I don't know of anyone else doing it for pure road cars.
Never heard of anyone here needing it.... but maybe they've not lived to let us know!
Cheers,
James
I work with this guy who races his own cars and has worked in the ford design department for many years.
We were talking about my kitcar build and we got on to the subject of fuel tanks. When I said I had a ali fuel tank he said 'Is it foam filled
or bagged?'. When I said neither he went on quite a rant saying that basically there is a great chance in a accident I would just simple burn
and die. He recommend getting a hole cut in my tank and having foam put in.
What is the crack with foamed filled or bagged tanks? He has got me worried.
In fact he's just come back over to me a said 'look I am dead worried about you and this tank, I am gonna go and ask a mate who makes them
to have a look to see if he has one going spare'. He is however a millionaire.
More dangerous than those plastic ones that Ford use on all their tin-tops? Or the metal ones used on all the old classic cars?
Fuel fires are caused 99% of the time by pipes coming off in the engine bay.
Whatever you do don't show him how little structure there is between the back panel and your spine in a 7!
If He's going to get u a 'spare' for presumably not much money, u might as well.
If you're racing, He's probably right. If its a road car, i wouldn't worry
I thought the foam was to prevent the build up of petrol vapour which is explosive (liquid petrol isn't) and the rubber bag type thing was to
prevent (or help to prevent) the tank rupturing in the event of an accident.
To be honest I would think a well made ally tank would deform a hell of a lot before it would split.
Assuming you don't have a fuel filler restrictor you can pour in "Explosafe" aluminium foil balls.
This also reduces the need to baffle the sump.
Not cheap however - something like £35 for 10 litres.......
I was just wondering if any of you guys had swanky fuel tanks.
Happy Easter!
Fozzie has the foam stuff in her tank but it was built as a road-legal 750MC racer.
I don't know of anyone else doing it for pure road cars.
Never heard of anyone here needing it.... but maybe they've not lived to let us know!
Cheers,
James
Kinetic Vehicles in the states is offering Jaz fuel cells for $156.
Don't know what that would be after shipping to U.K., taxes,etc.
quote:
Originally posted by Rod Ends
Kinetic Vehicles in the states is offering Jaz fuel cells for $156.
Don't know what that would be after shipping to U.K., taxes,etc.
The rubber blader, foam filled tanks were first used by American Combat Aircraft during WW11.
Almost all racing orginizations in North America require them.
As said earlier the foam is to stop flame propogation, therefore preventing explosion.
The blader is to keep the fuel in if the metal container is ruptured.
I have had them in my race cars but the Locost will do without unless I need to put one in for racing.
Both the cars with the foam and blade tanks were involved in high speed crashes on road coarses, neither leaked a drop of fuel.
Friend used to design fuel systems for cars for a living.
When i talked about my car he had a similar reaction. In fact, i still remember him saying repeatedly something along the lines of "you're
going to die, i don't car who welds it, i do this for a living, i have to jump through hoops for a reason".
ps. i've got an old landrover 0.5mm steel tank by the way ....... he'd be having kittens if i told him.
[Edited on 1/4/10 by MikeR]
Replying to my own post.
The latest IVA manual I have has changed the wording for plastic tanks from what I remember to:
quote:
Plastic Fuel Tanks
2. The vehicle must be accompanied by satisfactory evidence that the tank is designed for road use or the fuel tank is an original fitment to a mass produced vehicle, or has been previously and is un-modified.