I'm building a methanol tank, I have gotten to the point where I designed it and built a prototype from wood, confirmed the fit bought the metal and cut it up.

The design is more or less a rectangle about 16" deep (tall) 21" wide and 5" long. This according to my calculation will be good for about 6 gallons.

It will be mounted where the stock FC front tire went.

The metal for the box is 14 gauge 308 SS, with 13 gauge SS for the top bottom and sides, (ended up this way because it was cheaper as I was buying "scraps") about 25 pounds of stainless, pre cut, maybee 16-18 after cutting (in case your curious 2.75 per pound with normal price is 3.60 per pound). Yes this thickness of SS is overkill, just call me mister overkill.

I will be welding it together with a mig welder using 308 SS wire and trimix gas (the gas intended for SS). I may just tack it up, confirm the fit, and bring it to a certified welder who can tig weld it. It depends on how its looking as I put it together.

now what I need help with is the design or necessity of a baffle, the fill port and the requirement for a vent (should the vent if needed be go external to the car)

What about a rollover valve?

The tank will be holding 100% methanol and thats it.

I have procured several 308 high quality NPT bungs in many sizes up to 3/4 NPT, and have some various adapters like NPT to AN right angles and such (all 308 SS).

I plan to mount the pump to the side of the tank and have created a provision for doing so, such that the pump (a cooling mist pump) would by facing head or diaphragm down twords the floor of the car, with the intake fitting almost level with the very bottom of the tank.

I have no plans in coating the metal with anything (shouldn't need to right with 308 SS right), or using a bladder in it.

I am planning to use the good year fuel injection lines with the blue liner. Some reaserch has shown that these are designed for use with flex fuel vehicle, and vehicles running up to E100 (probably work fine with methanol), but I would certainly consider other types of lines, such as rated or designed for use in methanol fueled race cars. But not the cheesy nylon fountain drink dispenser lines.

Any input is appreciated?

 

"where the stock fc front tire went" .... you moved your tire? you mean spare tire?

if it is int he cabin you should have a vent that goes to the outside of the car. summit has a rollover/vent combo that threads onto an an bung. this is what i am going ot use
im in the same boat as you because i cant figure out what to do about the fill cap. a few ideas i have tossed around: buy a real filler neck like http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

or put a large an bung and use an -an cap.

my other idea is to do this: weld in a 1" female bung and get a 1" stainless plug and and oring to use as a thread in cap. the plug is mcmaster part no 4464K256.

 

yeah you got it front tire ha...

what I decided to do is use a 3/4 NPT stainless bung welded into the top of the tank with a T fitting.

T fitting goes to a rollover valve, then gets a 90 to the side, goes into one of those HVLP paint sprayer desiccant things then to a hose out under the car. Other side of the T fitting will attach to a 1 inch plug.

if you search on line there are big fittings, like 3/4 in NPT used by at home brewers and moonshiners

 

here's some pics.

I welded it up myself MIG with 308 SS wire and trimix

I pressure tested it to 5 psi, which it held for 30 minutes, but when I submerged it in water I saw tine wine bubbles in several areas, which I will grind back some and re weld.

this is with no finishing grinding wire brushing of any kind the welds will look shiny after wire brushing, and some of the overbuilt areas I will grind bad

 

Looks awesome man

 

here's one more showing the bottom, the tube sticking out is something I rigged up for pressure testing.

the plate at the bottom is a mounting plate, its made of 1/2 inch alum flat stock, an it fits between the tie down mounts (look under your FC on the right and left of the spare tire well if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

 

slick man!

You going to install a level sensor?

 

I do plan to install a level sensor if I can find one that will install from the top in thats made for methanol.

Wouldn't want a bottom up sensor.

One think I am re-thinking is use of a sealant. I now understand why oem auto companies have gone to poly tanks, and all modern tanks use sealant, its remarkably hard to make an air tight metal box.

I may also cut the top off and put what would effectively be a flange on, so that I can take the top on and off.

Not sure what to seal it with though, something tells me regular gasket material wouldn't work.

 

Viton

 

You can use the level sensor I am running which is part of a snow performance kit.

Simply threads into the tank at whereever you want the indicator to go off at. Its rated for meth.

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

Picture also here:
http://www.snowperformance.net/product.php?pk=16

Comes with a red LED, not exactly what you're after, but its an idea.

And as for sealant, if you're looking to use a gasket/oring then something like Viton as suggested, but you can use this sealant:

http://www.ottofrei.com/store/produc...cat=750&page=1

A tube comes in the kits Snowperformance sells, works with meth.

 

The more I think about it the more I want to be able to take the top off,

any ideas how to engineer this?

I'm thinking of a 10 gauge over sized SS plate bigger than the existing top, with a rectangular hole just slightly smaller than the existing box opening if the top where to be cut off. Then simply a new top out of 12 gauge welded to the top of the box.

 

I was thinking more along the lines of an epoxy type sealant, but If I do make the top removable, then I will probably just weld it up from the inside, too.

The issue with getting sealing with the initial weld, is that you have to go kind of slow to not warp the **** out of the metal, so there's lots of stops and starts. Its real easy to end up with a pinhole leak where the weld was stopped, and externally the weld looks perfect.

 

I don't know what that sealant's made of exactly, but having talked to a couple different people about coatings/linings, most anything that will be meth resistant will be epoxy based.

And yeah I had similar trouble with my sheetmetal tank.....its part of the reason I had it lined.

 

when you say lining thats what I mean when I say sealant.

 

ahh I see

In that case when I get mine back I'll ask Dave exactly what the hell it is they used on it.

I'll post the pics/info in my custom tank/pump mounting thread

 

any idea what type of bit I can use to grind inside welds?

Just to be clear, imagine making a piece of 3/4 angle iron by welding two pieces of 3/4 wide flat together with obviously a 90 degree angle between them.

What can I use to grind down the weld in the center of the 90 between the to pieces of iron

 

wow. You guys are motivated. All I am doing is using my stock windsheild washer jug. Somehow connect the line to it but keep my stock windshield pump functional at the same time.

Gonna try and hook up the A/D input to the stock level sensor to automatically switch maps in case the the jug goes empty. And still have the stock windsheild fluid empty light on the dash. (still have not figure out how to do the A/D input to ground through the level switch or something.)

 

I made the decision, I'm going with the bolt on top. I went and popped the top off the tank with the plasma cutter when I got home from work.

Please let me know about that meth resistant coating

This will also enable me to use fuel cell foam, if I understand it right that is.

 

If that one doesn't work out for you, buy mine
I was going to convert it my dry-sump tank but have figured out something else.
Baffled with another solid sheet right up the middle and vented in the cap with a Jaz vent/rollover valve.
Pressure tested at 14 psi and leak free.

 

**** a duck!!!

You don't **** around man, very VERY nice.

Now, do you run Crystal Geyser exclusively? Or were you just testing brands?

 

^ Very nice!

 

where did you buy that fill cap?

 

http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...10002_96982_-1
http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...10002_45994_-1
http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...10002_45996_-1
http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...0002_235174_-1

Heres a few. Most are just vented caps, the first one is a rollover valve.

 

looks good, is it made out of aluminum?

 

See the links above classicauto supplied. I basically just made the cap from those parts.
Yes it is aluminum and I am aware of the corrosive properties between meth and aluminum. I never ran pure meth in it though and besides, it could always be coated inside. The most meth I ran was a 75/25 meth/water ratio due to the Aquamist setup I had and their system could only tolerate that much methanol at the time. I eventually ended up running pure water because NASA does not allow any type of alcohol injection and meth is not readily available and is not free and.......

The tank was also made with the idea that it may end up being an oil tank for my 20b dry-sump setup, hence the capacity.