krisiun

iTrader: (9)

Some of the guys who road race their X might have noticed that after long left hand turns their cars will start to bog due to fuel starvation. There are a couple of solutions to this problem, but the easiest is a surge tank. For those that don't know, a surge tank is basically an auxiliary fuel tank. Usually the in tank pump will fill the surge tank with fuel (enough to run the engine for 10-20 seconds)and then an auxiliary external pump will flow fuel out of the surge tank into the injectors. There are a couple of different setups on the market now, AMS retail $995 (no longer made) mounted the tank in the middle of the trunk and placed the fuel pump under the car (they built a sheetmetal cover to protect it from debris). MDR retail $899 also makes an awesome kit that mounts the tank in between the fender and trunk behind the stock sub location. Again they mount the pump under the car. I knew I needed a surge tank as I was running into the fuel starvation issue on street tires and I am stepping up to NT01's.

Enter Evodynamics. I jokingly sent Josh (EVO_666) a facebook message saying he needed to built me a surge tank. Within 24 hours I got a text for Kevin (how did he get my number?). Kevin offered to make a kit and prototype it on my car. He had some lofty goals and I was a little leery as he was promising a lot with a pretty low price. Needless to say I gave the go ahead to build me a prototype. EvoD was nice enough to send along teaser shots of the tank as the build progressed. The wait was horrible as some of you may know .

I showed up to EvoD last night and was greeted by Josh. He showed my the prototype tank with AN fittings already attached. The tank mounts in the same location as the MDR tank, with one huge improvement. They mounted the external pump on the tank. It is now protected from road debris and it allows for less fuel hose to be ran from the stock tank to the pump. EvoD setup the flow a little different than the MDR kit and I have to tell you it makes a lot of sense and cures the issue some were having with high fuel pressure and excess raw fuel on deceleration coming out of the exhaust.

The install took about 3-4 hours, but this is longer than normal as Richard was measuring the fuel lines and figuring out the best way to run them. During that time I was entertained by Josh and watched as they worked on quite a few Evo's (those who have been there before can attest).

After Richard buttoned up the install, I unmarried the accessport and we hit the road for a tune. I have never driven a stock MR (had a Evo IX and test drove a X GSR), so I can't attest to how the trans and power delivery are stock. I was extremely happy with my accessport tune that came with the car, although I like to be more hands on with my tune (self tuned the IX on e85). When we drive cross country, we see a lot of octane changes and I would like to be able to change the tune slightly to account for octane. I decided to give EvoD a chance to tune my car and see if there was a difference. Richard loaded JJ's old tune and we were off. First off, the change in trans tuning was immediately noticeable. The cars shifts were crisper and down shifts seemed much faster. After some tweaking the car pulls just a smooth as the Cobb tune, but holds boost a little better. I like the trans behavior better on the EvoD tune, but apparently Cobb is working in some upgrades as well. I think they are both great tunes and I think they each have their own place in the market.

Back to the surge tank. It works flawlessly. No leaks, no excess fuel spilling out of the exhaust, nothing. It is exactly what I was looking for. It is also nice on the wallet. I will be fully testing it out on the 4th at ECR, and I will update accordingly. As of now, I give it a 9.9/10 (the tank is raw aluminum in color, it would get a 10 if it were JDM Fresh HKS Kansai Purple). Also, I was worried about the pump being noisy. It is an external 255. The intank 255 in my IX was really quite loud, and I was expecting the same. Needless to say you can't hear the pump in car at all. It is really nice, they took extra care in wapping the pump in rubber and using rubber mounts.

Thanks go out to Richard for all of his hard work and Josh for entertaining Leah and I. I would also like to start a collection to buy Kevin a jacket, he was working on various cars in the howling wind and 30 degree temps...in a T-shirt.

I will get better pictures here shortly. The car is currently at PTP getting realigned after my agricultural trip at MSR.

TxEvo8

iTrader: (5)

Very cool, can't wait to see it in action this weekend!

Kracka

iTrader: (49)

Looks very nice! Installed pics please.

tsi20gawd

iTrader: (16)

Will be keeping an eye on this.

Bryan

krisiun

iTrader: (9)

I will get more pics today after I pick up my car. Who knew going off track at 100+ mph would mess up your alignment and eccentric bolts in the rear.

Tsi20gawd, where in Everett are you at? My brother in law is a city council man for the district over by Providence Everett.

mrMTB

iTrader: (13)

Chris, did you go ahead and upgrade your injectors so you could go e85/map switching?

tsi20gawd

iTrader: (16)

I am in Lake Stevens, but it technically has an Everett address. Im about 10-15 mins east of the Providence area of town. Seems like a small world at times

Is there any info available on pricing for the tank itself? Its about time someone offered a cost effective solution for this issue.

Bryan

krisiun

iTrader: (9)

http://www.evodynamics.com/evodysutaex.html

Basic kit is $650, or $250 less than the MDR kit. I don't know if they will sell just the tank if that is what you are asking. Maybe Kevin or Josh will chime in, if not I am going by the shop tonight and can give you an update.

KevinD

iTrader: (56)

we are going to have a few options on the tank. the braided lines are super expensive and we needed more then we wanted to use, but there are less expensive alternatives to the nylon braided lines that will work just as well

we have one more kit to install before this weekend, then we can put together prices and do the group buy

EvImVictim

iTrader: (11)

^^^ Yeah I've priced those aviation/lightweight braided lines. (nomex I think) Rich guy car parts!

goofygrin

iTrader: (5)

The rear eccentrics are made of pot metal. Go ahead and buy a few to have on hand. I'd also buy a few spare bolts.

I was stripping them IMMEDIATELY when I was getting aggressive alignments. The best solution would be some hardened metal ones getting made.

krisiun

iTrader: (9)

No, I am still running pump. I know the car has a ton more in it, and I going to do teh driver mod before I add more power.

Acree

iTrader: (8)

Wonder who the blue evo IX belonged to?

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I'm hoping to pick it up this week. I was talking to Richard about that surge tank when I was up there last week. It looked like a nice piece of hardware for sure.

-Acree

PTPKyle

Yea, those bolts are just not tough enough. We actually ordered the last 8 bolts/washers that Mitsubishi had in the US just so we would have extras for next time. Chris' car is good to go now though, should be in great shape for this weekend.

krisiun

iTrader: (9)

All I can say is damn. I will update a little more later, but for now, I ran the tank down until the refill light came on and never got fuel starvation. I was running on nt01's, cobb sways and ast coilovers so there was some definate g's generated.