Stainless fuel tank

I need to get a tank built for my car. The old one is no good. My brother-in-law does great with stainless and offered to build one for me. Does anyone have any experience with stainless and nitro? I thought that this could look pretty cool, and would be something different than what everyone else has. Or is there a reason why everyone else does the same thing?

Thanks,
Brian

 

.030 stainless weighs 1.231 pounds per square foot while .030 aluminum weighs .456 pounds per square foot. About 2 1/2 times heavier

 

Have you ever tried to find stainless AN weld bungs Stainless pipe thread weld bungs are readily available and could adapt to them. We have built several SS tanks for street rods. Just cost more and weighs more. Looks great when polished and NO corrosion, go for it

 

with 22 years of fab experience with most metals I believe a 5052 h-32 aluminum tank, hard coat anodized will be just as corrosion resistant as 316 stainless with considerabley less weight, effort, and expence. the common 304 series stainless does not offer the corrosion resistance of 316. in a crash (God forbid) the stainless would be considerabley more durable. the stainless tank should be purged and preferabley welded with chill bars to to ensure sound, quality welds. the aluminum has proved to offer acceptable service so thats why its popular but as long as the ss tank was built correctly theres now reason why it wouldnt work well.

 

i'll throw this out there- i like welding up cool looking aluminum and/or stainless parts as much as the next guy... but i really lean towards the plastic fuel cells like mcamis and others sell for safety reasons especially when you start talking nitro and the volume of fuel that is usually on-board. being out on the road and splitting a tank due to tireshake or normal wear/tear sucks

ps... permatex right stuff is a great band-aid

 

This prompts me to ask a question that I have often wondered about. In the case of a front mount fuel cell car with 10+ gallons of nitro/alky onboard, why not run something like a fuel bladder inside a light can, like they do in other forms of PRO motorsports and in aviation/millitary/NASA applications? Aero Tech Laboratories Inc. comes to mind for example (atlinc.com). Now that would be a really safe solution in the event of a frontal crash, with very little weight penalty, I would think?

 

ok take it from being on the wrong side of a busted fuel tank i would go poly you will not out run a fuel tank on fire it will catch it and it will not be funny when it catches you just toast a good car plus like altered boy said they will split from tire shake i split mine from the chassis twistin on a wheelie

 

haha... i don't know how many of you have had the pleasure of watching this white kid(<-literally) drive a F/A... but trust me no one can chase a burning tank of fuel down the strip like him!!

freakin show off!

 

haha true i do chase a burnin fuel tank like a fat kid after candy but i have kept it on all 4 wheels well make that 3 when it comes to a stop haha but thats just bc altered boy needed to be taught and who else better to teach then his hero haha ok well off to the fire station for my shift isnt that funny talkin about fires and fuel tanks and im off to play with fire on purpose haha

 

Thanks for the advice guys. Looks like I will have a new one built from aluminum.

Brian

 

What would be the ideal size for a fuel cell? methanol, injected doorslammer, 1/4 mile?