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What capacity fuel cell would you choose for a DD/Trail Rig?

1977k5 said:
Higher altitude means less air pressure which leads to less cylinder pressure for the same compression ratio. So the octane in the fuel can be lower, so that's what they sell here. Ok for stock, otherwise, lame. Not like it costs less or anything.
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Honestly the small difference in price isn't enough to justify dropping $300 on some metering block and alcohol rated gaskets.

The e85 burning off faster is news to me, I never really looked into it. I just looked at being able to save a dollar or so every 3 gallons.
 
E85 has less energy in it per volume, so you make less power and get worse mileage vs. gasoline with all things being equal.

The pro (other than it usually being cheaper) is that it's high octane, so it's popular with turbo/supercharger guys because it's near race gas at pump gas prices. So it makes sense if you have a really high compression or forced induction motor to take advantage of the higher octane rating. They more than make up for the lower energy content in the fuel with compression/boost.

Propane is a similar story. Diesel is the opposite (i.e. more energy stored per gallon, part of the reason diesels get better mileage than gas motors).
 
I'd say figure out what your MPG's are going to be, then figure out what you think will be the largest mile trip that you would do. Then do a little research and figure out what a good average between gas stations may be. Then you'd have an idea of your number.

Since my crew cab diesel is going to do most of my longer trips, it will always have the factory 34 gallon tank in it regardless of what other upgrades I do. I want to know that i'll at least have a 340 mile range, even at it's worst MPG's.

My K5 will very rarely see any longer distance trips. It will usually get towed somewhere, then play around and explore for the day. At 8 miles to the gallon with a 20 gallon tank, I've got 160 mile range. I think that's plenty for a day of exploring, and then returning to my camp site.
 
I would use as big of a tank as you can use and not be stupid big. You don't have to always fill it and when you need it you have the fuel. I'm not sure if using E85 would be so good or not. I haven't looked at the carb conversions for E85. Having to run about 50% more fuel with E85 than gas means the carb will need serious rejetting. I realize that is what the kit you are talking about does but does it allow you to "flip a switch" and then run gasoline or are you stuck with E85? That would seriously limit your fuel refilling options.
I have a 31 gallon on my K5 and it varies if it's enough or not. For a day when I trailer it to the trails and just crawl around at the end of 8 hours the gauge has just dropped to the full mark. We all know how these GM gauges work, LOL, so that's about 7 gallons. But, when I go to the dunes at the coast I can burn half a tank in about two and a half hours! Big blocks are thirsty with the throttle down.
 
AV8TER said:
I would use as big of a tank as you can use and not be stupid big. You don't have to always fill it and when you need it you have the fuel. I'm not sure if using E85 would be so good or not. I haven't looked at the carb conversions for E85. Having to run about 50% more fuel with E85 than gas means the carb will need serious rejetting. I realize that is what the kit you are talking about does but does it allow you to "flip a switch" and then run gasoline or are you stuck with E85? That would seriously limit your fuel refilling options.
I have a 31 gallon on my K5 and it varies if it's enough or not. For a day when I trailer it to the trails and just crawl around at the end of 8 hours the gauge has just dropped to the full mark. We all know how these GM gauges work, LOL, so that's about 7 gallons. But, when I go to the dunes at the coast I can burn half a tank in about two and a half hours! Big blocks are thirsty with the throttle down.
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There is no switch that comes with the conversion. The metering blocks are different, pretty sure some of the holes and passages are bored out to a larger size and I know it comes with larger jets and alcohol rated gaskets and other stuff e85 friendly parts.

I was going to do a K5 tank but I would like to keep the fuel tank/cell above the frame rails (mounted on top of the bed) and I think a factory tank would look kind of ghetto mounted that way. Another reason is I can run a Walbro pickup in each corner and not have to worry about fuel starvation on inclines, I've read that the baffling in the stock tbi tanks isn't a great design and is made out of plastic and in some instances has broken off, from what I've read the aftermarket tanks that are baffled aren't so great either.

My main reason I'm looking into fuel cells is that my 20 gallon tank (I believe thats the capacity) is leaking pretty bad, It has leaked roughly a gallon of fuel in my driveway over the past 2-3 days. I can see where the fuel runs down the outside of the tank but won't know exactly where from until I pull the box off. I figure I might as well pony up and pay a few hundred more for something that will provide me with longevity, ease of serviceability, cool looks and something that won't get caught up on the terrain and possibly get punctured.

I'm leaning towards the 32 gallon Jaz fuel cell. Seems like the way to go. Less fill-ups and

Also, I don't see a tow rig or trailer in the near future so it will be getting driven to and from the trail.
 
handloader90 said:
There is no switch that comes with the conversion. The metering blocks are different, pretty sure some of the holes and passages are bored out to a larger size and I know it comes with larger jets and alcohol rated gaskets and other stuff e85 friendly parts.

I was going to do a K5 tank but I would like to keep the fuel tank/cell above the frame rails (mounted on top of the bed) and I think a factory tank would look kind of ghetto mounted that way. Another reason is I can run a Walbro pickup in each corner and not have to worry about fuel starvation on inclines, I've read that the baffling in the stock tbi tanks isn't a great design and is made out of plastic and in some instances has broken off, from what I've read the aftermarket tanks that are baffled aren't so great either.

My main reason I'm looking into fuel cells is that my 20 gallon tank (I believe thats the capacity) is leaking pretty bad, It has leaked roughly a gallon of fuel in my driveway over the past 2-3 days. I can see where the fuel runs down the outside of the tank but won't know exactly where from until I pull the box off. I figure I might as well pony up and pay a few hundred more for something that will provide me with longevity, ease of serviceability, cool looks and something that won't get caught up on the terrain and possibly get punctured.

I'm leaning towards the 32 gallon Jaz fuel cell. Seems like the way to go. Less fill-ups and

Also, I don't see a tow rig or trailer in the near future so it will be getting driven to and from the trail.
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If I pull my saddles I'm going to a 31 burb tank
 
Tweekls1 said:
Could always stay fuel injected and run a flex fuel sensor.
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I'm laying off on the FI for now due to me not knowing that much about it + the computer tuning has kinda pushed me away from it.

I know carburetors well. It may be "old tech" but I can tune one up real good. The Holley Truck Avenger does pretty well offroad.

 
handloader90 said:
I'm laying off on the FI for now due to me not knowing that much about it + the computer tuning has kinda pushed me away from it.

I know carburetors well. It may be "old tech" but I can tune one up real good. The Holley Truck Avenger does pretty well offroad.

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There a guy in CoSp that rocks at computer tuning
@az_762_nato
 
skunked said:
31 burb? I thought those were all 40+ gallon
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40 was an option, I would say a majority were 32gal.

I had a 26gal tank in my old K5 and never had a problem. It was a fuel guzzling 350 carb'd motor.

When I first got the crew cab I only had one 20gal saddle tank. Didn't have any trouble until we did a full 8hr day of snow bashing and I ran out of fuel about 5 miles from the gas station. That was with the 350TBI.

So I would say 20gal would be the minimum and you'd want to carry a 5gal spare can to be safe. I was never uncomfortable with the 26gal tank. 32gal gives you no worries and room to siphon gas for someone else when they run out. 40gal, like I have now, makes you a certified fuel tanker. :haha:

As far as the octane, @bent72 talked me into trying 91 on the drive back from Moab last year. The fuel mileage did improve and I would say it was just enough improvement to offset the cost difference plus save just a little money. I think the truck ran a little better. This was with a TBI350.
 
I like 31 gallon tanks. Both my k5s had/have them. Even at 10 mpg you got 310 miles of range. I can do a lot of wheeling without panicking about fuel. I'm usually an hour away from any of our normal mountain spots. So I top off the last chance I can and then I usually don't have to fill up until the ride home.

And as far as e85 goes it's a waste unless you dedicate it to run on that only. That's not just bigger jets and metering blocks. Running higher compression is the best way to take advantage of the octane rating. The downside is even optimized you will use 1.5 times more fuel than with regular gasoline. A former tech switched to e85 over race fuel on his circle track car. He would use most of his 20 gallon fuel cell in a 40 lap main with e85. In the same setup with race fuel he would use under half the tank. The weight change due to loss of fuel load messed with his setup in the last laps of the race.

By the time you get the stuff to run a LS engine on a carb you could have just ran injection. Get a dedicated harness and keep it stock otherwise. You don't have to go nuts tuning it right out of the box. You can go nuts later after you get used to it.
 
ZooMad75 said:
I like 31 gallon tanks. Both my k5s had/have them. Even at 10 mpg you got 310 miles of range. I can do a lot of wheeling without panicking about fuel. I'm usually an hour away from any of our normal mountain spots. So I top off the last chance I can and then I usually don't have to fill up until the ride home.

And as far as e85 goes it's a waste unless you dedicate it to run on that only. That's not just bigger jets and metering blocks. Running higher compression is the best way to take advantage of the octane rating. The downside is even optimized you will use 1.5 times more fuel than with regular gasoline. A former tech switched to e85 over race fuel on his circle track car. He would use most of his 20 gallon fuel cell in a 40 lap main with e85. In the same setup with race fuel he would use under half the tank. The weight change due to loss of fuel load messed with his setup in the last laps of the race.

By the time you get the stuff to run a LS engine on a carb you could have just ran injection. Get a dedicated harness and keep it stock otherwise. You don't have to go nuts tuning it right out of the box. You can go nuts later after you get used to it.
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I'm gonna get the 32 gallon Jaz fuel cell and keep x2 5 gallon Jerry cans with me just in case.

E85 is definitely out of the picture now, thanks to everyone for schooling me up. Glad I didn't buy that kit lol.

I have everything to run a carburetor or LPG minus the ignition box. I'm planning on being carbureted for a little while. Down the road fuel injection is definitely a possibility.
 
handloader90 said:
I'm gonna get the 32 gallon Jaz fuel cell and keep x2 5 gallon Jerry cans with me just in case.

E85 is definitely out of the picture now, thanks to everyone for schooling me up. Glad I didn't buy that kit lol.

I have everything to run a carburetor or LPG minus the ignition box. I'm planning on being carbureted for a little while. Down the road fuel injection is definitely a possibility.
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If you didn't get any of the injection parts with the engine it's probably more cost effective to go the way you are. I know this I love mine. Won't go back to a carb.
 
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