5 Gal Gas Can Mods for Fueling (Page 3 of 4)

True. I tried this first. But the vent hole in the pit posse is pretty small. The hose that fits into the vent doesn't allow the jug interior to vent very quickly. So then you're left with having to drill out the vent on top for a larger diameter hose. Then having to turn the hose 180 degrees in a small radius kinks it, unless you insert a spring like Troy (well done, Troy!) which I didn't have the ambition to try since I had already gone to lowes, like, 78 times that day. Plus, putting the vent at the bottom keeps the vent hose very low profile at the handles, where it is zip tied. As for the caps, 5 minutes with a Dremel and a few tiny washers and the caps are barbed, keeping the gigante 1" ID of the filler hose as the narrowest flow obstruction (except for the half-millimeter barb indent) as opposed to a threaded adapter.

One way that you could solve this would be to put a thin copper vent tube inside your fuel delivery tube. The copper line would run all the way to the bottom of the fuel can, thus providing an air return to the very bottom. Any fuel in that tube at the start of fueling would be deposited into the fuel tank at the initiation of the fueling stop, then air would begin to counterflow, and given the large differential in density between fuel and air, that internal vent hose wouldn't have to be very large, so you wouldn't limit your outflow significantly.

I think this internally-vented option would eliminate a lot of the fuel-spill problems that you encounter with longer outside vent hoses and would be especially useful if you're already using a larger ID fuel hose.

You know with an un-moded jug you can turn it upside down and open the vent with no leaks, right?

x3 vacuum created by gravity is a powerful thing

Id bet you'd see quite a bit of vacuum in a fuel jug upside down with just the vent popped on the bottom (when it's upside down dumping.)

Its like shotguning a beer. It just  glugs till you crack the top vent. Ya gotta use things we can relate to in future explanations.

I've raced with several other teams using my car and jugs. I can fill the car in under a minute. Getting the driver strapped in takes much longer. So if you really want to improve your pit times work on getting your drivers in and out faster.

Damn, that second picture is kinda disturbing.  It makes me think I'm a gyno looking at a fuellopian tube.

Brian

Yeah, the other series' rule isn't such a bad thing, but the top half of the field over there still use modded jugs.  For cars with 15+ gallon tanks/cells you're still going to eat up 4-5 minutes just on fueling with un-modded jugs.

OK.  10 Minutes then.

Lemons races are pretty much being won in the pits these days and it's a shame, because there are some really great teams that just don't have the sheer number of people required to make fast stops.  Also, as time off track becomes more crucial, I see more cars speeding in the pits and doing risky maneuvers to get around traffic in the paddock.

Also, as is evidenced by the fire at the T-Hill race, it's becoming apparent that not everyone is qualified to install a fuel cell.  This would not be an issue if there was a two hour max. stint rule as well.  Most of the top teams are keeping drivers out for 3 hours or more.

What about 6 minute abs?

It's a joke...the gnomer is messin' with you guys.  He knows Lemons will never use the Chump refueling procedure.  There are just too many cars.  Chump uses the hot pits for refueling, and a kitchen timer on each car.  A car entering the pits must stop at pit in to get their timer.  Then when leaving the pits, the car must stop at pit out so a worker can check and  remove the timer.  We had over 180 entries for T'hill...how many kitchen timers would Jay need...how would we all fit in the hot pits?

The gnomer knows that Cerveza won by 8 laps and it wasn't because of their overwhelming number of crew members and their lightning fast pit stops.  We were pitted next to them.  They use their drivers as pit crew.  They use  unmodded jugs and a funnel.  Their stops are in the 5 minute range.  They have long stints.  Their first stop was 2.5 hours in.  They won because they're fast and they don't make many stops or mistakes.

A team doesn't need a large crew to make fast stops.  We have 4 drivers, a crew chief, and a wife.  The drivers do the refueling and the strapping in of the next driver.  The crew chief's sole job is to torque the lug nuts.  He can do one wheel while the driver is getting out.  The wife will do the windshield if needed and she holds the replacement ice.  According to Roland's time card, our fastest stop was 5:54.  That's including a lap (2:23ish), driving to the pit stall at 10mph, the pit stop and driving to the s/f line(timing loop).

We use to use the driver getting out of the car as the refueler.  But after thinking about it we changed it.  The driver getting out of the car is probably the last person on the crew we would want to handle the jug.  He is most likely tired, sweaty, his judgement might be taxed.  He's got ear plugs...he can't hear the fuel gurgling up the filler pipe.  We now use the second or third driver in line.  The next driver in line holds the fire bottle by the driver's side door.

Last year a team showed up with 8 crew members not counting the drivers.  Jay asked them how many crew members they had.  He then gave them 8 bs laps.  He later reduced the number of bs laps after some 'conversation'.