TJM

ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzaP!

The AED just brought me back from the edge, after pricing a fuel cell.

These frickin' things are wacky expensive!

I don't REALLY need one for at least a year, but the car is all apart and now would be a really good time to do it. To add salt to the wound NASA rules are telling me [ warning me really] that it's good for five years and then another frickin' bladder is needed at four figures$

I HAVE GOT to be looking at this wrong?

Ok, I'll say it first .. "Welcome to Racing".... there... now what?




TJM

fatbillybob

Welcome to racing!!!! Those numbers are common and required and necessary for safety. Fuel especially modern ethanol tainted fuels eat fuel systems. The foam in the bladders breaks down and clogs fuel pumps. That is part of the reason for replacement. Bladders get hard after years in fuel that's part of the reason to replace them. Cells work by allowing deformation and slowing fuel slosh and leakage. They are amazing devices and a real PITA. One issue is that cells should be stored dry between races to keep the bladder most supple. Another issue is that GM spends millions to safely engineer your oem fuel system thinking about all kinds of things like collisions where sharp things from remote places can puncture cells. We racers learn the mistakes we make after the fact. Remember earnhart's fireball C5R vette ? Notice now all the later C5R/C6R have firewall and rearview camera from the back of the car where the cell is? Remember how Boris Said was in the LG vette car-be-que when the fuel line got heated until fire by a broken exhaust? I bet that fuel line has been repositioned. Doing a cell is very very complicated and so often compromised. Don't do one unless you have to. If you do think about all the things that can go wrong and try to predict them and design around. Me personally, I'd be thinking firewall, internal pumps, frangible fittings, AN lines, no filler neck, no fuel lines in cockpit, fire system line over cell to start.

John Shiels

My guess is it is like ladders where 35% is lawyer fees on every ladder.

TJM

Ahhh????????.......... yeah !!

Is there any point at all in a low buck SUMMIT type?


TJM

gkmccready

They're not generally legal.

Why do you want to replace the stock tanks? Most sanctioning bodies will accept them and you can't beat how they're located on the Corvette.

FWIW, replacing the bladder/foam on my 22gal nice, simple, easily accessible rectangular fuel cell is $725 in parts, and 3 hours of labor. If you don't feel a real need for a fuel cell, I wouldn't do it. I almost regret my choice to do the cell in my RX7...

Greywolfe

I work as a compliance engineer dealing with safety codes & standards. Alot of the cost is for the certification and testing not the actual materials and labor to manufacture.

For example you can buy a plastic gas can for 5 bucks or the same physical gas can that has a UL certified stamp on it for 40 bucks. It the cost of being certified and its a huge business. Its not like the second gas can is any safer, its just that its been tested and proven and certified by a third party.

0Randy@DRM

Are you looking at the direct replacment Fire safe bladders??? They are huge money, most C4 cells are in simular locations but in a different shaped (more common). It's been so long and no pictures around to show you how to make it happen

Randy

John Shiels

The 40 buck can is definitely not like the 5 buck can either. But I do get your point The 40 dollar safety can is safer also in most all cases. I see the plastic cans say NOT for GASOLINE STORAGE!

0RAAMaudio

You can build up a very strong liner around the bottom sides of the stock tanks, removeable aluminum plate(fairly thick) on the bottom of it, look up old DRM posts on their chassis for more info, etc......this is a very good safety measure and not very expensive to do.

I too had serious sticker shock when I looked at the ATL prices, first thing I thought was that was some serious Corvette Taxation!!! Maybe I am wrong but just looking at them I find it hard to imagine they could cost that much to manf.

Rick

0Randy@DRM

Rick,
This is for a C4
You are right the C5-C6 tanks will cause huge sticker shock. The engineering cost drove the price of those tanks into the next level.

Randy

fatbillybob

Stock C5 tanks did have a hose problem that should be checked out for leakage issues for the reason of failure in a crash and potential fire. One really good thing about stock tanks is they scavenge fuel very well. I think you can get down very low before high g turn starvation. It is the best system I have had in a stock car. I don't know what others have to say about it.

TJM

I don't see it any better for pitiful old clunker C4. If we are into any sort of wheel to wheel, next year,a $1200 for a bladder is the least expensive I have seen.

My concern is safety, 18 gallons of loose gas does not appeal to me.

The question I have is are the less expensive type offer ANY degree of improvement over the stock tank for the $300 or so you would pay??

If no, I will had some shock absorption into the tail end to CYT!

TJM

gkmccready

I'll mention it again, but most of the cheaper cells will not pass tech and get you on the track... when I was building the RX7 I kept thinking a cell, any cell, would be better than the stock tanks but doing a bit more research after the fact showed that the stock tanks are actually very safe in most cars and that's why they will pass tech, as will the expensive cells, and the rotary molded cells fail...

TJM

Thanks, do believe it sunk in. that time.

TJM