operating a 912ul on ethanol

[Paul Z]

When I drained my tanks, I had a light brown film or contaminant (not sure what word to use) in my tanks. ...... If your sight gauges start turning a light brown be aware! I plan on folding the wings and replacing the sight gauge hoses, so I will have that as an indicator!

I just completed flushing my tanks. As I said before I noticed the sight gauges had browned, on the bottom part of the tank I could barely see the fuel level!! Now that I have completed flushing the tanks, I can see the fuel level on the gauges. It stripped out most of the brown, almost back to new. Today I was somewhat surprised how much foreign material I got out of the tanks! In touching the inside of the tanks it is no longer Sticky!

I got hose splicers and some fuel line to run the lines directly from the fuel tank into 5 Gallon Gas Cans for disposal, and to assure myself that the Acetone did not git on the Paint! When I was ready to drain the tanks, I set a 5 gallon gas can on the ground on the passengers side. I then folded the hose over to crimp off the flow removed the hose clamps, pulled the drill bits out of the hose, stuffed the end of the hose into the gas cans and no mess!

I covered both wings with plastic taping it on with painters tape. see the attached pictures.

I sealed the vents using 1/4 inch fuel line with 1/4 inch drills inserted in each to keep fuel from splashing out.

Finally when finished I taped Paper Towels over the tank fillers to assure nothing got in.

Now to start on the Annual, Steve my A&P / AI is stuck in Chicago, but we will get that started in a week!

IMG_0796.jpg

[DesertFox4]

Looks and sounds like it went well Paul. Glad you have that task behind you now. Good luck on the annual. I'm sure it will go fine. Happy New Year.

[Dorsal]

Paul, looks good, hope you are back in the air soon with the BSS well behind you.
Happy New year

[Paul Z]

The only place I found that it stripped some paint was on the Fuel Tank Caps! Some guy named Steve K. had me all spun up worrying about getting the acetone on the paint, and rightly so! Acetone will really mess up a good paint job! I would HIGHLY recommend covering the wings as show. When I was poring Acetone into the funnel, no matter how hard I tried, I did get Acetone to splash , out of the funnel and back onto the Plastic, but it didn't splash on the paint!

[Paul Z]

We, 703KA is back up and running. I got the Annual completed as well. It ran a heck of a lot better. Thanks to Steve Queones for completing the Annual. I plan on reassembling it after the inspection tomorrow. Hopefully if the weather participate, I can get some flight time in!

[Dorsal]

Paul, way to go. I should have been as carful as you where, I still have a few "reminders" on my paint job from the BSS rinsing process. I will get the airbrush out in the spring and no one will ever know.
Hoe you are back in the air soon

[Paul Z]

It definitely ran better, I could reve the engine up to 3500 RPM without it kicking like a mule, but the choke is persistent in sticking. Steve Q. (A&P, AI) recommended I run some Sea Foam carb cleaner through the system. So, I plan on getting 1 1/2 gallon of fuel, add the carb cleaner, and then fill it into the header tank. That was I don't get an unknown into the fiberglass wing tanks! Question . . should I add the Decalin Runup Lead Scavenger Fuel Additive along with the Sea Foam Carb Cleaner. I am a little concerned with the reaction of two additives!

By the Way, I can not find anyplace that I got acetone on the wing paint. Hopefully there were none! It did get a little on the Gas Cap which Stripped the paint off of the edge of the front edge of the gas cap!

[Dorsal]

Paul,
Are you confident that the choke sticking is a problem at the carb and not a cable/routing issue? I ask because I remember having to mess with that when I set up mine.

[Andrew G]

Paul... I have a Honda 4 stroke boat motor... my pal has a Honda as well and he has had similar problems that you are having with your Rotax. Every mechanic suggested that he use the seafoam... and it didn't work...

[Paul Z]

I noticed my chokes are almost impossible to use, man do they stick. I replaced the cable, but that was not it! I ended up using an open ended wrench turned the nut that hold the choke lever, and then it would move freely a couple of times, and then after sitting over night it is stuck again! I am going to remove the covers on the choke circuit, and spray the inside down with Carb Cleaner. Hopefully that will fix the problem. If not I plan on pulling the carbs to get them rebuilt!

Paul,
Are you confident that the choke sticking is a problem at the carb and not a cable/routing issue? I ask because I remember having to mess with that when I set up mine.