Hi Guys,

OK, I did my searching and nothing came up for fuel tank size to use on an Enya 19.

I am likely using an Enya 19-IV but the 19-V remains an option for now.

Expecting a wet-2 style run, 9x4 prop. It is going on a Blackhawk Glo-Bug.

I think 2oz is enough for OTS pattern, would it make the regular pattern?

Not sure how the Glo-Bug would handle the regular pattern but we'll see.

-Chris

           Hello Chris, I was looking for a pic of the plane. Larry from Blackhawk always would welcome any pictures and had a page set aside for those posting them. Seeing the plane on there and the one on the site appears to have an Enya bolted on the nose. The front of the plane appears to  suffer from short nose syndrome. This could be a problem. Is this pic just giving me a false illusion? Are you planning on using a hard tank? I know you can run into problems with the pickup running directly into the back of the cylinder head when things are that close in proximity. A little tank doctoring may be in order. I do know that Eric Rule makes a neat little and narrow chicken hopper in the 2oz. One of our club members use this setup on a short nosed Jr Lightning Streak. Ken

Hi Bill,

Thanks for input on tank size. I think OTS is my focus for it now.

-Chris

                    Chris, what your suggesting may be problematic . The pickup in the tank should be the same height as the needle valve or engine centerline as your aware of.  Having the tank under the wing with the pickup coming out of the top is going to cause a lean situation as the fuel has to now fight gravity uphill. When and if the plane goes inverted, it's going to do the opposite and go rich. If you have enough nose to mount a tank I would try and utilize it even if it means cutting a notch out of the wing to allow the tank to be at the correct elevation. It appears that the wing is a solid wing? If so a notch isn't going to interfere with the integrity of it. The other option is to mount your tank on the inboard doubler. The Enya can be a funny one. Although my experience has been mostly with the .15, I have used the .19. They certainly heat up when using the muffler and the stock muffler should be opened as large as possible. Some of the older Enya mufflers had a swivel vent like device that you could open to help with the overbearing silencer. I had problems towards the end of the flight while the engine was going lean. The engine would start overheating and sagging to the point of almost seizing. They're quite difficult to break in but this wasn't my problem. I feel that if I had a inboard mounted tank, that this would certainly fixed my problem. I was using a 2 oz wide wedge. This has the pickup exiting the tank waaay outboard of the engine. The fuel now has to travel a further distance and fight centrifugal force to get back to the engine. The only other solution is, (drumroll) your going to have to put a bladder on it and all problems solved Ken

Chris, I haven't used a "slack bladder" tank in over 50 years, but there are some people around who have recently. ( The control-line AJ Firebaby in the early 1950's. It looked like a balsa department store glider, but had a stamped metal mount for a 1/2A engine, and a canopy to keep the balloon tank from flopping around too much.)

A slack bladder tank is a small balloon with the fuel tube stuck in, and the balloon's open end wired or wrapped airtight to the fuel tube..

That's the only tube going into or out of it.

It is filled with a bulb or syringe, by first drawing out all the air, then tipping the bulb so fuel will go out the spout, into the balloon. Don't stretch the balloon; that makes for pressure (until enough fuel is used, then it goes slack - making a different setting!)

I've heard that this kind of tankis a lot less sensitive to relative height to the spraybar, since there's no vent inside. The balloon just collapses according to the fuel drawn out.

The problem with any balloon tank is fairly quick deterioraton on exposure to glow fuel. You'll see the balloon get sticky and bad looking. Slap a new one on - don't try to make a used-up one work. Depending how often you fly, and how much nitro is in the fuel, a slack balloon tank might last a dozen or more flights.

Chris,

I neglected to mention that you have to be sure you can get enough fuel into the balloon without stretching it. ANY stretch puts pressure on the fuel, until enough is drawn out, then your fuel feed conditions change. Can't really tweak the needle while the plane is flying...

I have used one for over a year.  I DID NOT SAY RE USED.

   That's good to know.

     Brett