Fuel coolers

PermanentGrin

Wrench Pro
Points
163
Location
Neath, UK
Car
Mitsubishi GTO TT
I am looking at all sorts of weight reduction areas with my white car for next season, one of which is running a LARGE external fuel pump and interchangeable fuel cells with dry break connectors. The idea being that for the track I can easily swap to a 10L race fuel cell. Plumbing will be -10AN tank to engine bay, Y-block to 2 x -6AN feeds to rails, rails to -6AN to FPR then -8AN return.

The issues with this come from

a) the BIG fuel pump pumping hard at idle and low revs heating the fuel up
b) the small fuel cell doesn't hold much fuel to allow it to cool down again

Potential ways to combat fuel temperatures

a) use of a fuel pump controller allowing slower pumping at low revs and idle
b) a fuel cooler on the return line.

From what I can find there are 3 basic types of cooler

1) finned tube
2) radiator type
3) cryo

Where my car is dual purpose, this poses a conundrum for me; cryo would be best for the track but no good for the street, radiator type would work for both but add weight, finned tube won't do enough IMO unless used in conjunction with cryo. Number 3 would allow some cooling for street use (although I estimate the fuel cell to be 45-60 L, so less of an issue).

The reason I am opening this up for discussion is I would like to know people's opinions on coolers and pump controllers, whether anyone has done much research into this area and if anyone knows of any good products.

André
 
Interesting.

A few points at random:

Why not fit a 45l fuel cell and leave it alone? The weight difference between this and a 10l one can't be that much when taking additional quick release fitings into account?

Where are you fitting the pressure regulator?



One way to reduce the amount of heat put into the fuel is to dead head the fuel rail. In other words, put the fuel pressure regulator before the fuel rail. Unused fuel then goes directly back to the fuel cell as opposed to through the fuel rail (where the unused fuel picks up heat), through the regulator, and then back to the fuel cell.

Why 10AN feed pipe? How much power do you have? I'm planning on 520bhp and using 8AN which is more than big enough and lighter than 10AN :)

Are you running the pipes inside or outside the car? Outside would probably help to keep the fuel cool, unless run close to the exhaust!

Wrap all fuel pipes and rails in the engine bay with heat insulation.

Coolers and pump controllers cost money and have weight.

I think that, anyway, the sort of temperature increase you may experience will be marginal and, due to the low fuel volume compared to the air, will have virtually no noticable affect on performance. If really anal, you could run an air duct to the fuel cell :)

Best, IMO, to concentrate on reducing intake air temperature.
 
My air intake temperatures are down around 43 degrees anyway. For the future I plan on running a dry ice charge cooler as well as the FMIC at the track. The charge cooler I am looking at has been known to produce charge temperatures as low as -70 degrees!

This year I ran -8 to 2 x -6 with stock feed as the return. As to power, I was running 850-900 hp this year due to an exhaust side restriction. We are working to release the (thought to be) 3-400 hp trapped within as a result. We will be doing this with new heads, custom valves, pinned heads, tool steel head studs, screamer pipes and 2 x 3" un-silenced side exit exhausts for the track.

The fuel heating up is not because of heat soak in the engine bay but purely from a low fuel capacity and very high volume pump pushing the fuel around. All fuel lines are external already. I am currently looking at the Fuelab 42401 which is a 150 hp capable pump for a boosted car.

The reason for only running a 10L cell is weight of the fuel. Very roughly speaking, 10L of fuel = 10Kg. My race fuel comes in 20L drums and typically I would put a drum in at a time thus carrying an unnecessary 10kgs around. The other reason for going smaller is with 20L in the stock tank I managed to fuel starve for 6 seconds on a tight right hander when doing a handling circuit this year. The next day I put 50L in and still fuel strved for 2 seconds on the same corner. That was with the stock 75L tank. One other reason is by using dry break connectors, I don't have to remove my road fuel to swap over, simply pull the connectors unbolt the cell, swap cells bolt and connect.

The fuel cooler thing is not to gain performance but to prevent vapour lock from occurring.

André
 
900 will need 10AN :)

A swirl tank would solve any fuel starvation problems.

Having a separate tank for race fuel on a duel use car is sensible.

You obviously know far more about this than me, but the fuel must be getting pretty warm to start giving you vapour problems?

Do you run at the Pod?
What are you getting down the strip at the moment?
How much does your beastie weigh?
What is the engine?
Is this in the GTO?

3-400bhp lost due to an exhaust restriction? Bloody hell!
 
A swirl tank could have helped, I was running 2 x supra pumps in tank, hot wired and boosted to 16v this year, but next year we'll run short with that setup

Do you run at the Pod?

Yes, in the Jap Drag Series Street Class with Ludders et al

What are you getting down the strip at the moment?

Just a shakedown year this year with PLENTY of catastrophic transmission failures :lol: But hopefully we are on top of that now. I smashed the teeth off the bevel gears in 5 transfer cases, snapped the UJ on my carbon prop, broke a shifter fork and then smashed a custom dog box into 6 pieces :embarrest:

End result was 10.2 @ 147.13 mph with a baby launch bogged and granny shifted. Enough for UK ET & TS records plus Euro TS record.

Google "youtube andre 10.2" and you'll find the video.

How much does your beastie weigh?

Started last year at 1622kg, ended at 1568kg both with me in it, 100ish kg in racewear.

I have identified around 115-135kg weight that we can lose off the car this winter. The good news is that 64.9kg of that is unsprung mass of which 38.2kg is rotational mass.

Hopefully I'll be adding weight to meet the class minimum of 1451kg including driver.

What is the engine?

It is a stock block 6G72 but has a custom EN30B stroker crank, custom rods and pistons taking it out to 3.5L

Is this in the GTO?

One of them, the white one yes. I also have a mk4 '99 GTO. There are only 100 or so examples worldwide and 10 are in the UK. That one is pretty much stock though.

3-400bhp lost due to an exhaust restriction? Bloody hell!

Apparently the screamer pipes have been known to release up to 150 hp on their own in the States.

I am also going to run more aggressive cams with internally shimmed solid pivot lifters. These have been claimed to yield up to 90 hp over the stock hydraulic lifters which also don't refill that well at 9,000 rpm :lol:

What happened in March was it recorded 650ish hp on its running in map so we set the boost at 32 psi to start but adding more timing or boost was only yielding single digit hp increases indicating that there was a restriction. We should have been seeing 30-40 hp gains with each lb of boost or degree of timing. My turbos should support 42-45 psi.

André
 
I looked at geting a carbon fibre prop, but even one only 600mm long was over £2k which was too hot for me.

Where are you removing the unsprung weight from?

Your turbo may support 45psi, but you seem to be limited by tranmission component strengths.

Street 'legal' tyres or sticky things?

What 60' are you achieving?

Watching the video, 9s don't seem too far away :)
 
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How much?!!

I only paid $1800 to have a single full length prop custom made with 1350 yokes instead of the 1310 yokes that are only rated to 800 ftlbs. What's more they'll do an 'all eventualities' lifetime insurance for another $100 or so.

the unsprung weight will be lost via zero drag Brakeman revolution discs and calipers which will also let me run 15" wheels. I'm looking at Enkei RPF1 15x7 with Hoosier Quick Time Pros in a 26x9.5x15.

Currently I run stock size DBA discs with Yellowstuff pads in stock calipers, Rays Volk CE28N 17x9 wheels with Mickey Thompson ET Streets in a 26x11.5x17.

My road wheels are Rays Volk TE37SLs in an 18x10.5 wearing 315/30/18 R888's.

Best 60' time so far has been a 1.5 but typically 1.6-1.8. Didn't use launch control until the last meet where I broke nothing but was bogging a tad.

I basically had too much grip off the line earlier in the season when I was trying to run 15-17 psi. I worked with Tein to find the correct suspension settings for my MonoFlex shocks and ended up running 25 psi up front with 30 psi in the rears trying to minimize front wheel spin and rear grip. Basically the car was bottoming out on the rear when launching causing a front spin, rear grip to rear spin front grip cycle. Massive load on the transfer case and bang!

9s are a decent gear shift away but with the weight loss, extra power and a custom hydraulic paddle shift we are developing, I hope to be chasing or hitting 8s

André
 
Yes, I thought it was a tad expensive. However, it was a couple of years ago so prices may have come down. Mind you, your cheap one broke! :)

We seem to be talking the same language (even down to paddle shift development!), albeit with different accents: me from Norfolk and you from Tokyo :)
 
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