Catch tank suggestions

[Peter Carmichael]

Now I know Chelspeed has a selection of catch tanks in the fridge in his garage, just waiting to be emptied of their transport fluid. What I am after is something a little larger and a leeeeetle more sophisticated.

 

I need a catch tank that:

 

1. Has a capacity of at least 1 litre.

2. Is sealed apart from any fittings connected to pipes, so that I don't get condensed oil vapour all over the scuttle. i.e. I will plumb a vent pipe running down to exit near the ground.

 

I can't be the only one.

[Graeme Smith]

I (and many other others) use a Caterham windscreen washer bottle. Cut a hole in the cap for the engine breather pipe, and drill a small hole in the side for the vent pipe.

[Chelspeed]

A&H Fabrications do custom made ally catchtanks in many shapes and sizes, all with inlet pipes, outlet pipes, sight glasses and drain plugs. Some are on page 189 of Twats catalogue.

 

He will also make them to a drawing, with different mounting brackets, anodised pink or anything you like. Talk to Alex on 01432 354704.

[oilyhands]

I use the catch tank from Rally Design (www.raldes.co.uk), it has the right sort of capacity, it has a visual level gauge is sealed and is made of aluminium. It was also the most economical one.

 

Oily

[V7 SLR]

Make one from an alloy fuel bottle, normally used carry meths and the like for camping stoves. The screw-lid's plastic so you'll have no problem drilling and sealing a couple of thin pipes.

 

 

[AMMO]

Pete and Johnny's Peach and Banana Smoothie from Tesco.

1 litre plastic translucent bottle with wasted neck. Used zip ties to hold to diagonal chassis member by battery. Costs nothing, weighs almost nothing. Lighter than your aluminium with sight glass thing.

 

On my race bike I used to use baby feeding bottles. Always a source of mirth at scrutineering and as they are graduated you can see at a glance how much lubricant has come out. Usually got ones with little teddy bears but managed to find some with little aeroplanes once. I liked the aeronautical feel.

 

AMMO

[Chelspeed]

Watch the plastic bottles. We used a Volvic water bottle once when we were caught short at scrutineering with our historic mini..... no, no, you know what I mean. It was fine and dandy at scrutineering, 1 litre, translucent etc etc.

 

We went out on the event, lost a bit of oil as usual and when we got back we found it had totally disintegrated. Bottles designed for cold water don't like hot oil. Any oil we'd vented was spread across the stage.

[V7 SLR]

AMMO, marvellous. smile.gif

[murph7355]

I've got an old small handheld fire extinguisher that's been polished up for mine. Looks good, is nice and solid and has decent capacity. I use an "over centre catch jubilee clip type thing" to hold it in place. If you know what I mean.

 

It's very similar looks wise to the things Nig' is talking about I think. If you go to Millets or similar you can get these in a variety of anodised colours and they're not that pricey I believe. Worth a look.

[tony pashley]

I've seen a lot of hillclimbers use the'Sigg' bottle type that V7 describes. They're light and come in (amongst others) red and blue and look very 'aeroquip'.

[AMMO]

Chelspeed

 

How can you compare a Volvic bottle with a Pete and Johnny's Peach and Banana Smoothie bottle? There is no comparison. I've had my bottle in for over six months now with no problems.

 

One of our summer pastimes at work during lunch break is getting plastic bottles, drilling a 6mm hole in the cap, filling them a third up with water and inflating them to 8 bar, cap side down and letting them go. The water acts as a propellant pressurised by the air above. They can go quite far. We only do it in summer because you do get a bit wet.

 

One day we had no more bottles (all went over the wall) and someone (not me) had the bright idea to try a Volvic (French rubbish) bottle. Only got to about 4 bar before it exploded into hundreds of bits soaking and cutting the operator. How we laughed at the soaking bleeding mess that was our companion. Not cut too badly luckily.

 

What more proof do you want that you should never use a Volvic bottle.

 

We have stopped doing this now after "the accident" and are working on an "Orange Gun" instead.

 

On a serious note. Do you all vent your catch tanks to atmosphere? On bikes for competition use you are no longer allowed to do this. Has to go into the airbox. I was thinking of doing this as I do a lot of miles and breathing the fumes can't be good for you in the long run. The Weber fuel injection kit I'm putting on the Zetec I'm building vents into the induction system. I know it's supposed to be bad for the octane rating of the fuel etc. etc. But if its done on Superbikes developing over 170 bhp running up to 15.000 rpm with approaching 15:1 C.R. can it really be that bad? I've never done back to back tests on the dyno to see if it makes any difference. What do all think?

 

 

AMMO

[AMMO]

Double posting

 

Edited by - AMMO on 29 Aug 2001 21:38:26