Ok I am not a beginner in this but I have come across a question I could not answer. Can you use a fill valve made for a gas engine in a nitro setup. Or will the nitro destroy the the valve. I know you can not use a nitro line for gas, but will they work the otherway..

Thanks

What is a nitro line? Do you mean a glow fuel line? Most glow fuel lines are silicon base and can NOT be used with gasoline. As to filler valves, depends on what they are made of. some are compatible with both alcohol and gasoline while some are not. Those made of metal can be used with just about all types of fuel, some plastics can not. I would suspect the fine print on the containers should tell you whether or not they can be used with specific types of fuel.

The filler valve is made and rated for gas... the question being will it work for Glow fuel also(nitro).. I have a tendency to ramble on when posing the first post...

The answer is normally NO.

The materials used are different.

What works for Gasoline, usually is dissolved by glow fuel and vice versa.

That is why Tygon tubing is used for Gas, while Silicon is used for Glow fuel, and so forth with stoppers, etc.

Yep, it's the o-rings or seals in the valve that will be the issue. It will work for a while then problems will start to appear. If the manufacturer says gas only they likely mean it.

And then there is me. I often use tygon line for glow if that's all I have in my shop. Never had a problem with it. A fuel dot is a fuel dot and the o-ring is good for either gas or glow. Neoprene doesn't care at all. I even use a glow hand crank I use for pumping gas, no problems at all, the plastic just doesn't seem to care what you pump through it. I don't use an electric glow pump for gas, it's not the pump that scares me but I wonder about the electric motor. I have one friend that had used his glow electric pump for gas for 10 years without a problem but I always worried about a short in the system and fire. Other then that the pump itself doesn't care. Give the filler a try and if it starts leaking then change it, you never know until you try.

Tygon has a very low melting point making it a POOR if not dangerous choice for glow fuel lines.

It melts quite easily when in contact with a glow engine, where silicon does not.

( heck I wish we had a better alternative to Tygon for gas lines, as I've lost a plane due to brief contact of a vent line with a muffler exhaust tube. ).

I've seen gas melt glow fittings in a matter of a week, and glow melt gas fittings in equal time.

There is a reason we do not interchange these things.

Then of course you could just throw the filler valve away and free yourself forever from those expensive, unreliable and time consuming devices. There are much more reliable and easier thru cowl filling methods even with the basic (read reliable, simple) two line tank system.

You don,t even need a dot and extra lines or nails to stick in the extra line every time you loose the dot in the grass.

John

They make a black neoprene fuel line that works great with gas or glow and doesn't harden like tygon so you don't need to reline your gas tanks every year. Some hobby shops even have it in stock, others just say they are out and ordering more. [>:]

That's what I was wondering about. I have my first gas airplane. I bought a gas conversion kit for the tank (I think it was from Sullivan) and used some other gas rated lines to the engine, which didn't look as clear as the tygon with the tank kit. Anyway I happened to check how the tank was doing after just 2 months and realized that the tygon was becoming so stiff that it wasn't flopping around in the tank like it should. I replaced it with the other yellow, gas rated line which is still soft. I was thinking that since our gas here in CO is required to have 10-15 percent ethanol it may have sped up the hardening. I don't recall that the other yellow line said neoprene, but it is definately different than the tygon. Any ideas?[X(]

Rod S

I'll have to give that a shot.

Any brand names?

The yellow stuff is the same thing as Tygon but just another brand, they both harden pretty fast. The stuff I mentioned is a dark black and a lot better, just hard to find unless you want to order a spool of the stuff. If I ever get over to the hobby shop and they have it in stock I will get the name and manufacture and post it.
OP, I found out about the Tygon and heat the hard way, I had it on the pressure line to my muffler, that lasted one fast flight before I had to land. Lesson learned!!

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...RZ80&P=RF#tech


Only having one gasolene fueled engine a Brown Jr. I used a piece of the above and its seems to work well with none of the hardening I see with the tygon stuff. Its probably neoprene but not sure. Don,t know how well it would work on a clunk as its rather thick and my tank does not have a clunk.

John

Sure looks like the stuff, even has the powder on the outside that you have to wipe off. As cheap as I am I use a brush to remove the powder and use in in my baby powder mix when glassing!![8D]

Yes there was some presevative powder coating and tell ya what I,ll save any powder dusting for ya

To bad you can't see fuel in the black lines. I noticed today that I did have two types of tygon. The shiny clear yellow hardens faster than the cloudy clear yellow.

Rod S