There has been a bit of interest in my misadventure with MOGAS and the damaged fuel system in my SuperCub Clone.
Today I made it to the airport and cut the top out of the fuel tanks. The mess I found inside the tanks is incredible, and disheartening.
It would appear these tanks were fabricated using 3/8" blue foam as a core material. Overall quality was marginal to begin with, then the tanks were apparently sealed by painting the inside with an extra coating of epoxy resin. As the chemicals in the local Mogas attacked the resins, the coating of resin peeled away from the inside of the tanks in sheets that rolled up and slowly made their way to the low spot in the tanks. The blue foam delaminated during the removal process, so I will need to fabricate new tops for the tanks. I knew when I chose to leave these tanks in the wings when I was finishing this project that they were an unknown, and I may eventually have to rebuild or replace them. So now that has come home to roost.
The inside of the tanks will require significant clean up, then a lay up or two of glass before a final prep, prime and sealing with a chemical resistant slosh compound. These tanks were built in as an integral part of the wing. If not for that, I would cut them out and install metal tanks. However, at this point in time, I don't want to do a complete wing rebuild and recover, so will rebuild the tanks. If I ever need to recover the wings, then these tanks will likely be replaced.
Photos of the mess and the clean up/rebuild process are posted on my web site at:
<http://jeffsplanes.com/Cub/MOGAS/mogas.html>
Jeff Scott
Cherokee Village, AR
_______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org
