Moon Tanks and Alcohol

I am putting together a Nostalgic Front Engine Dragster and will be running Alcohol in it. I would like to run a old style Moon Tank and with aluminum and alcohol mixes it corrodes quickly. I am told that you can use annodized Aluminum or if there is a sealant I can put in the tank to prevent the corrosion. I know the other option is to drain it and put either WD-40 or Marvel mystery oil in it. I am looking for any and all options at this time.

 

a friend ran a Moon with his FED on Alcohol. After each race we would drain the tank, fill it with Gasoline and fire the motor. Run it for a few minutes to get all the alcohol out of the injector and it was good to go. Next race, we would fire it on gas, then drain and switch to Alcohol - repeat.

 

I have been running alc in my dragster since 1995 in an un-anodized, aluminum tank. Inside the tank still looks good. We drain ours before we load it into the trailer for the trip back home.

 

This is what the kart guys do, helped a time or two on my pals rocket.

 

Yep. I don't know where the (corrodes) myth came from. Drain it and leave it dry between uses will even prevent accumulation of water/condensation, a more likely explaination for any corrossion anyhow.

In the 'brown shoe days' our canteens were aluminum. We were told to keep them full, or if empty, leave the cap off so they would dry out to deter that white powder(corrosion).

 

if you use a good upperlube in your alkiy it wont corrode either.........

 

we have an aluminium tank in our roadster, we run alky with upper cylinder lube, has never corroded, although , we were told when we had the tank made that if we were going to have methanol in it, to either empty it after use, or fill it right up.

 

Wow thanks for all the good information and ideas. As they say a ounce of prevention saves a pound of cure or in racing a ounce of prevention saves a lot of aggravation which saves you $$$$.
Thanks Guys

 

Myth??? Shit - I left alcohol in my aluminum fuel lines for a couple days once - NEVER AGAIN - you could see the corrosion in that short of a time!

Anodizing wouldn't do crap - what you would need to do is to have it HARD ANODIZED - much better for methanol.

I did the gasoline run thing for a while - the issue there is the return lines - High Speed Leanout for instance never gets cleaned out at a mere idle.

Now I drain the tank and blow out all the lines and then spray some WD40 or similar - have had much better results with this method.


This whole topic seems to have two distinct schools of thought - many will swear there are no issues - but talk to them after a year of their plan and AFTER taking a 500 dollar fuel pump apart - everyone I've seen has been pretty nasty. Sometimes more is more!!!