I am working on a problem and thought that someone out there might have the answer. I am thinking of mounting four(4) .30 Magnum four strokes on a B-17(Cedar Hobbies). I want to mount retracts, but to do that the tanks have to be moved. Does anyone have experience with the Cline or Parry pumps in this type of installation? The tanks would be in the fusalage and the outboard engine would be about 20 inches away. The two inboard engines are the only ones that have to be moved. The Clines seem to be the answer but are kind of high. The Parrys will need more room. I look forward to anyones suggestions. No need to mention a shrink I already know this is nuts.
Thanks

The Cline or Iron Bay would be the superior choice for you

I prefer the Cline. Simple, light, dependable.... what else can I say.

I like the Clines too except for the price. 4 of them add a lot of money to the project. Haven't seen the Iron Bay pumps, where can they be found?

How bout one tank? Put it in the fuse with all muffler pressure taps with backflow check valves and one Cline or Iron Bay regulator.

The Perry VP-30 would work, but may be a bit large for the cowling.

Could do that but don't think the Clines pump will hook up that way after reading the set up instructions. Has anybody tried this before?

Why wouldn't it work. Four .30 four strokes use less fuel than many of the engines using this regulator. Just need to buy some tees at the auto store to make it work.

The Cline regulator would have to be installed on each engine. It needs to be installed an inch from the carb... per the instructions. I've had a two and a half inch length of fuel line connected to one once just because I didn't have room to mount it closer and it worked fine. They sense vacuum from the carb and release fuel pressure to feed it. Also I was using the oscillating pump, I swear by them on 4 strokes with funky tank placement.

Those oscillating pumps put out an impressive amount of flow and pressure, even when adjusted down quite a bit. Put a cline on each one, a single tank and a single pump, run a bench test and adjust the pump till your happy!

I'm starting to plan my first twin project... and after that a four engined rig... hopefully sooner rather than later!

I am going to give it a try. I will bench test a couple of configurations. I found the Iron Bay units and they appear to be the same as the Clines just 15 bucks cheaper. Anybody have an opinion on which is best and why? If I have four engines on one large tank will the exhaust pressure be enough to fuel engines two foot or more apart?

I'd feel better with that oscillating pump myself... I don't have experience with the iron bay regulators, I tried to get some at one point but couldn't get through to them so I went with cline.

Now that I think about it, it would probably be a cleaner installation with a pump on each inboard engine, from a central tank to the inboard engine and that pump supplies both engines in the left wing for example and the other for the right wing? It's been a REALLY long day at work, maybe I'm just nuts!


I'm sure the Iron Bay regs work well, I just never could get one when I wanted it.

The Cline regulator's internal parts are not unlike those from the regulator side of a Walbro chain saw carburetor. I understand you can use the Walbro parts to repair one. The body of the Cline is plastic.

The Iron Bay has a diaphragm like the Cline but the valve part is made like a Schrader tire valve on your car tires. The body of the Iron bay is Aluminum.

Muffler pressure with Formost check valves in the pressure lines should be adequate for your pressure needs. I would use at least two engines for pressure. You can get the check valves from Tower.

You may want to look into getting (2) 2oz header tanks and installing them next to the retracts. I'm not sure if you will have room for both, but if you do then all you need to do is get a perry pump to move the fuel from the main tank to the two header tanks.

The IRON BAYS are not identical. The Cline uses the needle and Diaphram from a walbro "WA" carb, while the IRON bay uses a schrader valve "valve stem" and a Walbro "WA" diaphram. The Cline while injected molded glass filled nylon is half the weight and size of a IRON BAY. The IRON BAY is very bulky. Performance wise they work equally well. But I would really prefer four Clines myself versus the large, heavy, and bulky Iron Bays.
The Cline while being nylon is very strong. I just rebuilt a 7 year old cline the other day for $3.00. I would not like the weight penalty of 4 Iron Bays.[:-]

Header tanks do nothing to increase pressure. They are used to prevent the engine from sucking air during violent manuevers.

Perrys VP-20 and VP-30 haven't worked for me flawlessly.

I could not reach good idling, good transition, good midrange and good peak power altogether.

Stelios

You know, I really find it hard to believe you when you say you can't even get good peak power. Even with the pressure set to full or at the lowest possible pressure, you should have been able to reach peak power. The rest depends on the type of carb and tuning skills. Perry's instructions and site tell you which carbs do not work or work well with their pumps. Outside of that there is a possiblility you had one with a ruptured diaphram, in which case you should have immediatlly returned it.

Cline systems are the only way to go. Start up and readjust carb, that simple.

The Perry VP-30 is a great pump. It pumps lots of fuel at a pretty good pressure. You could use one Perry pumps for two engines, and it would work great, and not cost you a huge amount of money. The Perry VP-30 puts out to much pressure for most engines, and that is why lots of people have problems with them. I made the same mistake and could not get my engine to run until I added a return line to the tank as per the diagram below:

Once I put a return line as per the diagram below, my Saito ran PERFECT at all speeds.

Sorry I have been away from my computer. I went with the Cline regulators. Built a test stand and it worked pretty good. Need to do a little more testing but I think it will be fine. One tank, four regulators one check valve. I even killed the engine prviding the pressure and the tank held pressure with another engine running until I got tired of waiting. Still had to release the pressure.

A couple of pictures

Might be a good idea for each engine to provide muffler pressure with a check valve in the pressure line. That way you will still have pressure if an engine goes out.

I thought so too, but when I tested it with the engine supplying pressure shut down the others continued to run fine at full throttle. I got tired of waiting for them to die and shut them down and the tank still held pressure. I am going to test it a little more before I install just to be sure.

To Sport Pilot: Obviously I ment achieving these good things (idle, midrange, transition and peak) altogether at the same tunning.

To Jett Pilot: I also added a return line as per your diagram but hasn't worked for me either.

All I have to admit is that in every test case I had the tank below the firewall and not far from the engine. All I wanted from the pump was additional security.

Finally I well understood that a good tunning on a good engine is all needed for flawless operation. Nothing more for my 12 O.S., Saito and Magnum 4-stroke engines.

Stelios

Here are the respective weights of the Cline and the IronBay regulators.