• Welcome to RCTalk! 🚀

    Join the #1 RC community where hobbyists connect, share, and get expert advice on RC cars, trucks, boats, drones, and more!

    • Friendly & passionate RC enthusiasts
    • RC tips & troubleshooting
    • Buy, sell & trade RC gear
    • Share builds & upgrades

Fuel tank pressure

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

niggle

RCTalk Talkaholic
Messages
433
Reaction score
3
Points
0
Location
UK
RC Driving Style
I have noticed that the engine in my buggy (SH .21 in a Swift) appears to be very sensitive to fuel line (tank) pressure.

If I tune for mid-tank pressure, the engine gets on the pipe and head temperature can be controlled around 240F, but with the same HSN setting at full tank it is too rich to get on the pipe and with a nearly empty tank temperatures shoot to over 280F due to the lean mixure caused by the drop in pressure.

The venturi design on the carb doesn't look too great, I'm guessing that at WOT there is not enough depression to suck the fuel out of the HSN jet and the engine is really relying on tank pressure to force enough fuel through. When fuel tank/line pressure drops off as the tank nears empty it starts to run too weak and overheats.

At first I thought I had an air leak so I rebuilt the engine. I used ultra-copper RTV to seal the carb neck and back-plate and sealed the LSN threads with PTFE tape. The engine starts and idles OK but the air/fuel mixture is still varying greatly from full-tank to empty-tank.

Is there anyway I can make fuel line pressure more consistent as the tank empties without resorting to a new/different carburettor?

A pressure regulator between the tank and the carb would be ideal but due to the low pressures involved I doubt that an effective one could be made or bought without major expense.

Does tuned-pipe length and/or the position of the pressure pipe tapping on the tuned-pipe have any influence on the pressure in the fuel tank as it empties?
 
Connolly (spelling??) makes a pressure regulator if thats what you are looking for.

There are sooooo many variables that can affect this issue, I'm not certain where to begin. But I can tell you this.... What you are experiencing is perfectly normal. The larger the tank, the more you will notice it. For this very reason, on my Savage (huge tank), I tune for performance at about 2/3rds full tank. When its really hot out, half tank. This way it doesn't get too lean on me.
 
i believe a longer line between the pipe and your tank will help keep the pressures the same ..... at least from what i have read in the past ...
 
so a longer fuel tube from the tank to pipe will make more pressure in the tank? if so, that's what i need to do, because i'm experiencing this problem also.
 
Çh®i§tiªñ said:
Connolly (spelling??) makes a pressure regulator if thats what you are looking for.

There are sooooo many variables that can affect this issue, I'm not certain where to begin. But I can tell you this.... What you are experiencing is perfectly normal. The larger the tank, the more you will notice it. For this very reason, on my Savage (huge tank), I tune for performance at about 2/3rds full tank. When its really hot out, half tank. This way it doesn't get too lean on me.

Sounds like the weight of the "head" of fuel in a full tank has more bearing on fuel pressure than air pressure from the tuned pipe.

I guess that ideally, gravity feed from a tank located above the carb (like on a motorcycle) would be preferable to the exhaust pressure assisted syphon arrangement that R/C cars typically have, although such an arrangement would be very difficult to engineer to the point of being impractical.
 
Back
Top