- Joined
- Mar 6, 2011
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- 1,356
We started putting hopper tanks in our tunnel boats back in the early 80's. There will always be some who won't run them but for me, all my boats are set up with hopper tanks.
If you set your needle by ear like we do (old school) then you are listening to your engine constantly and you hear every pop or ping it is making as it goes around the track. At our little test track it is not uncommon to have two or three boats ripping it up out there and someone shouts "mine just hit the hopper". What that guy is saying is that he is coming in and to watch for him to pull to the bank. When you are listening to your engine you can actually hear the primary tank dry up and when you do, you need to come in because you never want to completely dry up all your fuel and alow your engine to quit because every time you do that you shorten the life of your piston and sleeve fit. You may say Carl is completely nuts but you can actually hear this happen.
As your primary tank (bottom tank) goes dry, the last of the fuel from the lower tank is drawn up the pickup tube and as it does the vent line of the hopper becomes completely empty, then your engine is running completely off of the hopper tank and when that happens you can hear your engine go rich (if you are paying attention to it) When I hear my engine suddenly go rich I bring it around and bring it to the bank to shut it down. We all do this and it keeps your engines fit longer if you just pay attention to the sound of your engine. When you get to racing with your buddies it is easy to loose count of how many laps you have made and with one tank you will never get that little hint that you are almost out of fuel.
That's just what we have always done. To each their own though.
-Carl
If you set your needle by ear like we do (old school) then you are listening to your engine constantly and you hear every pop or ping it is making as it goes around the track. At our little test track it is not uncommon to have two or three boats ripping it up out there and someone shouts "mine just hit the hopper". What that guy is saying is that he is coming in and to watch for him to pull to the bank. When you are listening to your engine you can actually hear the primary tank dry up and when you do, you need to come in because you never want to completely dry up all your fuel and alow your engine to quit because every time you do that you shorten the life of your piston and sleeve fit. You may say Carl is completely nuts but you can actually hear this happen.
As your primary tank (bottom tank) goes dry, the last of the fuel from the lower tank is drawn up the pickup tube and as it does the vent line of the hopper becomes completely empty, then your engine is running completely off of the hopper tank and when that happens you can hear your engine go rich (if you are paying attention to it) When I hear my engine suddenly go rich I bring it around and bring it to the bank to shut it down. We all do this and it keeps your engines fit longer if you just pay attention to the sound of your engine. When you get to racing with your buddies it is easy to loose count of how many laps you have made and with one tank you will never get that little hint that you are almost out of fuel.
That's just what we have always done. To each their own though.
-Carl
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o not make the fuel level in the hopper tank higher than the needle valve/fuel inlet....
