Fuel tank anti slosh ideas?

[drury]

I'm fed up with the pressure drops when I get down to 1/4 of a tank with my aftermarket fuel pickup. Richard at GDP suggested getting a Vulcan Draw Straw as an improvement, so I'm going to try that. But I keep thinking somebody must have solved this problem by now. Does anyone have any ideas?



It seems like I've heard of explosion proof fuel tanks with some kind of loose antislosh honeycomb material. Does anybody know of a material like that that wouldn't break down in the fuel tank or clog the fuel filters?

 

[MickeyMiller]

I have used the foam on a couple of IHC Scouts that I built but getting it into the Dodge tank would be a challenge. I actually cut a hatch and made a multi bolt cover to be able to add the foam to a 32 gallon Scout tank. Stuff works great! Eliminates slosh and creates an explosion proof environment and only takes up 3% of the tank volume.

 

[Spooled-up]

How big of a hole do you need to get it in there? The Factory in-tank-module has about a 4" round hole.

 

[MickeyMiller]

The foam I used came in 2' cubes that I cut to fit. I have heard of people cutting the foam into small enough pieces to stuff it through the filler neck, but on the Dodge, it might be quite an ordeal to fill that long, realitively narrow, tank.

 

[Spooled-up]

Here's an idea:

Order an replacement tank from Transfer Flow and have them install the foam before they weld it up. You'd eliminate the slosh problem and gain a whole bunch of capacity in the process.

 

[JFaulkner]

The factory tank already has baffles in it. I made my own pickup and if my fuel light turns on your screwed. My quick fix that has never failed is to keep the tank full or at least above 1/4 tank. Way cheaper and easier to install than new tanks or foam.

 

[WOT]

I have the same problem and briefly looked into the foam approach. Since the existing baffle in on the forward side of the factory pickup I considered filling the from 1/2 of the tank with the foam. It might require changing to a different type of fuel level sensor as the foam might interfere with the stock "arm/float" style.

Is the foam something you can squash down and squeeze into the 4" pickup opening? I've never actually touched the stuff, just did some quick reading on it.

The other thought was just to add a 2nd tank to "refill" the stock tank when it got to 1/4 tank. But after thinking about that I thought if I went through that much trouble just order a new replacement tank (50 Gallon)...

 

[Spooled-up]

My tank has no baffles (07 5. 9 Mega Cab):



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[231jasonS]

Ive read other posters (willis 53 i think on DTR) say they had baffles in thier tank. What gives? Im about to install Air Dog and dont want to loose my fuel capacity. I often tow long trips and fill up several times. i dont want to lessen my range between fill ups due to drops in pressure.

 

[JFaulkner]

My tank has no baffles (07 5. 9 Mega Cab):



[/IMG]#ad

That looks like the inside of someones stomach! :-laf

My 05 tank looks nothing like that. It has at least 2 baffles which almost screwed me up drilling for a new pickup.

 

[betterthanstock]

I don't know where the factory pick-up tube is located, but it makes sense to have it to the rear of the tank, so that you would not run out uphill, or during hard acceleration.



You can also attach a hose with a weight that would go back and forth with the fuel, but I wonder how long until it might damage the tank, or tear the hose and lose prime. I suppose a very smooth plastic covered, or polished weight would last forever.

 

[rweis]

I've been in my 02' tank several times and it does NOT have any baffles. It also does NOT look like the 07' picture at all. It is a formed almost square vertically and then the length rectangularly. There are some formed pockets on top at each end, but those are the only non rectangular features.



Interesting the differences in the internal shapes from year to year. I think that most 2nd gens are much more rectangular and do nto have baffles of any sort.



No baffles are somewhat of a problem when you go to the DrawStraw approach because you can uncover the DrawStraw at low fuel levels in hilly or mountainous terrain.



One thought I had was to put a 10 gallon tank in the bed with an overflow back to the OEM tank. Feed the engine from the bottom of the bed tank. Run a continuous duty lp from the OEM tank to the bed tank. It would not matter if the lp picked up some air at times because you would be feeding the engine from the bottom of the bed tank with a lp than would continuously fill the bed tank and the overflow would just return to the OEM tank. Sort of a bed "tank sump" if you will.



Use your OEM fuel gauge and you could run the OEM tank down to empty if you wanted. Just do not run the "sump tank" down to empty.



Bob Weis



I have a DrawStraw and it works for me in my 02'.

 

[SShafranko]

I installed the airdog 150 on my friend's 06. It had one baffle in the center. We installed the pick-up tube towards the end of the tank, cut a U at the bottom of the pvc tube and actually pushed the tube in until it touched the bottom of the tank. The U cut should be minimal (approx. 1/4 inch) just enough to pick up the fuel. I don't know if this is the right way to do it, it just seemed like the common sence thing to do at the time. His fuel gauge goes below the red E line without any problems whatsoever. Hope this helps.