The new Valley View Yak55SP is all dialed in with nothing to do but burn fuel, or is there...
Time for smoke!!! But before we get to fun it's time to build a tank.
Rather than another questionable stock tank I put together another Fiji water bottle conversion. Before you ask, yes it's fuel proof, yes it'll take the abuse of hard 3D, and yes it's super easy. Some people say why bother, but for me there's more than enough reasons:
1. The Fiji bottle is clear so you can instantly see if there's any issues inside BEFORE they happen
2. No brass tubes for fuel lines to slide off of, lines are directly on the barbed fittings
3. It costs about half of a convetional tank and is much much more reliable
4. It has a cetain WTF factor when anyone sees it!
Here's what you need:
Fiji water bottle (.5 liter for a 50cc plane, 1 liter for 100cc, etc.)
1 foot of GENUINE 1/8" Tygon fuel line
1 plastic drinking straw (seriously)
Step one, drink the water. It's delicious and it's good for you. When the bottle is empty dry out either by blowing out with compressed air or leave the cap off over night on a floor vent, just make sure it's dry when you get started.
Start off by drilling a hole for the straight fitting, I used a 9/64" bit. Clean up the hole and then slide a straight fitting through. Add a thin bead of Seal All to the threads on each side of the cap then a silicone washer and finally one nut on each side. Snug down the nut and the Seal All should squeeze out to make a nice tight seal.
Once the cap fitting has set up slide the tygon onto the inside barb. You'll want enough the that clunk can reach the bottom but without actually touching. Tygon expands when soaked in fuel so give yourself a good 1/2" of clearance from the bottom of the tank. Cut a piece of the drinking straw and slide that over the tygon. It's simple but effective in keeping the clunk at the bottom of the tank rather than stuck at the front and causing a deadstick... Last but not least put the clunk on the line and even though it's overkill with barbed fittings, zip tie everything!
Finally the last step is the 90 degree vent fitting. The beauty of this fitting is it is flanged and only requires a nut on the outside. Drill the hole towards the top of the tank and you may have to get creative, but fish that fitting from the inside out. The key is to point the vent fitting towards the back of the tank so it starts the vent loop to prevent a siphon. Lay a bead of Seal All, slide on the washer and nut, then tighten down.
***DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN THE CAP*** Think of how tight the lid is when you first opened the bottle, that's as tight as it needs to be. The threads are incredibly strong but if you overtighten the cap you stand a chance of either stripping the threads or even worse splitting the cap.
That's it, it seriously took 10x longer to write this than it took to "build" this tank. It's simple, effective, and at a glance can give you the peace of mind that everything is as it should be.
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