Coke Bottle Fuel Tank

[Dean Pappas]

Right-o Gray.
PET is not good for either methanol or nitro. Nitro will even swell Plexiglass.
A word about BEER, though. Why not?
I used to design electro-chemical corrosion rate monitoring equipment. The technical marketting guys had a lab that would do experiments for customers, to prove the viability of using E-C methods for their needs. When your standard product cost the same as a Chevy Caprice, you do things like that for customers: kinda like a test drive. Yes, we talked to a beer can mannufacturer. Turns out that all drink cans have one of three coatings: 1) cheap, 2) good, and 3) better. Almost all beer that comes in aluminum cans is internally coated with the cheap stuff. All soda cans are coated with the best stuff. Back then, Keystone beer advertised that their aluminum cans didn't taint the beer, and it was coating #2. We proved it in the lab. Coke corroded the aluminum, through both coatings #1 and #2, in no time. It does a pretty good job on the fancy coating, too.
 
If you wanted to use an aluminum can for a tank, you'd have to first take the coating out, with some solvent. That sure would be light, though!
later,
    Dean 
 

Dean Pappas 
Sr. Design Engineer 
Kodeos Communications 
111 Corporate Blvd. 
South Plainfield, N.J. 07080 
(908) 222-7817 phone 
(908) 222-2392 fax 
d.pappas at kodeos.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-request at nsrca.org [mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]On Behalf Of Gray E Fowler
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 9:25 AM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: Re: Coke Bottle Fuel Tank



Wayne-o 

Are you crazy-mon? First, the bottles are Polyethyl tera phthalate....and are NOT chemical resistant.  Let me provide and example that I know  you can understand....BEER. 

Whether you realize it or not, beer has alcohol in it. Alcohol is deemed in some parts of my industry as a "solvent". Other view it as "essential", but thats another story. Until very recently, did you ever notice that beer NEVER came in plastic bottles? Even now only beer without any real taste (its raining beer!) comes in plastic, so they can sell the stuff up north where the football fans like to throw things at the Dallas Cowboys.  Shrinkage comes from one of two things, first you swam in the cold water way too long, or second you leached out what is reffered to as a "plasticizer". A plasticizer is an additive that allows the grocery store idiot to drop that bottle of coke without explosion. It also is the stuff that you just ran thru your engine. When it croaks, or when your glow plug croaks you will now have an obvious reason. 
Beer uses ethyl alcohol, we use Methyl, which is much more aggressive as a solvent. Our real fuel tanks are made from polypropylene, which is VERY chemical resistant in is un-plasticized form. As a matter of fact, if you buy Methyl alcohol, it comes in polypropylene drum, because it will corrode steel. As a matter of fact most fuel comes in polypropylene containers.....ones with steel cans have an epoxy coating in them. 

And now to debunk another myth........the above plastics are "thermoplastic" epoxy is "thermoset". Epoxy  (thermosets) does not get brittle with age, unless you the user add some crap to it.  5 minute stuff WILL as it is accidently plasticized by all the stuff used to jack up the reaction. 

And one last thing.......... Beer + Plastic = bad taste, and as my Chemistry 101 professor so diligently demonstrated in mathimatical terms, you should never drink light beer.....Instead, drink a real beer, followed by 10.52 ounces of water, then a real beer and another 10.52 ounces of water. Your caloric intake will be the same as 4 light beers, but at least you got to drink 2 real beers. 



Gray Fowler
Principal Chemical Engineer
Composites Engineering 



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