Fuel Tank Considerations

Started by BigMike, April 11, 2010, 03:55:51 AM

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BigMike

^^ hahahaha I like this guy


Okay, team effort of chase cars & spotters. This is all sounding really really fun! Once I get my MR2 going I'm sure I'll be up there a bunch!
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R135
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     My 1987 Supercharged 4A-powered 6-speed MR2

Sirdeuce

Go to LeMons forum/newbies/fueling questions. Maybe we could find a 55 gallon barrel to take fuel.
"I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on wakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning."

Sirdeuce

Power booster. mix ethanol with amonium nitrate inject into inake manifold at a %5-%10 rate. Hmmmmmm, how crazy are we(me myself and I the three of us).
"I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on wakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning."

BigMike

#18
Ok guys,

The black 1987 MR2, team "Stick Figure Racing", who apparently has a stock 4A-GE, told me they average 18 miles per gallon while racing. Our engine will have higher power output and it's possible we are more aggressive drivers, so my guesstimate is that we'll probably make 13-15 MPG.

I really think we should look into a small tank mounted in the front trunk. Even if its only 3 or 4 gallons, at about 6 pounds per galloin, that is only 18 or 24 pounds full, no more than 30 pounds tank+pump+lines.... I really don't think that will "destroy" our handling. Remember it will help our weight distribution and front traction when the little tank is full, and then it will just act like normal when its empty. I like to carry my 50 pound tool box in my front trunk and it hardly makes a difference in my car (granted my car is heavier).

I heard a couple of teams talking about how great it would be to have extra fuel storage for better pit stop management. They said there is a MR2 team running a 5 gallon front trunk mounted fuel cell reserve tank and it really helps them manage their fuel stops. They also were commenting how large cars have huge tanks by default, some up to 18 or 20 gallons. We are at a big disadvantage in this category with our little 9-9.5 gallon tank that we'll probably need to refill every 8 gallons (or else risk running out of gas while cornering if we really push for 9 gallons per pit). Maximizing our time on the track is going to be very important.

Also, I never saw any judges opening up trunks. Not once. If we don't say anything about it I bet they wouldn't even look. And if they do look we'll hand over all the documentation for it.

I know that our old Formula-Toy had a small fuel cell that we are not using. Maybe I can get it for our car, I'll have to look into it.

The best setup would be a fully automated system. We *could* have some toggle switch to pump gas from the reserve to the main tank, but that would be one more thing to worry the stressed out driver. What we can do instead is when the gas in the main tank gets to a certain level, say 1/2 or 1/3 tank, I will have a device that activates the pump in the reserve tank, pump all its gas into the main tank, and then disable the reserve pump. Piece of cake.

What do you guys think? I would like to do this for the March event if I can come up with a reserve tank that meets the safety & rule requirement. I'll take care of this entire reserve tank project so no one else has to worry about it. This will give us a serious advantage over other MR2s.

Mike
-/_/___/__________\___\_\-
|______________________|
|-------\___________/------|
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R135
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  246


     My 1987 Supercharged 4A-powered 6-speed MR2

Sirdeuce

Consider a surge tank too. Might be an extra gallon or so, but the real advantage would be the protection against leaning out in a turn with a low tank.
"I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on wakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning."

BigMike

CRAP. New rules for 2011 say we can only have 1 tank per vehicle... See this thread: http://bigmike.marlincrawler.com/forum/index.php?topic=190.msg1912#msg1912
-/_/___/__________\___\_\-
|______________________|
|-------\___________/------|
```````````````````````       

R135
└┼┼┤
  246


     My 1987 Supercharged 4A-powered 6-speed MR2

Sirdeuce

Can't have a second tank? How about 30' of filler hose? 2" tube run parallel to the tank under the car hidden by the under body panels?
"I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on wakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning."

BigMike

You know we could still stash a hidden fuel tank and get away with it. That is the nature of this whole event in my opinion. As long as its well concealed, safe, and trouble free, I don't think it would be a problem at all.

There is space beneath the curvature of the front trunk :idea:
-/_/___/__________\___\_\-
|______________________|
|-------\___________/------|
```````````````````````       

R135
└┼┼┤
  246


     My 1987 Supercharged 4A-powered 6-speed MR2

Sirdeuce

I wonder if we could incorporate a hidden tank in the foam in the frunk? Use a little extra foam in the redirection of the radiator airflow.
"I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on wakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning."

BigMike

Check this out

Last week I didn't have time to get gas before my Wed morning final, so I drove all the way to college like this. I've driven below the E line before so I thought it wasn't too risky. Sure would have sucked to have ran out of gas and missed my final! LOL The low level light is not on because the key is in the off position in this shot.

So with the needle below the E line, it took 9.12 gallons. So I'm guessing the tank is about 9.5 max and it'd probably stall before you got there.
-/_/___/__________\___\_\-
|______________________|
|-------\___________/------|
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R135
└┼┼┤
  246


     My 1987 Supercharged 4A-powered 6-speed MR2

BryanH

IIRC it's a 10.8 gallon.  I know I put 10.5 gallons in my '87 once or twice.  I figured out that once the fuel light came on I had at least 2 gallons left - so I never pushed it past 60 miles on the light (mostly ran low on long drives, not so much in town). 

With the SC and race tires I figured out the car will fuel starve at an autocross shortly after the light comes on.  Interestingly, it starved under braking.  As soon as I'd go to pick up the throttle again it'd hesitate for a bit, then accelerate like normal until after the next braking zone.

The more you know...

BigMike

WOW Most interesting to know Bryan :yesnod: What I will do is the next time I am running low I will carry my spare 2.5 gallon tank with me and run the car dry. Then I'll throw the 2.5 gal in and get to the nearest station asap so we can see what the total capacity is at starvation.

You are correct with the braking. When my needle was on top of the E line, it would dip below it briefly during braking and also left hand corners. Right hand corners caused the needle to rise slightly.

I have _never_ filled 10 gallons in my 2 in my life. The most I've ever done is always in the low 9 gallon range. Now you've got me really curious! :thumbs:

Mike
-/_/___/__________\___\_\-
|______________________|
|-------\___________/------|
```````````````````````       

R135
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  246


     My 1987 Supercharged 4A-powered 6-speed MR2

BigMike

I just spent a good 10 mins :working: the FSM and I can't find where the manual lists the exact fuel capacity.
-/_/___/__________\___\_\-
|______________________|
|-------\___________/------|
```````````````````````       

R135
└┼┼┤
  246


     My 1987 Supercharged 4A-powered 6-speed MR2

Sirdeuce

Never got my 2 below the 1/4 mark, so no idea on the real useful capacity. When you changed the pump in your tank, did you get the pickup screen in the prooper location? or higher or lower?
"I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on wakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning."

BigMike

If you are asking me, then I am not sure. The V6 Tacoma screen was a lot longer than the MR2 screen and it was difficult getting it to drop it without the screen clipping the top of the fuel pump isolation bowl (lack of a better description). I finally managed to drop it in so that the screen was pressing against the inside of the isolation bowl which I assumed resulted in the screen being pre-loaded against the pump, rather than being bent at an angle against the pump.

I know it works :gap:
-/_/___/__________\___\_\-
|______________________|
|-------\___________/------|
```````````````````````       

R135
└┼┼┤
  246


     My 1987 Supercharged 4A-powered 6-speed MR2