More Suck, Less Starve

I think I have a setup that works! We took the car out yesterday and started with some unknown amount of fuel (I guessed around 6 gallons starting). 11 runs, and added 1 gallon around run 9 because I was getting a little concerned lol. Car ran GREAT all day.



Got it back home and we pumped out 1.4 gallons. Never starved, and the basket level sensor stayed on full the whole time.



What changed:

I just went with the ultimate in complexity and added another pump. So it's 3 pumps total - 1 for each side of the fuel tank, pulling from the hydramats. Those get y'd together and pump into the basket. Nothing changed with the new basket or external fuel pump. For the fuel foam, I removed the foam that was over the saddle section just in case we are running it high and it's pumping to one side - I want it able to spill back over to the other side when that happens.

On the passenger side I did make a new lid for the fuel tank basket. I had been using a modded stock lid, but the bulkhead fitting was compromised with a crappy hole I drilled when the plastic chipped. So it was a good chance to clean it up. The stock breather fitting was way more complex to sort out, so it's a bit ugly, but it's all working now. The electrical bulkhead fitting is a really nice piece from AeroTec Labs (ATL). It's there CFD-506 fitting.

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Easter Bunny said:
I swear some of these rules make you put way more thought and money into complying than necessary. Is this really better for competition than a small fuel cell
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Lots to say about this, because it's so true.

Let me start by saying rulemaking in the SCCA is 100% driven by the membership. Want a rule change - submit a letter into the system. It gets reviewed by the category advisory committee and then put out to all membership for feedback if they think it is within reason for the class. If member feedback supports the change it more than likely will get approved as a change for the following year.

Very few suggestions are made for the myriad of rules we have, and a lot of rules stagnate because of that. This is one where I think it's probably worth writing in about and getting membership feedback on. I agree it's cheaper/easier/more accessible to the masses to simply run a cell than to do what I did here. This project cost ~$3k, and I'm fabbing my own stuff.

But, until a rule is changed, I'll continue to work within those confines the best I can.
 
That's insane. I was curious how much you had spent but didn't want to ask. If it was me this would be a project I purposely not keep track of because I know the final total will be more than I want it to be.
 
Unexpected addition to the car because of this work: high output alternator.

We are pulling a LOT of power at idle with the multiple pumps and radiator fans running near constantly. The car was charging at ~13.6V and I think we were maxing out the stock alternator and burned it up...same for an aftermarket replacement.

I went with a PowerBastards high output alternator and it's charging at 14.0V again. We're hitting a test session this weekend so we'll see if it holds up when things get hot!
 
dont lie, you put in a bigger sub to have a dance party when you are sitting in the starting lane.
 
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