5150 evh

i didnt crash but i'm afraid i might have to rebuild it . the stopper came out of the fuel tank in my super skybolt today , filled the bottom of the fuselage and bottom wing with fuel . anybody have any advice as to what to do .

dug44

My Feedback: (2)

Call it a boeing? Isnt that where they store their fuel? lol, just kidding. That really sux. Hope it is ok.

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

You will get a lot of opinions. Here's mine:

I'm sure that you cleaned out the fuel as best you could. Next, I would clear out anything where the fuel touched (take off engine, engine mounts, tank, throttle servo, battery, etc.) stick the whole thing in a bucket of kitty litter for several days. You might check after a couple of days and see if the kitty litter needs refreshing. Hopefully this will extract the fuel and oil.

This might or might not get all the fuel out. I suspect that, depending on how far the fuel soaked in, you might have to recover the nose area, but that's cheaper/faster/less trouble than building a new ARF. If the fuel didn't get a chance to soak in too much, you might be OK.

The important thing is to check the glue joints. This is critical.

K2R (I bought mine at an Ace Hardware Store) will help get some of the oil out. I have also gotten oil out of wood by heating it up with a heat gun (i.e., Monokote gun) and sopping it up with a paper towel.

These are just some ideas to get you stared. Kitty Litter is cheap... It'll start the process while other guys chime in here with other, creative ideas.

Bob

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

I have used denatured alcohol in a spray bottle.
like Bob said remove all the gear from the fuse,servos ,tank, etc...

place a paper towl over the soaked area and spray the alcohol over the towel it breaks down the oil and allows the towl to soak up the residue, the alcohol also evaporates quickly,this will clean up the exess oil.

then kitty litter the tank area, after it sits for a couple of days empty out the fuse, a vac helps for removing the KL check the wood again for the fuel residue if there is still a overly oily feel then again towel and alcohol treatment more KL.

once its fairly dry of fuel, take some epoxy mix it up and pour it in the tank compartment, and with a heat gun apply heat to the glue, it will get super runny,then roll the fuse so the glue coats the tank compartment and back of the firewall,don't apply so much heat it wants to boil just enough so it becomes thin and runny.

Sir_Sparksalot

My Feedback: (8)

Thanks for the idea of heating up the epoxy! Very cool idea. I knew epoxy would get runny with heat, but I never thought of doing so to coat the inside of the plane fuel pocket. I will definitely be doing this in the future!
I have also used the suggestion of Kitty litter over time to soak up the excess fuel. It worked quite well. It is important to change the KL a few times to be sure of getting the greatest amount of fuel out of the wood. I was able to Epoxy together a MAYHEM fuse to great success after doing so.

Eric

52larry52

My Feedback: (1)

I too have had success saving 3 aircraft that had fuel tank failures using kitty litter. My method was to strip the fuselage of all electronics, engine and mount,fuel tank and lines, any anything else that was inside. Fill it with kitty litter shaking it around to get it into every nook and cranny( whats a cranny?), and let it just set for jamed full of kitty liter for 3 weeks to a month. Then clean it out using a vaccum cleaner with assorted strange extensions to get deep into the fuselage, then inspect and reassemble (with a repaired or new fuel tank). Some minor covering ironing was required but that was it! All three airplanes (Sig Rascal 40, Thunder Tiger lazy P-51,and Hobbico Avistar) are still in my fleet and are being flown, no worse for wear. One had the stopper come loose and two had cracked tanks.