RCR GT40 Fuel Pickups
The RCR GT40 had a few options for fuel tanks and pickups, so I just decided to make my own. These are cut off of a 2" aluminum round stock on the cold saw. Then I went to my pals with a lathe and added a step and clean the surfaces up to make them flat. After that mess I TIG welded the fittings and the pickup tubes to them. I'm not great at the TIG but these came out more then acceptable using my Miller Dynasty 200DX welder. One thing that I did check was porosity in the weld and did find one with a small pin hole leak. I found this by using some dumping some dyechem into the fitting with the end capped off. Still have a long way to go with the welding it seems...
Fuel Pickup Raw Parts
The material was cut on my small cold saw with enough thickness to have a step in the cover plate to allow a longer amount of the pickup tube to be captive. This step was cut on a buddies lathe. The aluminum tubing was picked up from Online Metals and it's fairly thick walled to be able to survive any road shock or vibrations at the weld point. Then a couple of weldable AN fittings top off the parts.
More Parts
Another shot of the parts table
Setting up the parts
A drill bit was found that was snug in the fitting an that was the matching hole drilled in the cover plate. This would allow "Spazzy the TIG Welder" to have a better chance of not moving the part and having the opennings align in the fitting and the plate.
Mock up with Fuel Tube
This is what it looks like with the fuel pick up tube inserted.
Pretty Maids all in a row
After TIG welding. On thing I did was pre-heat the plate with a propane torch on advice from a pro-welder since the fitting and tubing would melt a lot sooner then the thick and heavy aluminum plate.
Tube Welding
This is the backside of the pickup.I gave it a wipe with some 3M Scotch-Brite and it actually looked reasonable. In one I did find what looked like a pin-hole so I taped up the end of the fitting and floated some Dychem
Fuel Breathers
These were picked up from a marine supply store. They are stainless breathers that will be used likely with a fuel discriminator. They are Sea Dog Brand and a nice part that was not too expensive.
Fuel Tank
This is where the fuel pickup will be fitted. Their are 3 spaces, 1 for Fuel Pickup, 1 for Fuel Return and 1 for a Fuel Sender.
