I am off the tax thing for a bit- I get too wound up thinking about it. So,
back to my therapy- my Wheeler.

I bought the kit with the wings closed up but far from complete. I have
been working on the wings, and yesterday set the wing up in the 5 degree
position it will be in while on the plane.
I filled the tanks with water (yes water) to see if they would leak. They
did in a couple of places. It took about15 hours to leak out 40 gallons. 3
gallons per hour is a lot.

The water came from the ribs at the ends of the tanks, where the ribs are
joined to the top and bottom skins. It leaked around the ribs.

Have any of you had experience with the epoxies and do they work? I will no
doubt have to open up access holes in the top of the wings, but I want to
know what the fix is before I get started.

I can build a jig that will let me rotate the wings so if I get the epoxy
inside I should be able to rotate the wings for the 40 minute cure time and
coat the inside of the wings. This would have the added benefit of another
layer of protection from ethanol if for some reason the fuel gets
contaminated with ethanol laced mo-gas.

FYI I used water because I feared that this would happen. I can evaporate
the water easy enough, but fuel residue is hard to remove, and I would have
hated to have had multiple leaks at 4.00 a gallon. I didnt want to use
pressure because it might damage the wing, and vacuum wouldnt tell me where
the leaks are. As a former utility contractor, I can tell you that a bit of
food coloring in water will tell you where a leak is soon enough. For big
pipes, Tidy Bowl blue works wonders.  I have spent 1/4 of my time since I
got the plane re-working what was done before I got it. While the closed up
wing saved some time, I would have preferred to have closed them myself.

Anyway, if any of you have experience with the sealers, I am all ears.

Kevin Alderman


We used a 3M fuel sloshing compound to coat metal tanks for Avgas and JP5.
Ethanol fuels may add to the problem too for resin/glass.
Here is a discussion from EAA.
http://www.oshkosh365.org/ok365_DiscussionBoardTopic.aspx?id=1235&boardid=147&forumid=178&topicid=2744

Barry Bordes


-- 
The Rotary Engine News Letter. Powered by Linux.
ACRE NL web site. http://www.rotaryeng.net
You Tube key word PaulLamar2
Copyright 1998-2012 All world wide rights reserved.