Alcohol and Puke Tank

[geno]

I been told i need a puke tank when running Alcohol?
Mike moran said i need one along with others running Alcohol. I was wondering if a guy could get away with dumping into the down pipe? I know on NA cars they pumb it to the collectors.

 

[Alky V6]

Hey Gene. Define puke tank for me.

 

[Chevota]

Breather tank.

 

[geno]

Hey Gene. Define puke tank for me.

A breather tank fpr the valve covers . Ive heard that turbo acohol motors tend to make a mess and need good venting Mike Moran told me he has a tank mounted in the trunk and uses the frame rail to get it to the back of the car.I know another guy with a Turbo alcohol Mustang running mid 6,s that said the same thing..He has a tank for each valce covers.
I was wondering about dumpng it out the down pipe?

 

[Alky V6]

I'll tell you what I do, then you can decide what you might need to do. The max hp level I plan on is only around 1230, so you may need a bit more breather capacity than me.
I run a Moroso 4 vane evac pump. If I had to do over, I would get the enhanced model. The evac pump pickup is at the front of the passenger valve cover. The pump is run at half crank speed and empties into an oil separator tank. The exhaust from the oil separator empties into the end of the main exhaust pipe. The tube that enters the exhaust pipe is setup similar to the way a n/a crankcase evac is done, so that exhaust flow will assist the evac pump.
If you dump anything into the exhaust pipe, make sure you run the flow through an oil separator first. If you don't, you will have a mess dripping from your exhaust pipe.

I use one simple crankcase vent tank and have both valve covers venting into it. The driver's side vent tube runs unobstructed to the vent tank. The passenger side vent tube has a large one-way checkvalve that allows flow to the vent tank, but blocks flow to the engine.

 

[Alky V6]

Incorporated into the large checkvalve is a relief valve so that if the crankcase were to build a vacuum, the relief valve would help to keep the vacuum at a certain level. I don't expect the crankcase to ever build a vacuum unless one day I start experimenting by blocking the driver's side vent tube.
I leave the driver's vent tube open so that fresh air circulates through the block and to the evac pump. This does a very good job of pulling steam and fuel vapor out of the block and in doing so keeps the engine oil in good shape for about 4 times the expected life of an oil change compared to a setup that does not circulate the crankcase atmosphere.
The alcohol develops a TREMENDOUS amount of water as a byproduct of combustion. I highly recommend an evac pump to force crankcase ventilation.
Keep short running of the engine to a minumum. If you don't get the engine temp above 160 for a long enough period to boil off blowby, you will be changing the oil very often.

 

[geno]

My car has double frame rails and i think im going to weld steel fittings to the lower frame rails and put 2 tanks in the rear. Your system is over the top for me and it would be nice but im a keep it simple stupid kind a guy:biggrin:
If it works for Mike Morans 250 MPH car it should work on my POS Buick LOL
I will be lucky just to get the dam thing running

 

[Alky V6]

My car has double frame rails and i think im going to weld steel fittings to the lower frame rails and put 2 tanks in the rear. Your system is over the top for me and it would be nice but im a keep it simple stupid kind a guy:biggrin:
If it works for Mike Morans 250 MPH car it should work on my POS Buick LOL
I will be lucky just to get the dam thing running

As I said, water is a major byproduct of alcohol combustion. I would worry about your frame tubes rusting from the inside out.

edit: In an ideal burn ratio, 2 molecules of methanol and 3 molecules of oxygen will produce 4 molecules of water and 2 molecules of carbon dioxide. Like I said, water is a major product of methanol combustion.

 

[geno]

Im thinking the oil in the water will pretty well take care of the rust. I thought of that myself. I think it would be a oily mess before it would rust. LOL Im still not done pondering this

 

[SGRIM]

Ours is under the hood!

 

[BlownV6]

I use a #16 vent line from each valve cover to a catch can with a breather on it that has a shield half way around it. I face the shield forward and the tank is mounted on the back of the blower so the breather is somewhat in the air stream as the car makes a pass. Having this set up seems to produce a vacuum of sorts and pull the moisture into the can. This would be similar to venting into the down pipe except that if installed correctly I would think that it would pull a great deal of vacuum and work great!! I believe that a set of e-vac tubes into the collectors on a NA engine can produce around 4-8inches of vacuum.
With my setup I get around a 2-3 ounces of water/methanol in tank each pass and absolutly NO oil!! Hope that helps Mike