1st GEN Celica Surge Tank Ideas

[MWP]

Get a barbeque lighter and burn out any vapours... simple. They also make a nice bang when you get a stoichiometric mix. Blowing with compressed air will help speed up the process.
Cheers, Owen

It aint that easy.
Ive heard of people having tanks blow up in their faces (3rd degree burns) from not cleaning them out properly.

Wash your tank out once, then give it a few days and take a sniff, youll still smell fuel vapor in there.

The pros weld the tanks while pumping an inert gas (acetylene, co2, etc) into the tank to remove any fuel vapor.

[o_man_ra23]

I didnt have any probs doing it to my RA23 tank. And most motorbike shops will do it to the motorbike tanks before welding. You do need to empty and dry it first. Alternately you can leave it hanging with the opening at the bottom most point, this will work because air is lighter than fuel vapour and fuel vapour will then drop out the bottom.

Cheers, Owen

[TA-022]

what about a lime treatment? ive heard servo tanks before destroying get a lime treatment to neautralise the fuels?

[o_man_ra23]

Thats before destruction though, might not be so good if you wanna use the tank again.

Cheers, Owen

[worldwalker]

Just filled it with soapy water, the 2 tanks have been drained and sitting exposed for weeks/months. Should be fine. I hope... havn't smelt any fuel at all even before the saopy water.

[airfireman1]

It aint that easy.
Ive heard of people having tanks blow up in their faces (3rd degree burns) from not cleaning them out properly.

Wash your tank out once, then give it a few days and take a sniff, youll still smell fuel vapor in there.

The pros weld the tanks while pumping an inert gas (acetylene, co2, etc) into the tank to remove any fuel vapor.

Acetylene is a very flamable gas use that and you will be knocking on heavens door in about a millisecond.Its what welders use, close to the flamability range of hydrogen. BOOOOOOOM
Argon, carbon dioxide,nitrogen are just a few inert gases.
Cheers

[Ashe]

If you are not too concerned with what the cut looks like couldn't you fill the tank with water and cut it while it's full? I'm mostly picturing using a Reciprocating saw here. A plasma torch wouldn't care about the water would it? (Hmm steam may be an issue there tho)

[TA-022]

my latest trial fit.

[MWP]

Acetylene is a very flamable gas use that and you will be knocking on heavens door in about a millisecond.Its what welders use, close to the flamability range of hydrogen. BOOOOOOOM
Argon, carbon dioxide,nitrogen are just a few inert gases.
Cheers

Oops, yeah, i meant Argon

[thomasbl]

This has been a really interesting and informative thread. Much appreciated!

[TheToyman75]

Tha backyarders cure to Fuel vapour in tanks is to fill them with Carbon monoxide gas for 1/2 an hour or so, Ie exhaust gas

I take no responsibility if you still blow up tho !

[airfireman1]

My solution would be to wash the tank out with plenty of soapy water and do that quite a few times. Then fill it up to nearly upto the area you are going to cut or weld with water, that will lessen the vapour space and less chance of an explosion as there is no real vapour area. By filling it up with water it will also lessen the chance of the tank warping whilst being welded.
I have done this before and had no problems and without flooding it with co2 or argon
if you have no access to this stuff.
Cheers

[MWP]

[removed] 0987654321

[23T-GTE]

Hey ive just been skim-reading this thread but noticed the under-bonnet surge tank suggestion, and i can vouch for this being quite a good setup. I ran a fuel system like this in my ra28 with 18R-GEU for a couple of years.

Had the hi-volume pump just after the main tank and first filter, mounted in the diff/axle area. this pumped low-presssure hi-vol fuel to the engine bay where the surge tank was mounted on the drivers side chassis-rail closer to the front end of the car.
then the surge tank fed out to the hi-pressure efi pump and another filter just behind the surge tank, also mounted on the drivers chassis rail.
the hi-pressure fuel then travelled a very short distance up to the fuel rail, and then back a very short distance to the top of the surge tank.
if surge tank was full, it overflowed back to the main tank.

this setup eliminates any under-vehicle hi-pressure fuel lines. one tick for safety.
it also in turn keeps all high-pressure EFI gear under the bonnet infront of a firewall.
so in -cabin fuel setups, boxes etc. and fuel smell are a thing of the past. if i could find a pic id post it up but im not sure if ive got any of the fuel setup.
Never had any problems with surge and i mainly used to drive the hills and not slo.

[TheToyman75]

23T-GTE,

Only concern with the set up you mentioned was that as far as I know the surge tank must sit behind the strut tower to be legal. If your thinking of doing it this way, check with your local engineer.