Steve Collins

My Feedback: (8)

I am getting ready for the first flight with a RAM1000 (purchased new in Jan 2001) and have a few questions related to fuel tanks. I have this engine in a JMP T-33 and in order to get an adequate fuel capacity, I am using 6 tanks which total 140 ounces not counting the BVM UAT hopper. While running the engine, we noticed that the tanks are collapsed slightly. Is this normal? We ran a full fuel load through the engine to make sure the engine would not flame out and it did not. We were not running the engine much over an idle most of the time and only ran it up to full power for short periods. I am concerned that this slight collapsing is symtomatic of a fuel draw problem. I changed the brass tubing in each tank to the 5/32 diameter that BVM supplies with their aluminum tank caps. The fuel tubing used to connect the tanks is Prather yellow Tygon "Large" size.

Is there a problem here or am I imagining things?

Jackjet

My Feedback: (1)

Aptar,
as long as your tank(s) are not collapsing TOO much-you can run it just like that-the pump suction is REALLY strong and this is to be expected with in a series/parallel configuration-as long as you are not sucking air-your engine will be allright.You can do a 3min. full power run and check your tank(s)-they should be ok.



Jackjet

rambat1

My Feedback: (6)

Aptar; It sounds as if you have done the proper thing. The only problem with too much restriction on the fuel delivery side is that if an air bubble does get into the system it will not be able to push it through as easy as if there was no back pressure. Make sure you are using the largest size tubing you can in your tanks. Also, try to reduce the number of tanks if possible. If it means buying the correct tanks from JMP then that is a cheap insurance policy. Remember that short cuts normally result in short flights. Good luck