Fuel tank has debris. Should I flush it?

[clipquito]

My PA 16 has debris in the left fuel tank. Have replaced the drain 3 times. All showed trapped debris when they come out. This has been going on for 5 years since an AP replaced my fuel sender and left the tank open while he was working on it -- creating a lot of debris that went straight into my tank. What are my options? Should I flush the tank? If so, how do you do that? Thanks.

[AKJurnee]

You Might need to pull the tank, remove the finger screens in the tank to check how clogged up it is and clean it, remove the drain valve, then I'd probably flush the tank the best I can with avgas while its out of the airplane. Use the flushed gas in your snowmobile or lawnmower.

If it hasn't been done id also pull the carb screen to verify that there's no junk in it either.

[Steve Pierce]

What is the debris? Finger screens in the tank outlets are pretty large. Gascolator screen is pretty fine. Are you getting debris in the gascolator screen. Pull the quick drain and run some gas through the tank with a paint strainer filter at the outlet would be the easiest way I can think of.

[clipquito]

Thanks guys. Yesterday I flushed the tank 5 times or so with the tank in the wing. Used a fine paint strainer on fuel going in and coming out. Saw a fair amount of junk. Not leaking at the moment. Here's hoping. Hey Steve. We are going to Oshkosh. Can we park with the other Clippers? BA

[smcnutt]

We had big debris get into one of our tanks. We tried to drain it simply thru the wing sump. Besides taking forever, it didn't work very well - the hole is too small. We ended up pulling the sump drain and drained it thru "Mr funnel" and it still took quite a few flushes to get to where it was clean consistently. We would fill it and then rock the hell out of the plane then pull the sump drain. We were away from home on a ramp so it was our best option. Not sure how much of a pia pulling the tank out is and if that gives you a better chance to flush. Once we got the tank showing clean we pulled out the gascolator screen and then the carb screen. All had some level of crap in them.

Never did find exactly where our debris came from but the sump sample looked like brown mud. We had fairly recently started using mogas. Not sure if it was caused by using a dirty fuel can to transfer from the pump to the plane or the mogas stripping something off of the interior of the tank. However we now ALWAYS pour fuel from a can thru "Mr funnel" and it's never happened again. However it was only with our left tank.

[PA-16]

Take a look http://www.oasisscientific.com/vivid...on-camera.html down inside the tank.

[Gilbert Pierce]

Take a look http://www.oasisscientific.com/vivid...on-camera.html down inside the tank.

I have one of those. They work great.
Used it to find trash stuck on and partially blocking the suction strainer inside a C85 oil tank.

[Subsonic]

Pictures would be nice for us rookies...what's a finger screen and how do you get to it?

[Jim Hann]

Pictures would be nice for us rookies...what's a finger screen and how do you get to it?

Can't find a picture of mine right now, you should have four of them, two in each tank on the inside of the outlets.

[smcnutt]

Here's how we figured out that we might have had a fuel contamination issue. We tried flushing via the sump but when we finally pulled the sump we had larger debris that came out. Could have been leaves or as others had suggested, it could have been some sort of old fuel tank coating that the MOGAS stripped off. I'm thinking leaves from a dirty gas can.
20130613_125053_resized.jpg