Does anyone make a surge tank "kit" that is e85 safe? I have been led to believe that aluminum is not entirely compatible with ethanol.

 

I would like to know the same thing, I was considering an aluminum meth tank but was told methanol eats aluminum slowly.

 

meth != ethanol. Meth is super corrosive.

I have one of the aluminum surge tanks and am watching it pretty closely. There is concern that even anodized aluminum isn't strong enough to resist alcohol.

In looking around on the internets, there seems to be quite a bit of different information out there.
- you have to use a stainless fuel filter --> lots of subaru and grand national owners are using paper filters
- you can't use aluminum anywhere --> again, lots of GN owners running al tanks and other stuff, without issue


I'm torn. The typical warnings about the corrosive nature of ethanol and aluminum tend to come from warnings about pumps and that sort of thing at gas stations.

I've not seen a conclusive, verifiable, scientific test regarding al and ethanol. There's on on hondatech (or something like that), but there was another reagent in the alcohol, so it's not a valid test.

 

My fuel pump hanger is anodized. I wouldn't use untreated aluminum.

 

unless the whole thing is nickle plated you can't use aluminum

who knows where i can find a SS swirl pot/surge tank? i'd like a 3L

 

Old thread but I thought I would bring it back to correct something said above. Methanol is NOT the same as Ethanol... they are NOT EQUAL. They are 2 different types of alcohol and do not have the exact same properties as suggested above.

Methanol is been shown to be corrosive but Ethanol and E85 has yet to cause any problems on MANY cars running for a long period of time (years in some cases) without any corrosive effects on aluminum components. Fuel rails, fittings, aluminum intake manifold runners, etc.

Even standard pump fuel has as much as 10% ethanol in it and has for a long time... without any ill effects on aluminum or other components.

 

Since this thread was bumped, I'll add to my above post that I am running a 2.5ltr surge tank that is aluminum and I'd be more worried about the quality of your fuel hose than a bit of aluminum.

Furious Performance out of Australia sells nice surge tanks in a variety of sizes, if someone wants to roll their own kit (you can Google them or search on Ebay).

Here's what I ended up with (yes, an 044 in the trunk is noisy):

 

here is the thread for the surge tank we are putting together. we got the last of the fittings in last night. tonight we will install and take pictures, and begin taking orders hopefully by this weekend for the group buy.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...nk-system.html

 

mdr makes one. search the other forum. aluminum is fine with e85.