cut access holes in the rear baffles and "scrub" the slosh with MEK. Jeff and Chuck (Hotel Whiskey Aviation) have done quite a few of these tanks. Several people, myself included, started the process and eventually took the tanks to them to finish. It is a VERY mess job. Jeff & Chuck do a fantastic job. The tanks come back all sealed up and ready to go. For a little extra they will even pull and reinstall the tanks.
 
Sounds to me like it might be almost as easy to just build another set of tanks ... ? :confused:

Thomas
 
If the tanks were prepunched, that just might be the case. On our "early" birds, we had to match drill everything, so replacing the tanks would be VERY difficult.
 
Good point ... I didn't think of that.
With the new prepunched kits and as well as things fit together I bet you could build a complete set in 1-2 weekends of work... of course, I doubt any of the prepunched kits have sloshed tanks! :p

Thomas
 
Thanks for the input

I don't think the tanks have been drilled to the spar yet. It is a unprepunched kit. I wonder if the slosh is so difficult to remove with MEK will it come loose with gasoline?
 
Slosh in tanks

Jim, we were caught in the same situation. After talking to several people
including Van's we are building new tanks for the 4.

Ted Farmin
tanks are all thats left to do.
 
JimWoo50 said:
I don't think the tanks have been drilled to the spar yet. It is a unprepunched kit. I wonder if the slosh is so difficult to remove with MEK will it come loose with gasoline?
Click to expand...
The slosh will eventually come loose with gasoline, but mine took over 12 years.
 
Fuel tank repair

Jim:
I had the same problem last year and the famous Mike "Kahuna" Stewart was nice enough to help me out. It was an awful job and I ended up using a buffing wheel attached to a dremel with an extra long cord. Felt like a mad dentist! Knowing what I know now I would take Mel's suggestion and never look back. There are alot of fun things to do on these planes but the slosing issue is not one of them.

When my son and I were doing the actual tank work in a community hanger 2 Delta mechanics showed up on their day off to help an A&P who also worked in our hanger. They thought the work that day consisted of cleaning the tanks with MEK- they both left and no one has seen or heard from them since.

Pete Joslin
 
Boy what a bunch of woos bags.
Pete we had yours done in a day.
Order enough tank access plate kits from vans to put into each bay through the rear baffle
cut holes with a fly cutter in rear baffle into each bay.
scrub out.
Install reinforcement rings from kit
Install plates from kit.
Pressure test
Done. :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.