Just wondering if anyone has ever made a fuel cell before. My car is 100% race so streetability isn't an issue. I am not sure what guage metal to use and should there be a vent? If there should be a vent where should it vent to?

Also What is the pros and cons of a fuel cell in a drag car?

-Terry-

 

Keep in mind I will have a Interstate battery in the spare tire location. The box will be home built and hopefully sealed.

-Terry-

 

It would probably be cheaper to just buy one. I use a 4 gallon plastic fuel cell mounted at the front of the car. A strip only car doesn't need a huge fuel cell. Gasoline at 6 pounds per gallon is 120 pounds for a 20 gallon fuel tank.

If you're going to make one, it should be made from aluminum anyway. You'll have to fabricate a sump with a feed connection. At the top you should have a return line and a vent. What were you planning on using for a gas cap? A tiny stock cap is a small opening when you're dumping in fuel from a fuel jug.

Like I said, by the time you build one, it would be cheaper to just buy one.

My 4 gallon cell lets me do at least two 1/4 mile passes in case I have to hot lap the car. I could probably make more but I don't want to risk running out of fuel since I need to drive back up the return road. I refill the cell after every run so the vehicle weight is always the same.

 

I agree with stephen, I run a 4 gal front mounted cell, if you want to build one though...Mine is made out of aluminum, and there is a 6an vent located at the top that i have vented, out into a catch can witha breather to catch any splash in case there ever would be any overflow, just has a petcock in the bottom to drain.

 

I built a small 12 gallon unit for my frineds dad's 28' Model a he's hot rodding, I used 14ga. steel and made templates so I could get the majority of it bent so it looked nice, then butt welded in remaing peices. I also installed 2 baffles internally since this is street driven and made a bung to hose clamp a donor filler cap/fill tube out of a 90 Neon(he already had the door frenched in so we just placed bung accordingly. Cap was vented so we did not install a sister vent.

If you do try this, be sure to fill with water and make some sort of coupling to hook an air hose to, put about 10psi of pressure into the tank and let it sit for half an hour or so, this will find any pin hole leaks that can easily be taken care of with touch up welds if needed. Do not fill with anything flammable until this thing is 100% sealed.

But, yes, for strip only you just need a tiny fuel cell and it's much easier to just buy a premade unit and be done, you'll have your fill of fabrication when you go to mount it, so you'll still get your fix

 

should? Why?

 

Weight.

 

you're allowed to use much lighter ga steel then aluminum, I doubt that there would be much difference in weight when done

 

i would buy one, personally, you have to make sure you know what your doing if your gunna make one though..

 

what about bigger cells, for street driven cars that see the track? anyone know the ihra/nhra regs on that, besides the firewall rule, cause i want to custom build one so i can fit it in the "trunk" on our cars in the back and have the sump/outlets hanging out a slot in the bottom facing back