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Re: Aluminum fuel cell with alcohol? [Re: Copper Dart] #1489672
08/27/13 09:45 PM
08/27/13 09:45 PM
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 1,520
West Palm Beach, Florida
Copper Dart Offline
pro stock
Copper Dart  Offline
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Joined: Apr 2011
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West Palm Beach, Florida
and another!

7829958-058.JPG (172 downloads)

Common sense, the least common of all the senses.
Mom.

For fear of ridicule, society stifles creativity.
Ricky Valdes
Re: Aluminum fuel cell with alcohol? [Re: Copper Dart] #1489673
08/27/13 09:50 PM
08/27/13 09:50 PM
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 1,520
West Palm Beach, Florida
Copper Dart Offline
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Copper Dart  Offline
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Posts: 1,520
West Palm Beach, Florida
Well maybe the insides of the fuel lines arnt affected nor are the insides of the say,..... fuel pump, float bowl, filler tubes, vent lines.

Naw, everything is working just fine right now. You don't know what you are talking about.

7829964-MiniTub001.JPG (145 downloads)

Common sense, the least common of all the senses.
Mom.

For fear of ridicule, society stifles creativity.
Ricky Valdes
Re: Aluminum fuel cell with alcohol? [Re: Cab_Burge] #1489674
08/27/13 09:56 PM
08/27/13 09:56 PM
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 28,312
Cincinnati, Ohio
Challenger 1 Offline
Too Many Posts
Challenger 1  Offline
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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 28,312
Cincinnati, Ohio
Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

Well there is an explanation for everything, not sure I am sharp enough to explain your experiment's results so far. But since you have a technical background, how do you observe corrosion inside an airtight alum container?




All 4 alum tanks I made with a real short filler neck
and gas caps(production stuff) and 2 have vents..
I just open the cap and look in with a flash light..
then change the fuel and put the cap back on.. pretty
simple... (to keep it air tight, fill it all the way up)




I would anodize the tank. It is cheap to get done & you have a few choices of what colors you can get done. All of the race/street fuel fittings we make at work for customers are anodized for this reason. Mainly the import guys that run E-85


You should have all of your fittings hard anodised , all of the aluminum lines done inside and outside as well as the cell inside and outside




I looked into having the inside of my handmade tanks done on the inside and found out it was not able to be done at a affordable price.

This place did that kind of work as they applied dow7 to my mag dragster body, but was not able to hard anodize the inside of my fuel tanks at any price.

Kinsler Fuel injection is who warned me of the problem many years ago when they did my injection.

These are tanks out of my early TADs, the later tanks have a internal vent that went out of the bottom, very trick.





And a 632 donovan big chief injected on methanol, 1993. This car had a plastic Jaz fuel cell in it, perfect for alky use IMO. Actually this car had 2 fuel cells in it, the second held racing gas for the nitrous injection.


Re: Aluminum fuel cell with alcohol? [Re: Challenger 1] #1489675
08/27/13 10:07 PM
08/27/13 10:07 PM
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 28,312
Cincinnati, Ohio
Challenger 1 Offline
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Posts: 28,312
Cincinnati, Ohio
And on the fittings, used to be the better "cutter" designed fittings were hard anodized. I used nothing but KB fittings and whoever was making them before KB I can't remember the name right now.

Then regular fittings were not hard anodized and were fine for gasoline use. But try using them with straight alky without top lube and they would get ate up in just a couple months. Even with top lube alky must be respected.

Re: Aluminum fuel cell with alcohol? [Re: Challenger 1] #1489676
08/28/13 11:03 AM
08/28/13 11:03 AM
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 304
Mesa, AZ
cagebob1 Offline
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Posts: 304
Mesa, AZ
I've been watching this quite closely, as I will need to choose a fuel tank for my project soon. I was thinking that stainless was my only choice, as I plan on e-85 or methanol. Are you saying that a plastic fuel cell is an acceptable choice? Should the fuel lines be stainless also? This car probably won't get run each and every weekend, so it will sit around for periods at a time.

Re: Aluminum fuel cell with alcohol? [Re: Challenger 1] #1489677
08/28/13 12:18 PM
08/28/13 12:18 PM
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 588
Franklin, TN
23T Hemmee Offline
mopar
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 588
Franklin, TN
Quote:

Sorry but you will have problems sooner than later.

Methanol/ethanol will corrode the aluminum eventually. It's best to drain the cell after use.





There is no real timetable because every situation is different but it will happen. The top lubes today definitely do help but won't totally stop it. An old trick that I learned from an alky racer back in the 70's was to "pickle the tank" with a mix of 1 gallon of vinegar to 3 gallons of water, let it sit overnight or longer. I had a Moon T-tank on my dragboat that had started to corrode, don't ask me what the chemical process is, I don't know but it worked. Could go a whole season without getting any chalky residue in the fuel filter, which for me was the warning sign that corrosion was starting. Treating the tank at beginning and end of season has become a regular part of preventive maintenance program.


Ronny
6.789 @ 198.63 **.956 Brand New 60'***
4.17@ 169 1/8th mile
John 14:6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUku_hjYRh8
Re: Aluminum fuel cell with alcohol? [Re: Copper Dart] #1489678
08/28/13 02:35 PM
08/28/13 02:35 PM
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 52,972
Romeo MI
MR_P_BODY Offline
Master
MR_P_BODY  Offline
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Posts: 52,972
Romeo MI
Quote:

Well maybe the insides of the fuel lines arnt affected nor are the insides of the say,..... fuel pump, float bowl, filler tubes, vent lines.

Naw, everything is working just fine right now. You don't know what you are talking about.




Those are all steel part that you show.. so its rust
and rust is caused by water and air.... in the fuel
lab we went to stainless tanks when we first started
the methanol(M-85) program but when we went to E-85
we changed over to blow molded plastic tanks with a
vapor barrier inside to control the permeation of
the fuel through the plastic(vapors seep through)
and kill the emissions that we had to play with..
there is a few ways to eliminate the corrosion...
either eliminate the water, or eliminate the air...
in reality you cant do that so plastic is the easiest
way to eliminate the corrosion

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