change fuel tanks

[wannafly]

With the new ethanol being added to our fuel and my tanks being old and not wanting to find puddles on the floor one morning I thought I might be pro active and change them to ethanol resistant tanks from Kitfox.
Any one have some tips on how to go about doing this? Do I have to take the covering off the whole wing or do I just cut out above the tank. I did not build my Kitfox so have no experience with any covering technics.

[cap01]

i replaced one tank last year and did the other one this winter . you dont have to uncover the whole wing just the top fabric over the tank . my project was somewhat bigger since i replaced the 6 gal tanks with the 13 gal tanks but it shouldnt be too bad if your installing the same size tank . there are pictures in my album . take a look at that and if you have questions just ask so i can give you some of the things ive learned to make it easier.

[rogerh12]

What about just sealing the old fiberglass tank against the alcohol?
Here is the link to the Bill Hirsch sealer.
http://www.hirschauto.com/prodinfo.asp?number=GTS

This is what they say about it:
BILL HIRSCH'S GAS TANK SEALER THE BEST ON THE MARKET. IT IS BETTER BECAUSE IT SEALS HOLES AND SEAMS FAR BETTER THAN ANY OTHER SEALER. IT HAS GREATER STRENGTH AND AT THE SAME TIME HAS THE FLEXIBILITY THAT A PRODUCT OF THIS TYPE IS REQUIRED TO HAVE; SOMETHING OTHER SEALERS DO NOT HAVE. IT IS A NON-POROUS COATING AND IS NOT AFFECTED BY ALCOHOL OR FUEL MOST FUEL ADDITIVES. IT WILL WORK ON ALL TYPES OF TANKS SUCH AS STEEL, ALUMINUM, GALVANIZED, & FIBERGLASS WHEREAS OTHER SEALERS WILL NOT WORK ON SOME OF THESE METALS .
Hope this helps

Roger

[cap01]

roger , i did slosh the 6 gal tanks with an epoxy seal , but the tanks were installed and the fabric was already on . not an easy job , besides you cant be sure how good the coverage is due to the baffels . the 13 gal tanks would be worse due to having more baffels . there are warnings on the hirsh seal that the entire surface has to be covered or gas will get under the seal and loosen it . i never had a problem with the epoxy coming loose but rather i wanted to carry more gas . but also i never ran any ethanol either .

[wannafly]

Roger

I did get some of that sealer. I talked to them about it and I tryed it on one tank. Like was mentioned it did not cover very well and even with lots of guys we moved the wing in every possible direction and could not get it over the whole area. I am thinking now that maybe, and its a big maybe, if the tank had been out of the wing it might cover better but not sure how you would get it on the baffels. Looking in the filler hole I can see spots that were missed. So I may have one tank that if it starts to come off will be useless to me. I will put an extra inline filter on that tank and keep a close eye on it.

[Papa Beach]

Mic,

If you want to take the esay route, I 've checked with the Shell reps and they indicate their 91 octane in Canada does not contain any alcohol at this time. I will check periodically but for now, that's the word...

[rogerh12]

Ya I got a alcohol fuel tester from the EAA, and found our local BP station has 92 octain with no alcohol. But in Kansas, you have to test everything as they no longer have to identify the fuel as an alcohol mix at the pump.
Roger