Re: alcohol questions
Fuel cells are usually mounted in the front of the vehicle when running alcohol for a couple of reasons:
- Many run a belt-driven fuel pump mounted to the engine, and these types of pumps are not very good at pulling fuel, but are very good at pushing fuel. With the tank at the front of the vehicle, gravity and momentum help the pump stay fed.
- Large volumes of fuel are usually burned when alcohol is the fuel, so fuel lines can be quite large, such as -12AN. If the cell was mounted in the rear, a hard leaving and hard running alcohol car will have a large volume of fuel in the line, which makes the fuel pump work extra hard. Also, if that large volume of fuel can't be delivered to the carb or injector, the engine could run dangerously lean.
- Most alcohol systems utilize a return-style fuel system, so it's less expensive to have just a couple of feet of feed and a couple of feet of return stainless steel braided line compared to 20 feet x2 of SS line for a rear mounted cell.
- Many alcohol cars are not meant for anything other than drag racing, so they do not require large quantities of fuel. A smaller cell mounted on the passenger's side places it close to where the majority of between rounds maintenance is performed anyway, simplifying the process.
- Alcohol engines often build more than enough torque and power to cause the front ends to come up easily, so having a bit of extra weight on the front means that suspension and shock settings don't have to be as extreme to keep the vehicle launching straight.
Those are just some of the reasons. I'm sure there are more and someone will chime in with them.
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