To cool the fuel, or not to cool the fuel......

[xxobuick]

Ok, so I know this has been a long time debated subject.  It seems the consensus now is to not cool the fuel or heat the fuel, just keep it at ambient temperature and shield it away from any heat sources.  We ran a cool can last year packed with ice.  Don't know if this helped or hindered.  I  know there is talk how Honda in one of their race cars heated the fuel to 180 degrees, and that helped.


Any ideas on if it is better or worse?  This is on a fuel injected NA motor, 35 GPH pump.

A former racer said to get the incoming engine air as cold as possible, and keep the fuel at ambient, is this the common knowledge of the best way to go about the cooling issue?

[Supersnyder]

We ran much faster after icing our fuel all night.

[tauruck]

As far back as 1995 I used a cool can on both V8 powered race cars and 2 stroke karts.
We made our own cans by rolling  Aluminum tubing over a mandrel using the lathe at slow speed.

Did it work?. We thought so. My guys won everything.
The experts say it creates a denser fuel charge but I'm no expert.

[Harold Bettes]

Hello Mr. Buick and others interested in this subject,

You might want to check with your fuel supplier, but also be aware of the IBP (initial boling point) of the fuel.
There are many things you can learn from the fuel guy if they have the time to share the data.

Typical racing gasoline starts to flash the lights (light hydrocarbon ends) at somewhere around 90 to 105F or so (the IBP varies with fuel blends). Those lights happen to be valuable relative to making power and they have some very nice characteristics chemically.

Think of it as cooking some nice sauce in a pan - the longer you cook it and increase the temperature, eventually you only end up with thick junk. All the good stuff was cooked away. Perhaps a poor analogy, but somewhat descriptive of the process of how fuel is influenced by heat. It is easier to burn the lighter ends than the tar that is left after too much heat has cooked off the good stuff.

The bum thing to remember is even though racing fuel is referenced by the same name, there is lots of things that separate one from another technically.

Having said all that drivel, there is adequate data to indicate cooling the fuel when the ambient temp (and underhood temps) get high is a good thing. Again, the fuel supplier can help you with a number to seek with your "cool can" or not.

Regards to All that like this kind of stuff,
HB2

[maguromic]

Like Mike mentioned they aren't that hard to make, you just need to take your time and roll the tube to the point you want and have the ends pointing in the direction you want.  I built this with parts I had lying around and used an old fuel door top for putting the ice in through.  even though it look small it has almost 10 feet of tubing inside it. Roger Penske used to cool his fuel in the late 60's Trans_Am racing till they outlawed it.  Just remember if you run in a gas class you will need to have the cool can sealed also. Tony

[John Burk]

Cooling the fuel 5.7 deg has the same benefit as cooling the incoming air 1 deg .

[xxobuick]

Ok, contacted the local sunoco fuel guy here.  He says that he does not recommend cooling the fuel, but rather leaving it at ambient, with no external heating, and insulate as well as you can. 

I have searched online here, and found some guys say cooling the fuel is counter-productive. 

We will have a cool can, and will test on the engine dyno to see what works better in our application I guess.

[John Burk]

Was it Nascar where Penske cooled the fuel to fit more pounds in the legal race car tank .

[BobDcuda]

Tony/Maguromic - have the cool can sealed for gas glass?  Are you sure about that? 

[maguromic]

Was it Nascar where Penske cooled the fuel to fit more pounds in the legal race car tank .

It was in the 1969 SCCA Trans-AM series, he also used a rig that looked like oil rig to feed the fuel faster which also held the dry ice and condensed 23 gallons into 22 gallons and  had a fuel neck that I think held an additional few gallons.  The SCCA banned the rig for safety reasons and mandated everyone use the 11 gallon dump cans and he still won the championship that year.  This picture is of the reconstruction of the tower.

Tony/Maguromic - have the cool can sealed for gas glass?  Are you sure about that? 

This is what I was told, "too many crafty racers that would try and  introduce a power adder".  Maybe Dan can chime in on this.  Tony

[BobDcuda]

It would seem to me that the cool can simply contains a fuel line passing through it.  Tech would only have to lift the lid to confirm that there's a closed fuel line and ice - or icy water - inside, no fuel or fuel booster.

Dan?

[Milwaukee Midget]

20+ years ago, I know that David Vizard recommended using one in his book, "Tuning the A Series Engine".

But consider the application - a side-draft, 5 port, OHV inline four with the exhaust directly below the intake - in an engine that is typically carbureted and produces best power when the fuel isn't too finally atomized. 

That doesn't sound like your engine.