Liquid Fuel Tank
Contents
Basics
- This page goes over your "standard" fuel tank
- This page is mainly for Powercube applications (what versions)
- May fork off one the Open Source Fuels Construction Set is more developed
TO-DO
- Can these be used for:
- Ethanol
- Methanol
- Methanol-Water Injection liquid? need a name + page for this
- DME
- DEF
- etc
New Fuel Tank
This design will use a section of 1/4" x 6" x 12" tubing similar to that used for the hydraulic reservoir. The capacity is calculated as follows:
- (5.5" x 11.5" - (pi x( 0.5)^2)) x 27.5 / 231 = 7.43 Gal
Let's say we want a 5 gallon tank, we can calculate the tube length as follows. Set the volume to 5 gallons, tube length to "L" and compute:
- (5.5" x 11.5" - (pi x( 0.5)^2)) x L / 231 = 5 Gal
- 5 Gal x 231 / (5.5" x 11.5" - (pi x( 0.5)^2)) = L =~ 18.5"
Similarly, here are the calculations for 6 and 7 gallon tanks:
- 6 Gallon tank: 6 Gal x 231 / (5.5" x 11.5" - (pi x( 0.5)^2)) = L =~ 22.25"
- 7 Gallon tank: 7 Gal x 231 / (5.5" x 11.5" - (pi x( 0.5)^2)) = L =~ 26"
Off The Shelf fuel tank
SurplusCenter.com sells a 5.5 gallon "off the shelf" fuel tank for $40:
- Item# 28-1756
Based on the given dimensions, I jammed together a Sketchup model and fit it into the Power Cube:
It could work, though we'd have to work out redirection of exhaust and mounting.
Update: This fuel tank is no longer for sale.
Designs using commercial fuel tanks will only work if the source is reliable.
Original Design
The current design includes a steel fuel tank, made with 1/4" x 4" x 8" tubing, yielding interior dimensions of 3.5" x 7.5", with 1/2" radius curved corners. The calculation below shows it holds 1.6 Gallons:
- (3.5" x 7.5" - (pi x( 0.5)^2)) x 14.5 / 231 = 1.59 Gal