Fueling up?
 

I am obv. new to the hobby, but my question is...
My new plane has three fuel lines. My trainer only had two. Fuel line and exhaust line. The third line is for refueling,. My question is when using the refueling line, and everything is hiden behind the cowl, how do you know when it full.. will fuel overflow from the exhaust? do you feel the pressure.. im just not sure how to know how to tell it full, and dont want to flood or make a mess of everthing. thanks alot and look forward to your advice.

RE: Fueling up?
 

When you refuel through that third line, the overflow will come out of the muffler line (exhaust) when the tank is full. You can either disconnect that muffler line during refueling and watch for the fuel to squirt out when the tank is full or......if the end of the muffler itself is pointing DOWN and is outside the cowl, watch for it to come out there. IF YOUR ENGINE IS MOUNTED UPRIGHT AND THE MUFFLER IS LEVEL OR EVEN POINTING UPWARD, DISCONNECT THAT MUFFLER LINE. Failure to do so will fill your muffler with fuel and flood your engine.

I hope this explains it. It's actually easier to do than to explain. Again, you don't want to flood your muffler/engine so do whatever is necessary to avoid that. If your engine is mounted sideways or inverted just fill through the third line and the fuel will automatically come out through the tip of the muffler.

In any event, it's always good to firmly grip the prop and turn it over by hand once or twice before hitting it with the starter. This way you can be sure you don't have 'vapor lock' which you will feel as extreme resistance to turning over the prop. This could damage the engine.

RE: Fueling up?
 

Three lines is more convenient for enclosed engines.

Look for "2-LINE SYSTEMS vs. 3-LINE SYSTEMS" in this article:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...rticle_id=1068

Regards!

RE: Fueling up?
 

There is an ongoing related thread:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10...m.htm#10269249

RE: Fueling up?
 

Good advice to make sure the engine can turn. Sorry about being pedantic but I would call it hydraulic or fluid lock, not vapor lock.

RE: Fueling up?
 

Good article. May I suggest a fuel filter between the DOT and the tank? It works better inside the plane as you can still pick up debris on the fueling line. I don't like filters between the tank and engine and generally try to have a clean system in the plane.

RE: Fueling up?
 

OK