Anyone used generic reticulated PU foam to tackle fuel slosh?

[rcx132]

I think slosh I causing poor running in my trials buggy. Certified foam is about £70. These guys sell generic PU foam for much less, which they claim is good for tanks among other uses. I've queried this with them and they're double checking with the manufacturer. In the mean time I thought I'd ask you good folks. £70 may not seem a lot but when every step of the build costs you this much or more it's got cumulatively expensive...

QUICK DRYING RETICULATED FOAM

Reticulated Foam: High-Porosity Innovation Welcome to our world of Reticulated Foam, a specialist open-cell foam with unique characteristics. Reticulated foam features a net-like cellular structure, allowing water to drain rapidly through its large pores

www.thefoamshop.co.uk

More info:
✓ 300x300x200 alu cube fuel tank with gravity outlet at the bottom
✓ No baffles, tank is void inside
✓ Tank has rally style port which can be removed to give good access to inside tank
✓ 15mm outlet hose leading to a coarse pre filter, then 044 style fuel pump, cartridge filter, then plastic 8mm hose to engine
✓ Pressure regulator on fuel rail then 6mm return to tank
✓ I think the pump is too powerful as well as the return flow is very high.
✓ The exact pump is a 6106539 as fitted to 1.6-2.8l old Fords. Output is roughly same as the pump originally used with the engine, and same 8mm/6mm hose diameters so not sure why the return flow is so high.
✓ Buggy uses 1.6l Vitara EFI engine

 

[roofman]

I think slosh I causing poor running in my trials buggy. Certified foam is about £70. These guys sell generic PU foam for much less, which they claim is good for tanks among other uses. I've queried this with them and they're double checking with the manufacturer. In the mean time I thought I'd ask you good folks. £70 may not seem a lot but when every step of the build costs you this much or more it's got cumulatively expensive...

QUICK DRYING RETICULATED FOAM

Reticulated Foam: High-Porosity Innovation Welcome to our world of Reticulated Foam, a specialist open-cell foam with unique characteristics. Reticulated foam features a net-like cellular structure, allowing water to drain rapidly through its large pores

www.thefoamshop.co.uk

More info:
✓ 300x300x200 alu cube fuel tank with gravity outlet at the bottom
✓ No baffles, tank is void inside
✓ Tank has rally style port which can be removed to give good access to inside tank
✓ 15mm outlet hose leading to a coarse pre filter, then 044 style fuel pump, cartridge filter, then plastic 8mm hose to engine
✓ Pressure regulator on fuel rail then 6mm return to tank
✓ I think the pump is too powerful as well as the return flow is very high.
✓ The exact pump is a 6106539 as fitted to 1.6-2.8l old Fords. Output is roughly same as the pump originally used with the engine, and same 8mm/6mm hose diameters so not sure why the return flow is so high.
✓ Buggy uses 1.6l Vitara EFI engine

All the sloshing will be causing the fuel to pressurize the tank causing higher return flow figures ime guessing

 

[Memmeddu]

I think slosh I causing poor running in my trials buggy. Certified foam is about £70. These guys sell generic PU foam for much less, which they claim is good for tanks among other uses. I've queried this with them and they're double checking with the manufacturer. In the mean time I thought I'd ask you good folks. £70 may not seem a lot but when every step of the build costs you this much or more it's got cumulatively expensive...

QUICK DRYING RETICULATED FOAM

Reticulated Foam: High-Porosity Innovation Welcome to our world of Reticulated Foam, a specialist open-cell foam with unique characteristics. Reticulated foam features a net-like cellular structure, allowing water to drain rapidly through its large pores

www.thefoamshop.co.uk

More info:
✓ 300x300x200 alu cube fuel tank with gravity outlet at the bottom
✓ No baffles, tank is void inside
✓ Tank has rally style port which can be removed to give good access to inside tank
✓ 15mm outlet hose leading to a coarse pre filter, then 044 style fuel pump, cartridge filter, then plastic 8mm hose to engine
✓ Pressure regulator on fuel rail then 6mm return to tank
✓ I think the pump is too powerful as well as the return flow is very high.
✓ The exact pump is a 6106539 as fitted to 1.6-2.8l old Fords. Output is roughly same as the pump originally used with the engine, and same 8mm/6mm hose diameters so not sure why the return flow is so high.
✓ Buggy uses 1.6l Vitara EFI engine

There are safety tanks on Amazon
Roughly the price of the foam , made out of aluminium, similar sizes of yours, rally style inlet , plus various AN fitting for the output and return lines, they also have a level sensor in them .
They have foam in them .
Quite cheap, you can get one of the size of yours for about 100 euros .

But honestly I think your problem can be solved just adding a smaller reservoir which is constantly fully filled by a pump from the main tank, then an high pressure one will feed the injectors from this smaller one .
That's common used on drift cars to overcome fuel starvation while cornering

Edit those fuel tanks are cheap because they have not a FIA approval certificate but they're pretty much the same as the ones sold for more than 1000 euros

 

[Memmeddu]

Serbatoio carburante 20 l in alluminio da corsa Serbatoio carburante Fuel serbatoio benzina superiore della cella 5 galloni https://amzn.eu/d/2rk0lH0
That's one example

 

[hotponyshoes]

Can you not make up some baffling?
Slot type so you can fit it together inside the tank without actual having to fix it to the tank itself?
Few off-cuts of alloy would be cheaper than foam.
Plus I'd be suspicious of generic foam. May well be fine but if it starts breaking down in a few weeks/months/years time I can see it causing a whole load of potentially expensive problems...

 

[Memmeddu]

The smaller tank I now discovered it's called swirl pot or fuel surge tank

 

[rcx132]

There are safety tanks on Amazon
Roughly the price of the foam , made out of aluminium, similar sizes of yours, rally style inlet , plus various AN fitting for the output and return lines, they also have a level sensor in them .
They have foam in them .

That's the tank I have, the level sender doesn't work and there's a symbolic amount of foam supplied

 

[Cheesie]

Is the tank a flat bottom tank ?

 

[oldbikedavey]

Used to use Explosafe in the tank on my short - stroke B.50, when road racing, but that was as a surge dampener against weight distribution changes.

 

[8ob]

I think slosh I causing poor running in my trials buggy.

Mentioned this before on here, mates trials jeep had the same problem. Nothing short of keeping the tank brimmed stopped it grabbing air, no amount of swirlpot or baffles cured the problem of fuel getting away from the pickup. Made the pick up pipe in the tank using rubber and weighted it, wherever the fuel went the pick up pipe followed it. Bit like a frog tank in an aircraft, they dont conk out when they fly upside down.

Bob

 

[rcx132]

Is the tank a flat bottom tank ?

Yes, except for the pickup which is on the bottom. It's a really simple cube.

 

[Greeves246]

Does it react with ethanol though? It attacks fibreglass and plastic tanks on Ducati have given lots of problems especially in the States leading to a class action.

 

[Cheesie]

This is a sump I added to a freinds drift car, I've done this on a few where possible the tube has a larger diameter than the hole I cut in the tank, when making from scratch I also swage the hole in the bottom of the tank, the rest of the tank can be baffled or filled with foam, depending on what the customer wants to spend, I don't like flat bottom tanks, and the above poster is right especially on a flat bottom tank baffles foam whatever it will still slosh one way or another, I believe a sump like I explained above is the best solution,

 

[Anguz]

Sump on my 7 lookalike is rectangular.. I welded a square maybe 5l pot in the bottom with 2 baffles above when I went injection.. I can run the tank almost bone dry before I get issues on track days, I think at that point it's just the litte tank that gas any fuel... my baffles prevent the fuel escaping the pot as much as they do slosh

 

[Memmeddu]

From what I know swirl pots have to be pressurise.
They (at least the ones I've seen)usually Have
an inlet line from the main tank
A return line to the main tank
An output line to an high pressure pump for the injectors
A return line from the injectors to the swirl pot.
Essentially you should obtain a constantly full 1 liter fuel tank .
Excessive fuel from the pump in the tank will come back to the main tank.
Excessive pressure from the injectors comes back to the swirl pot
I Practice the scheme is
Main fuel tank <----> pump <-----> swirl pot <----> high pressure pump<--->injectors rail

 

[Erie Fred]

Mentioned this before on here, mates trials jeep had the same problem. Nothing short of keeping the tank brimmed stopped it grabbing air, no amount of swirlpot or baffles cured the problem of fuel getting away from the pickup. Made the pick up pipe in the tank using rubber and weighted it, wherever the fuel went the pick up pipe followed it. Bit like a frog tank in an aircraft, they dont conk out when they fly upside down.

Bob

I was thinking of the same thing, some aerobatic planes run a "flop tube"
just like you described.

 

[8ob]

I was thinking of the same thing, some aerobatic planes run a "flop tube"
just like you described.

As always Fred the simple solutions work best, for some strange reason folk like to complicate things. If the fuel is on the move follow it.

Bob

 

[rcx132]

Thanks for feedback. I found some more forum posts, many report issues with foam. I looked again at certified foam but found no one can cut it to my size.

Seeing as I'm pushed for time, I've decided to go for this simple solution using HDPE pipe (photo is not mine, looks like teflon tube here):

 

[PhillipM]

I think that's going to do the square root of naff all, the damping from foam is an order of magnitude higher due to the tiny cell size.

 

[jsf55]

Does the fuel pick up go to the base of the tank and towards the rear ? does the return line drop too the base of the tank and point towards one of the front corners ? this will help with fuel surge and pressurising, i'd look at how the fuel tank is venting too