Fuel Cell Vents design

[mike_starling]

Guys,

I'm at the point that I can plumb the fuel cell vent lines. The documentation that came with the Sabre is minimal, and I've not thought much about this subject before ... therefore the question to you all:

How did you plumb the vents of your fuel cells?

Lynn built lines to a carbon cannister to capture the fumes. Other ideas?

Thanks,

 

[Sandy]

On the 65 mustang I have I the vent for the fuel cell starts in the trunk, then I ran it to a -8 bulkhead far back on the chassis and away from anyting with a small filter on the end. The Fuel cell has a one-way check valve in it also which is important. I tried to keep it away from anywhere that could get fumes back into the car, and be in a spot that is out of the 'dirt' path. Alo I made it as low as possible incase the car got upside down which hopefully the check valve would stop any fuel, but just in case...

I think Fuel Safe/JAZ/ATL also sells small filters and one way valves if you don't have one. The only question about using a charcoal canister is that I'm pretty sure that you will some how need to feed it back into the engine as they did in the old days of smog devices. I think what they did was have it connected to a vacuum port on the intake with a timed or controlled solenoid that sucked back in the vapors. I'm not sure of the chemistry, but I would guess that is to prevent the charcoal from being saturated, and thus not working...Maybe just a vent, would work, but then might defeat the purpose of the charcoal?

Sandy

 

[Lynn Larsen]

Sandy,

You are right. I am running a EEC-IV computer which, from time to time when it thinks the car is in a cruise mode, opens a solenoid valve to allow the fumes to be pulled from the charcoal canister by the vacuum of the intake manifold. This is still the way fuel vapors are dealt with to this day.

I also have inline check valves to stop liquid from running up the lines. I also put flapper valves of sorts on the vent ports in the tanks. I put thin sheet metal flaps that are very close, but not touching the interior opening of the fitting. This should stop most slosh or surge from entering the vent line without stopping vapor from escaping.

When I was looking into this, most of the racers I talked to ran their vent lines up as high as they could get them, but you have to have check valves, sometimes called roll-over valves, in the lines.

Regards,
Lynn

 

[Sandy]

The vent line out of my take come up the top a bit and then down a bit to the bulkhead, then below. Above the cell enough to never have seen any fluid problems. My thoughts were if up side down rather have it not leak. Hopefully will never have to test my theory /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


Sandy

 

[Lynn Larsen]

Amen to that, Sandy!!

Regards,
Lynn

PS: many ways to skin a cat and many kinds of cats to skin; each one is an individual undertaking with its own goals, issues and solutions.

 

[Lynn Larsen]

Sandy,

I was just sending an email to Mike, when it dawned on me <u>precisely</u> what you were describing, and you are absolutely spot on. I say this, not that you need me to validate your set up, but to apologize for any implication that you might not be doing it right, because of my failure to properly visualize your description.

Humbly,
Lynn

 

[Sandy]

No problem, I am always interested in finding out I did something wrong as it give me a reason to fix it, or get some acknoledgement that I might have 'guessed' right with something I did (call it luck some times..)