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Smoke refined!!!!!

Reviving an old thread

Alan,

Just curious about how this system has held up over the years?

I have a spare submersible fuel pump I bought thinking mine was going (turned out to be bad fuse connection) that makes 26 psi so I'd have to have to adjust the nozzle k factor, but I'm thinking that if I can find a red plastic fuel can to use as the tank that fits into the front baggage well in my 8 that I might cobble together a smoke system with little investment.

Looking forward to your reply.
 
Alan,

Just curious about how this system has held up over the years?

I have a spare submersible fuel pump I bought thinking mine was going (turned out to be bad fuse connection) that makes 26 psi so I'd have to have to adjust the nozzle k factor, but I'm thinking that if I can find a red plastic fuel can to use as the tank that fits into the front baggage well in my 8 that I might cobble together a smoke system with little investment.

Looking forward to your reply.

?.Still going strong! We have many systems out there in airshow airplanes
based on this design. Only exception being addition of flop tube pick-up. I have
several systems still going that we built in the mid 70s. Thanks, Allan:D
 
Submerged pump

Alan and all,

Neat system, Alan! Five years ago I decided to “roll my own” system using a submerged pump. The pump will fail if it is run dry. I do not know exactly how long I let it run after it ran dry, but it did fail. Had I paid attention by looking in the mirror it would not have been a problem. I still like the clean design permitted by the submerged pump (as evidenced by Alan’s system).
 
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….Still going strong! We have many systems out there in airshow airplanes
based on this design. Only exception being addition of flop tube pick-up. I have
several systems still going that we built in the mid 70s. Thanks, Allan:D

So since I spent all of my money (almost twice my budget !! ) on the RV-8 I'm now looking to build my own smoke system and have been doing the research.

I'm glad I found this thread and wanted to know if you ended up putting together a simple system for sale? I looked all over your website but didn't find anything smoke related. I'm not going to do any airshows I'll only need a 1 or 2 gallon tank. Any help will be highly appreciated and if you need me to call you I can do that too.

I even saw a smoke system that Kitfox sells but a google search doesn't seem to produce much info of anyone using it.
 
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Hi Allan,

Wondering if you?d answer a couple questions regarding your smoke setup as I?m sort of duplicating it.

1. I?m using a fuel pump that I had on hand, actually a replacement I?d picked up as I thought my electric boost pump was failing but wasn?t, and it makes 120 pounds versus the 140 you said yours makes. With the very low flow rate while the pump is running, is that enough to keep the pump cool enough. I understand the thing is submerged in cool oil, but I don?t have data.
2. When used in the Airflow assembly, the pump is setup on a pressure relief valve and a bypass in order to reduce the output pressure to a constant 26 psi and positively keeps the pump from churning in a zero flow condition. As these pump do not appear to be a positive displacement type, I assume churning will not hurt them, but again, no data. Have you seen any problem with this?
3. Given the target flow rate of .5 GPM, the stainless nozzles I would need from McMaster Carr have an orifice of .07?. That?s pretty small, have you seen much for nozzle clogging?
4. I have your air/oil separator installed in my airplane with the vacuum reed valve assembly installed into the exhaust. I check it regularly for coking, but as this valve is downstream of where the injector nozzles are located, have you seen or do you expect that I may be introducing a contamination source that will create a problem there?

Thank you in advance for the knowledge, and thanks for posting your smoke secrets on VAF!
 
Great design. I'm putting together my own system with a high pressure fuel pump, and I'm running down the parts and process to make these nozzle/check valves.

Does anyone have a source on a stainless 1/4"NPT X AN3ish check valve? The closest I can come up with is a stainless male to female 1/4" NPT check valve. This might be the best solution as you can use any AN size on the female side.

How is the McMaster nozzle fitted into the 1/4"NPT male side of the check valve? Either the hex and the threads were machined off the nozzle and press fit (welded) into the 1/4" male? Or, the threads were left and the inside of the 1/4" male was tapped to accept the 1/8"NPT from the nozzle?
 
I had a brand new in tank fuel pump here and we tried it in some smoke oil. I found the pump struggled. If you find a pump that works I will be curious to which one.
 
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