BOE Surge Tank- Cure for Fuel Starve

[turbophil]

We've made several of these little guys on a custom basis now and have been adding them to our TVS supercharger kit for a while as well.

They've been so popular that I thought I'd formally announce that they're for sale.

The kit is extremely labor intensive to make and there's a lot of parts that goes with this little kit and it could be the very thing to save your engine-- ESPECIALLY if you have forced induction. We do all the machining, fabrication, welding, etc right here in the shop

Here's a link to where it can be purchased, BOEFabrication.com | Beyond Original Equipment . Due to the nature of the beast, we will only carry a small inventory of this kit, so most will be made to order. Please allow 2 weeks for shipping... There's some more information about the kit in my "shop log" thread and quite a bit on my webpage...

Let me know if you have any questions.

Best,

Phil

[Dragon]

Saw these in production today on my way down to Texas...

You need to post a pic of the o-ring seal between the can and the cover.

[robains]

All the parts in this kit are top quality, the mount system is genius. Wish this kit had been available back in mid 2008 - would have saved Engine #1 (or at the very least made it last longer).

Rob.

[carlover]

Originally Posted by robains

All the parts in this kit are top quality, the mount system is genius. Wish this kit had been available back in mid 2008 - would have saved Engine #1 (or at the very least made it last longer).

Rob.

How would a fuel starvation cure have saved your engine?

[kaz]

Fuel starvation has leaned out and killed many, many engines under load at the track.

[ZJChaser]

Phil,
"As many Lotus track enthusiasts know, the Elise/Exige suffers from fuel starve on high G right handers." - from you website

just a tip. I dont know anyone that had starvation in right handers until the tanks were empty.

[turbophil]

Doh, my bad. Left handers. That's what I get for writing after my bedtime . Thanks for catching the typo, Z

Best,

Phil

[robains]

Per Kaz, I know a few folks that have lost motors because of the fuel starve problem. Motor goes lean, more heat, detonation, followed by death. This happened to me with a FULL tank of fuel at Turn 2 left hander at Thunderhill -- I thought I'd be safe if I just kept fuel topped up -- I was wrong.

I've also added a fuel pressure sensor (Phil's kit has a port for it) that is now integrated into my EFi ECU and IQ3 dash. So any possibility (threshold I set) of fuel pressure degredation and the motor will go into limp home mode or shutdown. So if any one of my two fuel pumps fail or becomes flakey, I'll at least save the motor.

People have reported fuel starve with just "aggressive" street driving on twisty canyon roads. It's a BIG problem, and Phil's solution works and is considerably less expensive than alternative solutions.

Rob

[MaineLotus]

How can it fuel starve with a full tank? I thought it would be safe @ full, maybe not.

[turbophil]

Originally Posted by Dragon

Saw these in production today on my way down to Texas...

You need to post a pic of the o-ring seal between the can and the cover.

Great meeting you Dragon! Talk about some good karma with you stopping by when you did! This was bizarre. Dragon just happened to be driving from Iowa to Texas this weekend. He dropped by my shop, just south of KC, on his way south around 7:15AM Sunday morning and I just happened to be out there working. I see this guy pull up at such an odd hour and I'm thinking Turns out it was Dragon, who I've only met through LT (He lives in Japan afterall) The stars had to be perfectly aligned early yesterday morning, and I'm gald they were

Carlover, I Think Rob determined that he went lean after a lefter--fuel starve...

I lost my engine in a similar situation, which is why I built this. Last October, I was pushing hard at the end of a nice cool day (low on fuel) playing cat and mouse with a Cup255 car. We have a big left hand carousel that sustains several seconds excess of a G side load. My car would always fuel starve and putter 2/3s of the way through that sweeper with anything much less than a full tank it seemed. I would instantly lift on the throttle to thwart off detonation when I felt the "putter". Data logs show 15+ AFR. The time my engine let loose, in the spirit of keeping pace with the car in front of me, I foolishly decided to push the engine through the "putter" just one time.LOL- one time... That was the end of that engine. In retrospec, it was a dumb thing to do, but I'm glad it happeneed when it did. The fragmented piston parts ended up killing my M62 blower (the piston went up the intake path and into the blower) and it was the last run of the year, so I had winter to rebuild. The trashed M62 blower was my impetus to start the TVS project. I tend to see problems like above as opportunities to make things better rather than get PO'ed Everyone at the track was surprised that I didn't utter a singal 4 letter word when it happened. I just grinned as thoughts of the rebuild came to mind

So that said, despite having a stack of TVS blowers in the shop, I just assume not fuel starve this engine and trash my expensive TVS that's on it now... If my little contraption can help save someone elses engine, then great. Short of buying a new race oriented fuel cell from Lotus (BIG $$$$) or building your own correctly baffled "race tank" (I think Brent is making one for his car), a surge tank or swirl pot is about the only way to really cure the problem. It's comparably cheaper, upgrades the remaining portion of the fuel system (adj FPR and 255 pump), and it's something most folks can install on a Sunday afternoon. I ran my car near empty on the last two track days with no puttering from lean fuel starve spikes at all.

Best,

Phil

[Brent Bauman]

Short of buying a new race oriented fuel cell from Lotus (BIG $$$$) or building your own correctly baffled "race tank" (I think Brent is making one for his car

Phil, I've had fuelcells built for myself and several friends, not tanks, FIA 3. No added complexity, added safety, saves 20lbs, increased capacity, and they can be run to less than a gallon before fuel starve. Just wanted to clarify.

[turbophil]

Originally Posted by Brent Bauman

Phil, I've had fuelcells built for myself and several friends, not tanks, FIA 3. No added complexity, added safety, saves 20lbs, increased capacity, and they can be run to less than a gallon before fuel starve. Just wanted to clarify.

Hey Brent, my mistake

[robains]

Brent,

What was the cost? I looked into fuel cell solution and all said and done it was gonna be close to $2000 with 255 walbro (parts and welding labor and I'd do install) and wasn't "simple" from a installation point of view. But I agree a fuel cell is safer, even more so if one plans to race door to door.

John,

Wasn't safe for me at a full tank (on Hoosiers).

Rob

[ZJChaser]

Originally Posted by Brent Bauman

Phil, I've had fuelcells built for myself and several friends, not tanks, FIA 3. No added complexity, added safety, saves 20lbs, increased capacity, and they can be run to less than a gallon before fuel starve. Just wanted to clarify.

[kaz]

OT

Brent, the fuel cells...16? 17? gallons?

[turbophil]

We have shipped a bunch of surge tanks out now and the results have been great. It's been so popular that we spent some more time refining the setup.

Gone are the bolt on connections that travel through the lid. Replaced with a special o-ring wire connection that is designed for fuel tanks. Also have replaced the connections with easy to connect/disconnect deutsch connectors. It took quite a bit of work to get to this point, but I think these improvements are nice progress steps for an already tried and trued system...

The kit still comes with high quality adjustable fuel pressure regulator to work with your stock or aftermarket tune. Also has the high output Walbro 255lph fuel pump, a fuel pressure gauge, and finally a gross of AN fittings to get the fuel from A to B

Here's updated pics of the tank...

Best,

Phil

[robains]

That's a great update Phil -- I ended up putting some heat shrink on the old style plus/minus terminals for safety. But this new solution is even better.

BTW, only got two session at Infineon, but I ran the tank down to 0.2 gallons without any issues (settled it was probably 2 gallons) .. Turn 6 at infineon (long left hander with a ton on compression) is a great test of fuel delivery solutions. Car didn't miss a beat and AFR was rock solid.

Rob.

[turbophil]

Glad to hear it Rob!

A couple pics of the new tank mounted up...

[sleepe]

I have a Walbro 255 in the oem tank already. Can I use the oem pump in your surge tank instead?

I have the VF2 kit.

What is the approximate weight of everything, minus the regulator.
-Robert

[turbophil]

You could, but you'd be limited to the capacity of the OEM pump in the surge tank. The pump in the surge tank is the one that pressurizes the system. The pump in the fuel tank is just a lift pump. So in your case, you'd want us to install the standard 255lph pump in the surge tank... I believe the system weighs about 5-7lbs all in...

Best,

Phil