"I wonder why the coupe tends to lose fuel this way"
The Ercoupe fuel system takes the fuel from the interconnected two main tanks, pumps it in the nose- or header tank and from there all fuel in excess of the engine need flows over to the left wing tank (in most cases). The left wing tank is connected to the right one and here the fuel starts its journey again. The problem is that the pump takes fuel from both interconnected tanks but the overflow goes into one of the main tanks only. The fuel does not even out between both main tanks, due to a restrictor fitting in the connecting line. So if you don't leave a small buffer for the fuel , it has to overflow. Later style fuel systems tried to correct the overflow issue by proving an header tank overflow into both main tanks, I have such system in my plane. It works , but only on level ground or in-flight. When my coupe is slightly tilted, the fuel again flows only into one wing tank and the fuel sprays out of that tank. The fuel system in a cessna does not have these problems, since their tanks are all above the engine, all are gravity feeding the engine and the whole business of pumping fuel through a system might not be an issue there. But what do I know. Hartmut To: [email protected] From: [email protected] Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 19:28:56 -0700 Subject: [ercoupe-tech] how full of fuel I have the 46 coupe 415-C. I also have the 7.5 gal tanks, instead of 9 like most of you do. My question is, how full to fill the tanks. I have heard that up to the brim, and I will lose fuel to siphoning. I never had this problem in my 172, and I wonder why the coupe tends to lose fuel this way. I am now putting too little fuel in, and just want to know a good ballpark average the rest of you men/women use. Thanks for reading this. Gary _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=PID23384::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:NF_BR_sync:082009
