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Hatch floor question . Cutting it for a fuel cell


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I was looking around under my z without the fuel tank and noticed on the passanger side of the car a sort of frame rail or boxed in aera going from the rear sub frame to the wheel well from the frame looks to be about 12 inches long . Then one from the wheel well towards the rear of the diff looks to be about 4 inches long .

 

Now ill be hacking into the part going towards the passanger side oh id say ill be removing about 4 inches of the thing to create a box for my fuel cell to sit in . Will this be a issue as far as strength .

 

The total aera ill be removing is 23 inches from the tail light towards the front of the car . Then from the very outer edge of the wheel well on the drivers side ill be going 24 inches towards the passanger side maybe less i need to look at it again as my fuel cell is 17 inches wide 17 inches deep .

 

Jason

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Here is what we did on my drag car project.

 

Basically I cut out the entire floor between the frame rails in the hatch floor. I cut from the cross member between the shock towers back to the cross member under the tail lights.

 

Then I took 1" X 1" square tubing and made a frame for my battery box and fuel cell. This also serves as the mounting area for the flue pump and filter.

 

Currently we are working on a "dog house" to cover it all that will have the top open on a hinge.

 

This was all without cutting any frame members.

 

For reference the aluminum "dog house" is 17" x 34" and we are using a 5 gallon fuel cell the is about 13" x 13" x 8"

 

Here are some photos.

 

Hope this helps.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I was looking around under my z without the fuel tank and noticed on the passanger side of the car a sort of frame rail or boxed in aera going from the rear sub frame to the wheel well from the frame looks to be about 12 inches long . Then one from the wheel well towards the rear of the diff looks to be about 4 inches long .

 

Now ill be hacking into the part going towards the passanger side oh id say ill be removing about 4 inches of the thing to create a box for my fuel cell to sit in . Will this be a issue as far as strength .

 

The total aera ill be removing is 23 inches from the tail light towards the front of the car . Then from the very outer edge of the wheel well on the drivers side ill be going 24 inches towards the passanger side maybe less i need to look at it again as my fuel cell is 17 inches wide 17 inches deep .

 

Jason

 

I am in the process of doing the same thing. This is what I am installing. Its welded together now but its not welded in the car yet. The angle pieces will be welded to the front and rear frame rails. I also plan on adding a 1x4 channel across the middle tying it into the side frame rails where the old sections were and tying it to both tank 1x2 channels. I think it will be stronger than what I cut out. I bought some truck bed floor sections to use as flooring (corrugated so it won't rattle). Since I'm using an LT1 tank the floor will have an access panel to get at the fuel pump without removing the tank, just in case.

 

tank-frame.jpg

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Whats so good about a fuel cell? Can it carry more gas than a stock tank? Thats what I want... I want to be able to put wayyy more gasoline on my car even though its over 3 dollars for 89 octane. I still run high octanes though.

 

Fuel cells are required by many race sanctioning groups. They vary in capacity.

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Whats so good about a fuel cell? Can it carry more gas than a stock tank? Thats what I want... I want to be able to put wayyy more gasoline on my car even though its over 3 dollars for 89 octane. I still run high octanes though.

 

3 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dollars?

wtf

 

man, i'll ship you some 94 from canada and still turn a profit! LOL

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh i wanted a 10 gallon fuel cell for weight savings , plus i wanted to make room for custom exhaust soas i can run duals one out each side of the car in the rear . And seeing as the stock tank was in the way i just installed a fuel cell and braided line with AN fittings .

 

As for the cost of gas its about 3.15 a gallon i roughly use about 260$ worth of gas a month just to go to work and go home . I get somehwere around 9-10 miles per gallon . And the car never sees the highway unless im headed to the drag strip .

 

Of course i guess if ya wanted more gas then stock ya could buy 3 10 gallon cells and link them together or find a 20-30 gallon cell that would fit in a z man in a stock z 20-30 gallons could go a looonnngggg ways .

 

Jason

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MAdkaw what kind of fuel cell do you have? Thats my biggest reason for considering a fuel cell is so I can run dual exhaust. Also because Im hoping to put it the gas filler from behind the license plate, and it would be easier todo with a fuel cell.

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mopar 69,

I am not using a "fuel cell" but a fuel tank made for a cj-5. I put in a early series cj-5 jeep plastic tank because I DIDN'T want to change the filler position. I am only running carbs so this tank is not made for fuel injection but you could probably get one for FI. The tank was only 125$ but I also bought the jeep skid plate to mount tank with. Check out my photo album.

My only regrets so far is that I didn't take into consideration of going to FI later and if this tank would work. There is no baffling in the tank. The biggest pain in the ass is the vent tank on early Z's and making that work with the tank.

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Id like to find about 17 gallon fuel cell that would allow me to switch the filler position to back and run dual exhaust. Anyone have a good Idea?

 

What was the size of the Cj5 tank? Trying to get a perspective of sizes and howd they would fit.

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the jeep tank is 10x25x16 i believe(15 gallon). I would have liked to have used a shorter tank but I also wanted the side filler to keep my stock fuel door. You might try an early -66- mustang or camaro tank. They are very short but also wider with the rear filler neck. I thought about it but one of the tanks was too wide for the frame rails and I didn't want to work around the support on the Z rear panel

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Id like to find about 17 gallon fuel cell that would allow me to switch the filler position to back and run dual exhaust. Anyone have a good Idea?.

 

I heading the same path (rear filler and dual exhaust) and I've got some reasonable quotes to have one fabricated to my own specifications, including the straight fit of an LS1 pump. Check with some racing workshops you might fine they are competitive with the price of an off-the-shelf cell.

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Madcaw

 

So you are using the stock filler location still and running dual exhaust? Are you able to use regular size mufflers still? How much clearance do you have inthe passenger side between the muffler and the filler? I'm also looking at doing this and am not sure where to run the fill line to that will still allow for duals.

 

Thanks

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There is about 2" between the filler and the glasspack. I could have run the glasspacks lower but I wanted to run the tips thru the valence. This could have been accomplished with muffler with offsets also. Glasspacks were 12$ each :-D

z_pics_154.jpg

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I took my old fuel tank to a Guy near me, he is making an aluminum copy of it, biult in bafffle, will even accept the old fuel sender and have 8jic fittings in and out. Cost around $350. I did cut the wheel well out so the tank could be made larger.

Might be worth checking to see if someone in your area could fab one up for you.

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3 dollars a gallon. Basically works out to the same price as our gas.

 

You guys make me smile ...... and jealous ...... in the UK fuel is about £1.05 PER LITRE not per gallon so about $8 or just over per gallon. Our tax system sucks big style - most of this cost is government tax.

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