dlaque

How do you get that little bit of fuel left in your tank that your fuel line cant get out of the tank ??

Is it o.k. to leave it in there ????

depfife

My Feedback: (14)

I don't have a technical answer, but my personal experience is that it does not cause a problem.

Eric

ChopperMike

Left in the tank it will eventually become mosty oil since the methanol and nitro will evaporate and it could attract some moisture. But that will take a while since the only way into the tank is through the pressure line. I wouldn't worry about it. If you do, take a short piece of fuel line and link the pressure and feed lines together when you're not flying to seal the tank.

Regards,

Mike

lawnhawk

dlaque, in my experience, that little bit left over has not caused any harm either. If you're paranoid though, what I do is remove the fuel line assembly and stuff a nice clean rag in the tank. Sops it all up and helps keep the tank clean too.

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

I wouldn't worry about it. I usually don't defuel the heli, even though I know I should. It sits with half a tank a lot. That isn't the best policy to follow though. That little tiny bit in there after you defuel won't hurt anything.

FHHuber

Connect the clunk line to the muffler pressure line. Now you can just leave the tank full. Air can't get in... so there is no problem. the fuel an't drip out so tere is no problem. I have left fuel tanks this way for 6 months.

Note... if you have a brass clunk... the nitro attacks brass. If left that way for in excess of 2 weeks your fuel will start to turn blueish green.. that is dissolved brass. The brass fuel tube dosn't seem to dissolve nearly as fast as the brass clunks. Sintered bronze seems to be immune to nitro.

mikehannah

Hi
Best advice is the last flight of the day to hover your heli at knee height over grass until the engine runs the fuel dry. When the engine cuts dont panic just control your decent with the inertia in the head ( your first step to Autos).
This is good for two reasons. It get the most fuel out of your tank and most important of all it is the best thing for long life of your engine.
If you are not happy hovering it until the fuel dies run the engine at as high a speed as you feel comfortable without it lifting off.
The important thing is to get your engine HOT when it does run out of fuel so that most of those nasty combustion products that can harm your engine are burnt off.
The little bit that is left will be diluted by the next batch of fuel you use.
It is okay to do this for a season and when you strip your bird down for its winter inspection and overall. Give the tank a good wash out.
I have been following this practice for years and I have not had bearing or fuel contamination problems.

Mike

supertoyz

It all depends how long you plan to leave it for. If your only talking a few days I wouldn't worry about it, if your talking longer than a few days I would want to run the system dry and get all of the remaining fuel out of the tank.

The last time I ran my nitro car I simply ran the engine dry, spun some after run oil through it and walked away leaving the main tank about 1/2 full with Blue Thunder 20% Nitro. I left it on the shelf in my shop for about 8 months while we built a new house and had a baby and about a week ago I finally had the time to clean, detail and reassemble the model. I found the fuel that was once blue was now a dark maple syrup color and had formed a nasty sludge inside the fuel tank. I tried flushing it with some fresh fuel that helped some but I ended up adding a few ounces of kerosene and shaking the hell out of it. I used a small toothbrush through the tank opening to brush out the junk in the corners and shook it some more. I finally got it clean but the fuel left alone long enough certainly did go bad and was a pain to clean......I'm glad I only had to clean it out of the tank and not the carburetor or engine. I'll never leave any fuel in any of my models again.