Air Bottle Fill

Maybe you could help Will. Where do I get my air bottle filled? Also my CO2 bottles? Thanks for your help.
Ro Yale

 

Air bottle > Local fire station or scuba divers store

CO2 bottle > Any welding supply house or dry ice company

 

I have a 100 cubic foot scuba bottle that I fill the little air bottle from. I get the big bottle filled at a scuba store- my fire dept has issues with the liability associated with filling scube bottles. What liability? Who knows- ask the attorneys. As for the CO2 bottle- I bought a bigger CO2 bottle and fill mine and anybody elses who needs it at the track. One of my sponsors is a welding supply place, he fills the CO2 bottle for me. Dave Germain

 

CO2 Bottle

Many moons ago we traveled to the old Mission City strip to race and Sunday morning our AA/FD had an empty trans shift bottle.......Mad Man Bill Phillips filled it from his Gas welding tank............Dude had everything, he even brought a portable Outhouse...............Happy Trails, Larry...

 

co2 comes in 2 ways - gas filled and liquid filled bottles. the liquid lasts longer - as much as 10 times longer than a gas filled bottle. the liquid co2 turns into gas. the only thing you must watch is the bottle pressure on a liquid filled bottle - if it is filled to 800 pounds it can go well over 1200 pounds if left out in the sun - the liquid expands due to the heat. i started out using gas filled co2 bottles and had to refill them ever 2 to 4 runs. i now use liquid filled co2 bottles and can go for 2 to 4 races before refilling. the co2 bottles are then same regardless of the co2 type. i purchased a liquid filled co2 bottle from the local welding supply company and refill my own bottles. the adapter from the big tank to the co2 bottle is from a paintball gun co2 bottle refiller. whole deal cost less than $100.00. one other thing i did to help monitor the bottle pressure was to install a nos pressure gauge on the racecar teed into the co2 bottle (nos pressure gauge goes to 1800 pounds). that way not only can i tell the bottle pressure but i can if the bottle is turned on.

 

Now this guy knows what he is talking about.!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks

Thanks for he help guys. Should be able t figure i out from this info. Made some adapters today.
Thanks, Ro

 

Fill the co2 bottle with liquid
There is a tare weight for the bottle
then if it is a 2.5 lb’er then weigh it till you get close to 2.5 lbs of liquid
don't go over the bottle weight it is supposed to hold or have some extra burst panels for it.
We use a co2 bottle from a soda fountain, have some one add a siphon tube to the inside so it only lets out liquid

Air bottle we also use a scuba tank, hose to the on board bottle and open valves and let it equalize.

 

one way to get around weighing the co2 bottle is to cool it before you refill it - put in frig or cooler. this keeps the refill temp down and thus stabilzes the liquid. most welding liquid co2 bottles are filled to 800 psi so it becomes difficult to pop the burst plug unless the co2 expands via heat. also you can normally check your burst plug when the bottle is empty by taking it apart and reading the burst pressure on the plug. if you race with either nhra/ihra they require certain yearly certifications on the co2 bottles. most welding supply places will perform this certification for a small fee. they charge the bottle and place it in a water tank to check for leaks. if the bottle passed they engrave a date on the bottle of the certification. tech people who do their job check for this date before letting you pass. another good tip for you is to make sure that the handle that controls the valve on your bottle is metal not plastic - the plastic handles break and will spin but not open the valve leaving you at the wrong time with no co2. i always race with a spare co2 bottle filled and ready to go. when you race with a air shifted 3 speed lenco + bruno there are many places for leaks that can lead to problems. the air lines when they don't leak will hold enough co2 in them with the bottle valve turned off to give you 2 or 3 shifts before the air runs out - just enough air to make a burnout and not back up. as you can read from my posts i have found new ways to loose a race and also new ways to keep from making the same mistakes again. my best war story is from a friend who took his bottle to the welding supply store to get it refilled and drove home on a hot (+95') day - he put his filled bottle on the back seat of his dually and stopped to purchase some parts. when he returned to his truck he started the motor the burst panel ruptured and the bottle took off inside the cab chasing him. fourtunately he was stopped and he escaped the spinning bottle which had gotten hot where the higher internal pressure caused the plug to rupture and become a bottle rocket inside the cab.

 

filling bottles

When transfering air or gases from bottles its called cascading. Transfering gasses such as breathing air- argon-co-2 -tansfer from crossover at room temp. then cool bottle with cold water then give bottle another shot this will give it max. Transfering Liquid co-2 use a syphon tub bottle chill bottle be filled then transfer from syphon bottle good idea to weigh bottle to see if you get close to max fill very hard to do. Each time you transfer from large to small you wil get less of afill to the smaller bottle. Hope this helps Mike