REFLECTOR: Pressure testing Strakes. Help me!!

Sun Apr 8 14:14:21 CDT 2012

Did mine the same way. Except I put one big balloon inside another one. Allowed me just enough extra pressure to find 2 small leaks.. (after I found the caps leaking slightly). 

Kurt 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ron Velocity XLFG <VelocityXL at fastmail.fm>
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Sun, Apr 8, 2012 11:33 am
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Pressure testing Strakes. Help me!!

I uses heavy  balloons on my stakes to keep pressure in the tank over night . When I checked them the
next morning and they were still full I figured the tanks were sealed.

Ron

From: Tom Falls 
Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2012 6:20 AM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list 
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Pressure testing Strakes. Help me!!

I'm going to the store this morning to get a plumbers plug. How much pressure are folks using to test their fuel tanks? If its more then 1psi, how are you achieving/measuring that?

I think I can get close to 1psi by blowing in the end of a hose connected to the tank. Any more than 1psi will require a different method.

Thanks,
Tom

On Apr 6, 2012, at 11:43 PM, Mel Bina <pusherpilot1 at gmail.com> wrote:

The fuel caps can be hard to seal  Go to the hardware store and buy   a plumbers plug to replace the fuel cap.  That solved the problem for   me.

Mel Bina

On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 4:59 PM, <KMis178813 at aol.com> wrote:

Tom

    Lube the O-Ring on the fuel caps. 8 out of 10 times     that fixes the leaks. Just hope it's not the other 2!

      Ken

In a message dated 4/6/2012 3:21:33 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, tomfalls6 at gmail.com     writes:

Help! I’m struggling to find very very small leaks in       both strakes after closing them out. I am using a water manometer hooked       to the strainer side of each tank and a hose with a valve on the vent       line. I blow in the hose and when I see about 19” between each water       column (equivalent to about 0.68 psi or 170 knots on an ASI) , I shut off       the valve. Then I go around and brush a soapy water mixture over all       joints, fittings, seams etc. Initially I found and fixed a few leaks. For       instance I had to tighten the clamps on the sight gages. On the left tank       the manometer drops from 19” to 18” of H2O in 30 seconds (+/- 5 seconds).       On the right tank it’s about 10 minutes to drop from 19” to 18”. I am at       the point where looking for bubbles with soapy water is not revealing the       location of the leaks.

Any ideas?? How are others finding leaks? Should I       maybe use a higher pressure in the tanks? If so, how much pressure is       enough and how is this done?

Thanks in advance,

Tom       

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