Reaming and Cleaning the tapped holes in the fiberglass fuel tanks

[cpdutch]

Looking for some advice on the processes to use when cleaning up the tapped holes in the fuel tanks. My questions (so far) are;
1) How far do you run the NPT tap into the holes? I.E., how do you know when to stop turning the tap? So far, I've gone very slow and checked how far the respective fuel fitting/valve would go into the hole before feeling like they had reached a point of being tight. I've got to that point with the finger strainers where 3-4 threads remain outside the hole.
2) Does the use of a lubricant help the tap in cleaning up the holes? Water? Light oil?
3) When inserting the fittings, is there a torque value to achieve?
4) Do we use some flexible, reusable sealant for all of the fittings?

I've scoured the forum threads, figuring this has been asked before, but my search skills must be lacking - haven't found anything.

Thanks for your help.

[Dave S]

Easy does it just like you did in your comment 1. Trick is to tap far enough to have decent threads; but, not so far that you bottom out the fitting on the threads. Kinda hard to undo if a person cuts too deep.


Using oil may cause you problems with the sealant - I wouldn't do that. I did the tapping dry and used the old shop vac to suck out any particles. I can see mopping it out with a Q-tip & denatured alcohol.

Installing the fitting by feel, not torque, works. Not a very empirical method; but, snug enough to seal (the Tack & Seal takes care of irregularities on the threads) and not so tight as to tempt cracking the fiberglass.


Here is the deal on the correct stuff to seal the threads.

https://teamkitfox.com/Forums/thread...thread+sealant

[jiott]

Make sure you do the thread tapping before you do the final tank flush with acetone. The final flush will hopefully clean out any tapping debris you might have missed.