Stainless Steel Fuel Tank

[Wazza]

Originally Posted by Jerry Clayton

Sorry I didn't realize that they didn't have watercooled torches in the southern hemispere

A water cooled torch is much smaller than an air cooled torch and lets you get in many places to weld that you can't do with an aircooled torch.

Most welders that are above the home garage size buzz boxes will have an argon gas solenoid and a second one for water flow to the torch that you can hook to a household ( or shop) waterline. They also make a self contained cooland pump/radiator that circulates a coolant mixture thru the torch and back thru a cooling coil to the tank---if using this system the second solenoid is unused----and can be attached to a second argon line to control the back purging gas---the tigdepot also sells a dual flow meter regulator that I use with doesn't then need a SECOND argon bottle/regulator

Thanks guys.....

MUCH clearer !

Cheers ,
Warren.

[tomcat racing]

wazza, i love youre sense of humour. tomcat

[mickmate]

Senders you mention are here http://www.centroidproducts.com/

[Aussie Mike]

Excellent! Thanks for that Mickmate.

Cheers

[Aussie Mike]

Not quite related to my fuel tank but I just got back from the Ballarat Swap. I'd been looking at a diff for a dragster project I'm starting. I'd been thinking about using a Speedway style Quick change but settled on a 9"

It must have been destiny that I went to the Swap this year because I found the perfect housing. I picked up an ex NASCAR fabricated stainless steel 9" housing made by TEX Racing. This thing is seriously nice and I got it for the right price too. It's set up with stagger in the housing ends (Positive camber on one side and negative on the other) but since I'm going to cut it down and shorten it that doesn't matter. It's got ends for full floating hubs which I'll machine down and re use when I shorten it.

I'm a happy camper today. This diff is a piece of art. You could put a pot plant in it and have it in your lounge room.

Pics to follow.

Cheers

[Mando]

Well come on, lets see some pictures!!!!

Regards.

[Aussie Mike]

Here it is.

It's got floating axle housing ends on it. It's hard to tell in this picture but there is nearly 2 degrees of camber, positive on one end and negative on the other. I'll cut the ends off and machine them down so they sleeve into the tubes when I shorten it down. A friend of mine has a lathe large enough that we'll be able to turn the whole housing to true up the ends after the cut.

I'll machine up a bar and collars to put through the whole thing to hold it all straight for welding.



I'll have to gut some of the brackets and fittings off and weld them up. I reckon the whole thing will polish up like a mirror when it's all finished.



It should look great in the back of the dragster. The diff is a real feature of a Front engined dragster. When you're sitting in the drivers seat its right there in front of you. You actually sit behind the diff with your legs either side of it.



I just have to resist working on it till the Cobra is all done.

Cheers

[sideshow]

if you need any delphi plugs i usually stock most these days
to suit ls1/2 etc engines and accesories

another thing to look into is getting some of that foam for fuel tanks
good if your going to race it
stops fuel sloshing round and its not too expensive i think

[Rebel1]

That's some pretty neat welding on that diff Mike.

[Jerry Clayton]

Mike

That is a nice rear end and it has a lot of engineering in it---but-----

Remember that you are going to be sitting behind it with your legs up over the area where the tubes go into the center===you will be very uncomfortable with that one

Get a housing that is more rounded into a banjo shape whereas your legs fit over the 3 inch side tube close to the center unit

Prop a board up against the wall and sit on the floor with your legs over the housing in an area no wider than your but(bottom) and sit like that for maybe 30 minutes to test your endurance remembering that you can't wiggle around because you'll be belted in

I looked up the weights on the 049 and 065 stainless steel material and they are 2 and 2.5 pounds so the total differance it the weight of a tank would probably be about the same as a gallon or two of fuel---so make it bigger and then run less fuel when you need the weight savings

[Jerry Clayton]

Also on the rear end housing remember that you will be sitting over it mounter at an offset couple of inches from your belly button to drive line centerline

[Jerry Clayton]

Mike

I uploaded a pic to my gallery on www.clubhotrod.com site called stuff2 that shows the driver area and orientation of legs and available room----hope yours aren't removable

[Aussie Mike]

Thanks Jerry, There's some great info in those pictures.

I figure I'm going to make the chassis a bit wider than the original dragsters. I've got to fit a powerglide in there and get my feet down each side of it too. From what I've read most FEDs were in the 19-20" seat width. That's just to tight for me as I'm a bit wider across the shoulders and getting wider round the middle. If I make it 23-24" inches wide I should have a more comfortable time in there. It will also free up some space to get my legs over the diff.

I'll probably have to use a more upright seating position like the moder FEDs apearing these days.

I'm having my belly button relocated to take care of the offset issue.

Cheers

[Jerry Clayton]

Mike

For the wider shoulder area you only have to use a wider upper loop and bring it back to engine width at bell housing area--you want the upper rails in near the block deck area so headers can go over them
and don't use the removable type leg in the picture

[Aussie Mike]

Thanks Jerry,

I reckon having to have removable legs would take a lot of the fun out of drag racing. I bet there's a story behind that pic.

Cheers

[macloft]

Jerry
In your pictures I see you also have a Victor Junior Manifold for the LS1 plus some heads.
Did you put the manifold on and what throttle body did you use. What difference did it make.
Bruce

[Aussie Mike]

Hi Bruce,

I'm running the same setup on mine. It's great. I'm using an Edelbrock throttle Body as well. All the factory sensors hook straight in, no need to change any connectors.

The T/B flows 1000CFM and runs 4x 1 3/4" throttle bores.



Gives the modern LS1 an old school flavour.



Cheers

[Jerry Clayton]

Mike and Bruce

Leg story---one of the original pardners got out of his fox hole in nam to go to the toilet---crapped on a land mine--lost both legs below knees

He was an avid skiier and once his leg came off when he wiped out--a lady that stopped to help him up passed out and had to be sledded off by ski patrol--chuck just had to drop his pants and re attach the leg and then ski on down the mountain

The manifold we had for another project about the time Mike was posting about maybe using one so I posted the pics into my gallery--we have used them on some carbed engines and they work super---I'll probably use one on mine as I finish this year

It seems as if Mike and me work/think along many of the same lines---need to meet some day-----

Jerry