Maricardo - tank size

[Jerry Cashman 1]

G'Day all - I've been slowly building a Maricardo (April 2004) for a couple of years and after a rush of blood am now going to see if I can get it done and in the air.

My question is what size fuel tank should I be using?

I'm using a K&B .45 Sportster for power and have a 4-Oz Sullivan tank in the spares box - but it looks a bit small - should I be aiming for a larger tank?

(I've not flown glow for many years - so have forgotten most of the voodoo required for fitting a glow model out!)

cheers. Jerry

[fly boy3]

Hi Jerry, great flier, and a good looking model. Without checking, I believe I am using a Slec yellow tank with my 52 4stroke. Will check later and report if I got it wrong. Cheers. 2004, got to be a record lol. ps, if started in 2004 it must be the original plan, not the updated one.

[Nigel R]

8oz tank needed for a 45 usually. Slec yellow is 9oz would be just fine.

[kc]

Comparing a SLEC yellow 9 ounce tank with the 2004 plan shows it would fit in neatly, and even a SLEC orange 11 ounce tank would just go in. However these SLEC tanks are an unusual design which is compact around the outlet, so other tanks might not fit as well as there is no hole in the F2 bulkhead. SLEC tanks are easy to obtain in England but might not be common elesewhere.

The 'free' plan from RCME April 2004 is the updated one.

One of the items of 'Voodoo' is that if you fit a tank hatch then the tank will be troublefree and you will never need to get access to the tank, conversely if you don't have a hatch the tank will be sure to give trouble and you cannot get to it! An item not to forget is adequate fuel proofing everywhere at the front. Another trick is to make sure the throttle linkage can pass the fuel tank whilst having the tank at the correct height relative to carb. And of course leaving room for a nicad too. Fresh modern NIMH 'nicads' required. All the things we don't have to worry about now with electric!

[Gary Clark 1]

I have the plan for a Maricardo sitting around and always fancied building one. I've always heard good things about them.

Gary

[alex nicol]

The blue and yellow one was built about 15 years ago with a Slec yellow tank and Irvine 53 upfront it has the no dihedral and larger control surface mods the other is bog std off the original plan

[Jerry Cashman 1]

Many thanks all - I'll go looking for an 8Oz. I'm in Aus so the SLEC tank which does look like a very sensible design isn't readily available here - but a regular clunk should fit and yes, I've already got a hatch in place, so all good.

Thanks again and Happy New Year for this evening! (Aus time

cheers. Jerry

[Nigel Grant 1]

Hi Jerry. I have a Maricardo at a similar stage to yours but I have installed a tank. I used a Sullivan 8oz which was suggested in the new build article. One of the threads on this forum on the Maricardo has both the build article and one by Alex Whittaker which are a good read and might give you the inspiration to finish yours. - **LINK** .The original build article and plan are now also on "Outerzone". I am further down the globe in Christchurch New Zealand. I have bought quite a bit off SLEC over time as they have such a great range of stuff. I even have one of their building jigs. If you E mail with them with what you want, they will send a Pay Pal invoice which you pay which initiates the order. Never taken too long for stuff to arrive. Some guys don't rate their tanks but I've used them with no worries and they're recommended above.Good luck with your build - I might follow your example and finish mine.

Hope all's good with you. The sky here in Christchurch has been filled with haze from the bush fire smoke from Australia. A reminder to us about how bad it is there.

[Jerry Cashman 1]

Ahh! Thanks very much for that link Nigel - I had read it a few years ago but clean forgot it was there - a great resource.

Yes - the fires are a big worry - we've always had them in Aus, but never this big or so early in the season. With my flying hat on it's a bugger as our fields are all closed due to the strong winds and total fire bans... but that's a first-world problem isn't it! Everyone is very worried and the wonderful volunteers who are fighting day in and day out are already pretty done-in. and it's still not even January! Pray for Rain!

[Nigel R]

Slec tanks are excellent. Best use of space, for sure. Historically I have used little else. One caveat, occasionally they get a bad moulding around the clunk fitting. It is easily cleaned up with (i think) a glow plug tap.

Sullivan slant type also excellent.

[kc]

There is another thread about Maricardo here and it has links to the articles also to a source of laser cut ribs.

Jerry, if you already have a 4 ounce tank you might just use the bung with pipes in an ordinary polythene bottle of larger capacity if the shops are closed for New Year.   Of course there are so many spare tanks around now that many models have been converted to electric that most modellers will have some to dispose of...........

Edited By kc on 31/12/2019 13:23:24

[Jerry Cashman 1]

Thanks very much team - I've had a burst of inspiration and have got my Maricardo pretty close to done - just a few details (properly mount cowl, hookup throttle, etc)) and she's ready!