Thread: Water in tank
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Unread 02-20-10, 05:48 PM
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Gary Grand Pre' Gary Grand Pre' is offline
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In 2008 I lost my 2nd 337 to the same problem you are having. Over several years, a number of mechanics replaced gaskets, fuel caps, cleaned drains on my aircraft ectra, ectra, etra. Each time saying that “the problem had been fixed”. In July of 2008 after a four day trip to Branson Mo, and four days I might add, of the heaviest rains I can recall Witnesses verified that I carefully preflight my aircraft for our return home. I check and rechecked, drained and redrained the sumps, remembering everything I have ever read regarding Cessna’s and water related problems reported over the years, and yes I even raised and lowered, shook and wiggled the wings. With all of that, I only drained about 3 oz of water out of my left wing. I thought I was good to go. After a normal run up, we were set to depart lookout point Mo. We accelerated normally. However just as mains started to break ground, and without warning, the front engine quit. Aux pumps didn’t help, and the aircraft quickly settled back to the runway. The accelerates stop distance proved to be marginal, but I thought workable. A blow out tire later, this proved not to be the case. At about 5 knots, we slid of the end of the runway, and down the @50’ bolder covered drop off. We experienced a total lost, but walked away with only minor injuries.
The faa discovered over a gallon of water in the left wing, and no fuel was present from the wing to the spider on the front engine. To this date it remains undetermined where the water was trapped, but the faa did find that the scupper drain tube (the one that drains overflow from around the filler) had a small crack that was leaking water into the fuel tank. How is this possible? On my 1977 337G, this tube didn’t just pass from the drain through the wing. Instead this tube ran from the drain through the fuel tank then out the bottom of the wing. It was my understanding the crack was in this area. I am not saying this is what you are experiencing, but I might be worth a look!
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