A partially finished smoke tank for the front baggage well came with my RV8 when I purchased it, so I decided to make my own system by completing and painting the tank, installing a submerged pump in the tank, and doing all of the plumbing with stainless braided hose. The system weighs less than 5 pounds excluding the firewall forward plumbing. The tank, about to be installed is shown below:
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The pump system consists of an automotive in-tank pump from TRE Performance (thanks to the idea from Alan of Anti-Slat), a home-made pressure regulator, and a flow regulation valve obtained from McMaster-Carr and Marvin Helmsley’s injector nozzles. Standard aircraft hardware was used throughout.
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The pressure regulator was made from a bulkhead run “T”, with the side leg bored for a ¼” ball and a fine spring for pressure control. Bleed holes were drilled at the relief point. The pressure regulates to 32PSI.
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The tank fits into the drop area of the forward baggage compartment.
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The system is controlled by a relay, which is grounded through a switch on the throttle. Power is supplied through a 15 amp circuit breaker and a smoke "arm" switch on the instrument panel.
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This was the first test of the system
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Since the firewall forward line to the left side of the engine is longer than the line to the right side, a flow restrictor orifice was inserted in the bulkhead “T” outlet serving the right side of the engine. The outlet was drilled out to 3/16” to a depth of 1/4" and a number of restrictors were fabricated for test. We ended up using a restrictor with a 1/16” hole to get balanced flow to both nozzles.
So far, great smoke at 1/3 gallon per minute of smoke oil!
The pump system consists of an automotive in-tank pump from TRE Performance (thanks to the idea from Alan of Anti-Slat), a home-made pressure regulator, and a flow regulation valve obtained from McMaster-Carr and Marvin Helmsley’s injector nozzles. Standard aircraft hardware was used throughout.
The pressure regulator was made from a bulkhead run “T”, with the side leg bored for a ¼” ball and a fine spring for pressure control. Bleed holes were drilled at the relief point. The pressure regulates to 32PSI.
The tank fits into the drop area of the forward baggage compartment.
The system is controlled by a relay, which is grounded through a switch on the throttle. Power is supplied through a 15 amp circuit breaker and a smoke "arm" switch on the instrument panel.
This was the first test of the system
Since the firewall forward line to the left side of the engine is longer than the line to the right side, a flow restrictor orifice was inserted in the bulkhead “T” outlet serving the right side of the engine. The outlet was drilled out to 3/16” to a depth of 1/4" and a number of restrictors were fabricated for test. We ended up using a restrictor with a 1/16” hole to get balanced flow to both nozzles.
So far, great smoke at 1/3 gallon per minute of smoke oil!
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