| Author | Message | ||
     Pkforbes87 |
I've been running the idea over in my head to put some thermal barrier material on the bottom of the fuel tank when I build my S3. Has anyone tried this? I'm short on money but luckily the previous owner of my house left behind plenty of the material for me to use alone with other random 300ZX twin turbo parts. Those will go to craigslist or ebay to fund Buell parts  Anyway I think I'll try it because since rebuilding the 2002 X1 I've noticed that every time I let the fuel level get low before I fill it, the fuel is getting warm enough that vapor comes out of the tank when I pop the cap off. I would think that cooling the fuel a little with a thermal barrier would give me a small amount of HP due to dropping the fuel temps a little bit. Thoughts? Opinions? | ||
| Drhacknstine |
That mod has nothing to loose but your time, its east to reverse. So why not! let us know what u find. Having gone on a poker run this saturday, and broiling in slow moving rows of twinkys and wobblers. I can imagine the heat under and in the tank. | ||
| Buellistic |
Pkforbes87: The early(my 1997 S3T) gas tank vent valves you could take apart("i" did mine) and remove the check valve, the later ones like on my 2000 Blast "i" cut the bottom check valve off ... Put thermal barrier under my gas tank in early 1998 and ran it until it got old and started coming off around 2005(my 2000 BLAST came with it) ... Pulled the remains off and never reinstalled ... Taking the check valve out of gas tank vent and thermal barrier under gas tank, a "YES" !!! MAY THE LONG LASTING BUELL BE WITH YOU !!! | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
is the check valve the black plastic "bulb" shaped thing that is attached through the largest hole in the fuel cap ring? I'm interested in hearing more details of the mod you're talking about. What are the benefits? | ||
| Buellistic |
Pkforbes87: "i" cut just enough off the bottom of the VALVE,rollover on my BLAST to do away with the CHECK BALL and on my 1997S3T "i" just took the CHECK BALL out ... Make sure you run the GAS TANK BREATHER hose(no dips, just angled down) to a catch container or to where it will run onto the groud(catch container is BEST) ... BENEFITS: When you fill up on a HOT day you no longer be bothered fuel vapor lock ... MAY THE LONG LASTING BUELL BE WITH YOU !!! | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
I've never had issues with heat getting my gastank to do odd things. I wouldn't bother. A computer fan would probably work better anyways. | ||
| Guell |
I wouldnt bother with it, mine never gets hot enough to do anything to the gas. Its like icing the intake on cars, youll never see the difference unless you drag race, and at that point, youd have to be damn good since it would only shave fractions of a second off. | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
I think ill give it a shot. I've got no other use for the adhesive backed material that I didn't have to pay for. Worst case scenario is it won't make any difference and ill have wasted my time like someone previously mentioned. | ||
| X1_ |
You should paint it that new blue camo so that way you can sneak it on ship. | ||
| Skntpig |
I think there is a value in keeping the fuel cooler. I've thought of this in the past. Let me know if you want to sell any extra. That stuff isn't really cheap on ebay. Let us know how it goes. | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
Not many ships here in oklahoma to blend in with. Gonna pc the frame a deep glossy red, denim black paint on the plastics, and will pc stuff like the forks and swingarm to match the plastics. | ||
| Fullauto |
I ran my X1 in the heat of the Pilbara region of Western Australia for a year with no real issues with the heat apart from the fact that I couldn't get higher octane fuel, which caused a bit of pinking at lower revs. The temperatures on some of our 300 kilometre (approx 200 miles) rides were around 48 degrees celsius. About 120 degrees F. Hot in anybody's language. | ||
| Skntpig |
I don't know how the math but cooler fuel = more power. Look at new racebikes. On the grid they have thermal reflective blankets over the tanks. They may only be there for a few minutes. | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
"cooler fuel = more power." that's what I'm thinking. The plastic fuel tank should insulate heat pretty well, but the engine, cooling fins on the heads, etc is designed to dissipate heat. So even if the thermal material only prevents heat in the tank by reflecting more of it back to the engine then it should still make a small difference. I'd rather have heat in an area with airflow (between the engine and fuel tank) rather than in the manifold (due to heated fuel) Maybe I'm overthinking all of this and it doesn't even really matter, but isn't that the fun of modifying a motorcycle? | ||
| Guell |
Yea, give it a shot, cant hurt since its free... But on the street, like i said before, i doubt youll see any difference at all. | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Here's an overthink for you, maybe they engineered the tank (and fuel) as a heat-sink to help cool the motor? Then you'd be loosing the effect of cooling the fuel by increasing the operating temp of the motor... hmmm  |
