Pro-touring + Stainless Fuel Tank

[ErikSOCAL]

I'm going to EFI and the last thing holding me up is a fuel tank. I'd like to get a stainless one but I keep hearing stories about power tour and guys on the side of the road because of the heat the tanks retained. I searched around but can't seem to actually find a post with someone that experienced this. Is this really a concern and is there a way to avoid it? I live in Texas right now and the summer heat doesn't really allow me to forget about it...
Tried to contact Rick's Hot Rod Shop today by both phone and email but only got to leave a message. Not sure if this should be in fuel injection instead but I did see that Rick's and other have posted a lot in this topic.
thanks,
Erik

[Nine Ball]

You know that you can modify a factory tank, right? The stainless ones are nice and fancy, but think of the function vs form too. In the end, it is just something that holds fuel.

[camcojb]

as one of the guys stuck on the side of the road I don't think the tank had much if any cause to the issues the guys had. I think it was big pumps bypassing a lot of fuel after running it through the rails and engine compartment to heat it up. As the tank level drops the temp of the gas gets hotter and hotter until the pumps can't pull the superheated vaporizing fuel.

I have a solution though; just put one of these in the return line to the tank:

[ErikSOCAL]

thanks guys. I know you can modify the stock tank but also after searching here and several other places the general consensus was that nearly everyone would've just bought a tank and been done with it if they had to do it again. Granted, I'm not a fabricator of any sort and I think most of the guys that did do their own work and opted to buy a 2nd time around weren't either.
Thanks Jody, Rick WI on nastyz28 said he felt the big pumps on big powered cars was the real issue just as you said. Through the various iterations I believe my car will see, I'll probably be in the 450-475hp range realistically with a max of 500hp. I ordered a walbro 255 with the tank last night so it should be good and hopefully reliable.

[EFI69Cam]

I had vapor lock from hades on my EFI 69 Camaro. I had a sumped factory tank and the pump mounted out side. My current setup, that I have not run yet, is a a returnless fuel system, aeromotive fuel pump controller, and the pump mounted in the Rick's stainless tank.

I think the returnless system is key. If you are not returning fuel to the tank, its not getting heated. My fuel rail was basically cooling the intake with fuel.

[Nine Ball]

Returnless is definitely a better idea if you can do it that way. My red '69 also suffered from the same problems these other two guys mentioned. Fuel going through the heated rails on Power Tour (traffic tour?) and boiling the fuel. Hot fuel = electric fuel pump stops working.

If you do go with a return style setup, just have the regulator out of the engine compartment and branch the return line off of the regulator instead of going thru the fuel rails and then returning.

[BonzoHansen]

***Noob question alert***


When you say returnless, you mean like using the vette filter/regulator in the back by the tank?

[paul67]

What I have seen is a lot of cars running the fuel line close to the exhaust or hedders which caused the vapour lock run the loines as far away as poss.

[EFI69Cam]

***Noob question alert***


When you say returnless, you mean like using the vette filter/regulator in the back by the tank?

Exactly. Well sort of, I'm not using the vette regulator, but my reg is mounted on the tank and the return line is only about 12" long.
The difference and what I'm worried about is the lack of vacuum reference on the regulator. The ECM has to compute the injector flow rate based on manifold vacuum.

[ErikSOCAL]

damn, maybe I should be keeping my racepumps.com EFI piston pump. Ah hell, I need the money now to pay for the tank...

[Jim Nilsen]

Erik, did you have problems with the Racepumps fuel pump?

[Bow Tie 67]

Exactly. Well sort of, I'm not using the vette regulator, but my reg is mounted on the tank and the return line is only about 12" long.
The difference and what I'm worried about is the lack of vacuum reference on the regulator. The ECM has to compute the injector flow rate based on manifold vacuum.

I would not worry about it the ECM is rather smart and if you have the chance to tune the fuel map even better. ( I would much rather have an intelligent source making corrections than a purely mechanical ie. spring ) I purchased HP tuners last summer and it was money well spent. There is a big learning curve with the software but if you have a good basic understanding on efi systems its not hard. The stickies on ls1tech are a tremendous help as well as experienced members who are always willing to help. I'm still learning alot, and it can be time consuming but it is well worth it.

Matt

[ErikSOCAL]

Jim, I did not have problems. It actually fired pretty easy. I successfully got the car running but never tuned or drove it. I was siphoning out of a 5 gal fuel jug and after I sat down to think about what to do with the rest of the fuel system and where I see myself going with the car (eventual 383/406 with my current topend, then LSx - have a D & D performance 6 spd, want to get some use out of it or else I'd go directly to LSx), I only want to spend the money once on it and felt it would be best to set the tank up for the LSx.
If you know someone that wants to give it a go, they are $400 for pump + reg new - I will give a good price shipped, still have boxes etc.