I was having problems thinking of where to put the surge tank in my FC. As you know there isn't a great place to locate the surge tank without adding lots of extra plumbing. This is the answer I came up with. I increased the tank capacity a little more too. There is still more welding to be completed, the addition of some baffles and powder coating to make it look nice.

Special thanks to Ray at www.raysradiator-hotrodshop.com. He can make anything.

 

 

Yeah - I think I need new shorts.

I've been grapling with where to put mine and while I may have just wet myself - that may be a little overboard compared to how I want to go. Still though - kudo's on one hellova bitchin piece.

-B

 

i like the bar stool

 

sweet man, that looks like a lot of hard work. What exactly is the purpose of a surge tank again??

 

Can you explain what we're looking at and how it solves your problem?

 

i think it's a mini fuel cell or something... is that whole piece there like a custom fuel tank?

 

thats some good *** alumi welding my friend...any tips and welding alumi???

 

Thanks man, I appreciate it. Lots of work, but it coming together nicely.

The purpose of a surge tank is to prevent the engine from ever starving for fuel regardless of the amount of gas in the tank. It also prevent starvation due to hard acceleration, braking or cornering.

How it works is the stock pump fills the smaller tank, the smaller tank is a solid volume that feeds the external pump. The external pump goes to the fuel rails and the return line from the rails goes back in to the smaller tank (I have to plumb that yet, so it might not be clear in the photos). Then the extra in the small tank goes out that bent tube into the larger tank. I'll post up more photos once I get more completed.

 

I'm not a tig welder, not even a novice. ahhah. I had my friend Ray do the welding for me. It just takes lots of practice like anything.

 

To elaborate on why -
If you look at this picture here -


You can clearly see the stock pickup assembly. If you're not running a full tank of gas and you go into a hard and sustained left hander it's very easy to see that the fuel can (& DOES) slosh away from the stock fuel pump. If enough air is pulled into the sock the pressure in the fuel rails goes to 0 and you run lean and your motor goes boom.

In that pic you can also see coming out of the top of the surge tank an overflow tube and on the bottom the two blue 90* fittings leading outside the main tank that feeds the external fuel pump. The idea as was said before is to keep the smaller tank as full of fuel as possible @ all times - and here's how it works.

I am going to assume here that the braided line is plumbed to the surge tank from the regulator return line and the rubber line is from the in-tank possibly even stock fuel pump.


Now - we know that the in-tank fuel pump can provide adequate fuel flow at rail pressure. The pressure in the surge tank is under VERY little pressure, there will be some becuase there should always be fuel flowing out of it back into the main tank. The only time there wouldn't be would be when stock pump looses contact with the fuel and stops supplying fuel to the surge tank. But rememeber the surge tank is full so there's no immediate problem. When the fuel sloshes back towards the main pump, the surge tank fills again.
We also know that as pressure decreases flow should increase from any given pump so the adequate stock pump is more than adeqate to fill the surge tank.
The only thing that I PERSONALLY would've changed would be to put the out-fitting from the surge tank on the right side. I would do this becuase I auto-x. I am assuming that your's is for drag applications and therefor in the rear is a much more suitable location.

Again - very nice idea and execution. The more I look at this the more I think about doing it but DAMN is that alot of TIG'ing. I MAY build one and mount it in the spare tire well - I dunno.

My Tips for TIG welding
1) The AL can NEVER be too clean
2) Adjust the balance or frequency to siut
3) Use the pulser to help wiht the timing
4) Most important - practice practice practice and then when you're really good - practice some more

I have a Sync 200

 

^ Thanks for the further explanation. As for the out-fitting location on the surge tank, I hear what your saying, but I don't think it will make that much of a difference. Thanks again for the positive feedback!

I use the car for AutoX and open track days. I've never drag raced it really. I was tired of hard left cornering on 1/2 a tank and the car shutting off basically until the fuel pump caught up again. This should definitely fix that.

 

I would think this would end your problems. Oh - I demand finished installed pics I think you're right - it shouldn't make a difference where that fitting is located becuase it should always be fed with a constant supply of fuel.

I'm racking my brain right now as to where to put mine and what shape it should be etc etc etc - fuel pump location etc etc.

 

Yeah, I didn't like the idea of it in the boot or cabin of the car. The fumes hurt my eyes after a while. I am done buying AN fittings too, so wanted to do it with as little additional plumbing as possible. Anyone thats used those fitting$ knows they aren't cheap.

I will post the pictures up when its done and installed. I should have all the welding and leak testing done this coming weekend. Then I think I am going to powder coat it gold vane to match the car. I should have taken picture of it mocked up in the car too, maybe tonight.

Here are a couple pictures of the car that I'm building it for, its kinda dirty right now.

 

uh that car is imaculate (cant spell) i think i just got a wankel boner, man that car is sexy

 

I love that gold FC!!! When you post pics of it mocked up include more of that car, like maybe a full body shot.

 

Here are some photos of the car from a couple months ago..

http://www.interneticon.com/pics/cha1.jpg
http://www.interneticon.com/pics/cha2.jpg
http://www.interneticon.com/pics/cha3.jpg
http://www.interneticon.com/pics/cha4.jpg
http://www.interneticon.com/pics/cha5.jpg
http://www.interneticon.com/pics/cha6.jpg
http://www.interneticon.com/pics/cha7.jpg

 

Godamn I love those Advans.

 

A few more udpated photos. I got all the internal plumbing done, installed a baffle and got the top completed. I've been knocking down all the welds and smoothing it all out before I pressure test it. After welding closed any leaks, I'm going to powder coat it and get it installed.

I should have it in the car tonight to drill the holes in the mounting brackets. I'll take a few photos of it in the car too.

Again, special thanks to the guys down at Ray's!

 

Sexy tank. You've got me thinking about this for my drift car. Sideways and no gas is no good.

 

OK, here is a couple more. I have the tank in the car for the test fit.

 

looks great. any idea on the capacity of the tank?

 

not sure off hand, but should be more than stock by a gallon or two.

 

how thick is that aluminum?

 

1/8 inch thick. Pretty stout material. Should be getting the powder down on it today.