Hi,

I am at the stage where a inspection of the finger screen in the tanks is needed. As you all know, it's a pain to get to the outlet without a second access hole and to refit without leaks (now it's without leaks).

I asked myself now that it might probably be free of debris anyway. So I don't like to take the pain to find out that everything is alright. 

As I have a borescope inspection camera I asked myself why not inspect it from inside the drained tanks before removing the screen. But, electric devices in tanks with fuel vapor might be a little risky to get blown away.

Did anybody of you all do this or something similar to inspect the screens? Or are there any easier approaches to inspect them?

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Consider flushing with Argon or other heavy inert gas to displace all O2 in order to eliminate risk of unintended fireworks ??

Hi Michel,

The finger screens to the tank fuel lines have a huge mesh and there has been no mention of them clogging on this site that I am aware of, so if you open the tank drains to check for impurities regularly or remove the drains, anything smaller than a pea will flow out. If you did the build you probably vacuumed and rinsed the tanks after drilling for the fuel gauge senders. Right?

Hi Thomas,

yes, I cleaned well (I hope). I just wanted to check once now If there is anything left in the screens after the first 60 hrs. I agree that the mesh is quite big and there shouldn't be anything. But one never knows. So my intend was to check it once now after the build and then let it alone.

In 2020 when my VDO fuel senders started leaking, I drained the tanks to replace the senders and while I was at it, inspected the screens with an inexpensive flexible "snake" video camera.  They were absolutely clean and I looked back in the corner behind the screen (the lowest point in the tank) and there was no debris there, either.  FWIW, I do have a final filter on my fueler trailer but of course have occasionally purchased fuel at various FBO's - I think they all have a final filter on their pumps, too.  Likewise, the fine screen in the fuel filter between the selector valve and the carb has never had a speck of debris in it, either.

When I did the inspection, there was still a few cc's of fuel in each tank.  The "snake" video camera's head seemed cool and it used the 5v off the smartphone's USB port for power, so it seemed the risk of sparking was very low.  However, I don't know if an LED can explode or spark when it fails?  As a precaution, I always energized the camera before inserting it in the tank and waited to switch it off after it was removed from the tank - seems in my experience, most lamps fail when turned on or turned off - don't know if that's valid for LED's, but it made me feel better! Ha!  In retrospect, I should have purged the tank with Argon - while reading this thread, it occurred to me that I had a tank of it sitting on my welder cart parked in the hangar! Duh!  Thankfully, Darwin did not get me this time! LOL!

John

N750A

Hi John,

thanks a lot for the picture. As expected totaly clean. I think I will try it as you did it and hoping I am such a lucky guy like you :-)....

I've heard from "older" working auto mechanics/welders that they simply purged fuel tank vapors with a hose from the vehicle exhaust while doing repairs...YMMV 

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