Back January of 2015 about 6 months before first flight, I picked up some gas valves from Home Depot and installed them between the strake tanks and the sump tank. I was a bit uncertain about the setup because… it just didn’t feel right.

A couple of days after I put these in, I was talking with Scott at the builders center and he mentioned that someone had put in similar valves and that apparently they didn’t agree with avgas and began leaking.  He suggested checking and making sure the valves were compatible with liquid gas as well as gaseous gas.

I tried but couldn’t verify compatibility so I pulled them out.

Fast forward to Sun-n-Fun 2016.  Walking around the B&B Aircraft Supply tent I ran across these.

They are used in a helicopter, spring loaded in the open position and really small. At $50 each, they aren’t cheap, but they are aviation grade so there’s no question they’ll standup to avgas.

Because the valve is spring loaded, all it takes is the slightest bump and the valve will spring open. So I got some aluminum C channel and make a safety lock to hold them closed.  There’s even a safety wire hole to make sure they stay in place.

This week, I borrowed some fuel jugs and defueled enough gas to install the valves. Because the downstream end is a bulkhead fitting, it would have been nice to install them in the gear bulkhead, but it is way too thick for that. So I settled with having the B-nut fitting snugly in the hole in the bulkhead.

Here’s the right side fuel line with shutoff valve installed.