The 11th plague: Holes in fuel lines

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- Mathew Kirsch
  
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posted
20 years ago

Tue, Jul 15, 2003 11:48 AM

I have had no less than a dozen incidents involving punctured fuel lines this year, and I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing something similar. Seems every plane I've flown so far, and even a few I haven't, has ended up with a punctured fuel line.

They're always on the carburetor supply line, and always right at the tank. What's strange is, I've been putting Sullivan tanks together the exact same way for years, flaring the tubing a bit so the line doesn't pop off. It's never given me any trouble in the past, but this year... I'm thinking maybe there was a bad batch of blue silicone fuel tubing.

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- Pete Kerezman
  
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posted
20 years ago

Tue, Jul 15, 2003 2:23 PM

I had a similar problem a few years ago, with the Great Planes brand blue fuel tubing. Solved it by switching to the pink Prather brand.

Texas Pete AMA 59376

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- mike tully
  
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posted
20 years ago

Tue, Jul 15, 2003 3:15 PM

Just about every single motor problem I've had in the last 22 years has been solved by pulling the tank and replacing all the silicone plumbing. Even when I couldn't see any holes! Silicone tubing has become the bane of my aeromodelling existance. Now it has become a early spring ritual to replace it all before the flying season.

Lately I have seen the light and switched over mostly to lithium polymer "fuel systems". No electron leaks lately.

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posted
20 years ago

Tue, Jul 15, 2003 5:31 PM

That flare does it. It cuts into the silicone tubing. Take the fuel tube, chamfer it, put it in a drill, and using course sandpaper, sand the ends while spinning the drill. The fuel line will not come off of this coarsely treated end, and the tubing will not cut into the silicone.

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- Fubar of The HillPeople
  
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posted
20 years ago

Thu, Jul 17, 2003 12:50 AM

We had this happen for the first time last saturday during a test of an airborne video equiped PT-40, which caused a deadstick condition. This was later determined to be the cause. The hole was caused by a firewall failure due to fuel soakage.