EPOXY fuel tanks

[HOOTERS Racing]

iv been asked a few times by a mate of mine who is a plane guy about custom making epoxy fuel tanks to fit in the wings of his planes

i was thinking west system would be the go just wondering what you guys think on this matter any help would be tops thanks

ian

 

[Hydro Junkie]

I'm thinking that a tank made that way would work but only for a short period of time. The problem is that the alcohol in the fuel would degrade the epoxy every time the tank was filled and, the longer the fuel was in the tank, the more it would degrade. I'm sure others will have their own thoughts on this one so...........

 

[Charles Perdue]

Vinyl Ester works....

 

[El Zorro]

Some of the guys I ran full-size outboard hydros with built tanks into the boat and coated them with West Systems epoxy. This seemed to work well with gasoline fuels but I wouldn't use any nitromethane or methanol fuels in this type of tank.

Dick Tyndall

 

[Paul Traufler]

MOST aircraft tanks will have a inner "bladder" made out of some rubber type material. This keeps the tank sealed if you have a crash (small one that is) as the other materials will crack. Also seals the gas from any junk coming off the epoxy or materials the tank is made of. With aircraft you HAVE to be extra careful with power systems.

Paul

 

[HendricX]

We use a epoxy called Tank-cure .. it's for treating old-timer gas-tanks ,

but it works like a charm with glassfiber too.

We make custom fit tanks for the PPB Warrior and Skater catamarans.

 

[Charles Perdue]

I made composite fuel tanks for the boats a few years back. First I made test samples of every resin that I had and soaked them in small jars of 60% fuel. The only sample that held up was the one using CF and Vinyl Ester resin. All of the epoxies that I used began to soften.

I made fuel tanks of the vinyl ester resin and tried to run them. The first problem was that when the boat hit a bouy or stuffed, the tank would split or start to leak. I then made the tanks using more layers of CF. These elimated that problem but were weighing the same or more than metal tanks. A second problem that happened was small fibers of CF would come aloose, pass thru the fuel filter and change the needle settings. Constantly cleaning the needle.

Myth Busted....

Charles