Thez
Member
I'am currently building a low wing sport plane and planning on using the UL Power 350i engine. Have been doing a little research and found some points against using a gascolator...Looking for some insight pro/con
Filtering-will have a screen on fuel tank, UL uses coarse filter before fuel pumps and fine filter before injectors
1. Gascolator is another leak source, also since it is on the suction side of the pumps, air could possibly be sucked in causing cavition of the pumps which is worse then any water in them.
2. Increased resistance on pump
3. If gascolator is located on firewall side, engine compartment heat and lower pressure could cause vapor lock potential.
4. If Mogas with Ethynol is used (UL- allows up to 15%), water would be engrained in the fuel.
5. The high volume of returned fuel vs burned fuel causes any possible water to be mixed thoughly with fuel where it would not be noticed by the engine and eliminate and chance of water slug.
6. As with any AP, tanks should be sumped as part of preflight. When a pump is turned on the lines are purged in about 1 second. This could also be used a secondary preflight procedure to resump.
Vans, Airflow Performance (injector manufacturer) and Jan at Viking all don't recommend Gascolators with fuel injected (Think I'm quoting correctly)
Joe
Filtering-will have a screen on fuel tank, UL uses coarse filter before fuel pumps and fine filter before injectors
1. Gascolator is another leak source, also since it is on the suction side of the pumps, air could possibly be sucked in causing cavition of the pumps which is worse then any water in them.
2. Increased resistance on pump
3. If gascolator is located on firewall side, engine compartment heat and lower pressure could cause vapor lock potential.
4. If Mogas with Ethynol is used (UL- allows up to 15%), water would be engrained in the fuel.
5. The high volume of returned fuel vs burned fuel causes any possible water to be mixed thoughly with fuel where it would not be noticed by the engine and eliminate and chance of water slug.
6. As with any AP, tanks should be sumped as part of preflight. When a pump is turned on the lines are purged in about 1 second. This could also be used a secondary preflight procedure to resump.
Vans, Airflow Performance (injector manufacturer) and Jan at Viking all don't recommend Gascolators with fuel injected (Think I'm quoting correctly)
Joe