Saturday, May 27, 2006
Found a location for the surge tank
Mounting the surge tank was a bit of a puzzle. The Dart doesn't offer too many good places under the chassis for attaching a huge spin-on filter. Likewise, the filter was meant for gas pump and industrial applications, and is supposed to be supported by 1" pipe. There aren't any holes on it for attaching a mounting bracket. Worse, there aren't any very good spots to drill these holes. I should have picked out one with mounting holes in it - Tractor Supply does have those versions, too.
So, I went to the hardware store, filter assembly in hand, and just started looking for objects that might hold it down. I found some U-bolts that went over the adapters I used to scale down the inlets and outlets to more automotive-appropriate sizes. Opted for stainless steel since I was originally expecting to mount the filter where spray from the tires would hit it.
Then I took the hacksaw, cut-off wheels, and drill to some of my stash of aluminum angle extrusions and made some crude brackets. I first tried to stick the filter behind the gas tank, attached to rail-like sections of the subframe. But I didn't like that location at all - it was very far to the rear of the car, would be vulerable in a crash, and you could see the filter hanging down. So I tried again to see if I could find something in the raised section of the floor pan above the rear axle that wouldn't have the suspension intrude on it.
Now that I had a set of brackets in hand, I found that I could indeed stick the surge tank right next to the bolt that attaches the driver's side rear seatbelt. It's right next to the bracket that holds up the brake line that leads to the rear axle. It's way in front of the axle tubes, and should be far enough to the left that it should clear the differential. My only worry is that the brake line might be able to rub on the filter canister - you can see it in the foreground in the picture here. But it doesn't touch with the suspension at full droop, and the line should only move up and away from the canister as the suspension compresses.
Now, I just need to connect fuel lines to it...
Labels: Dodge Dart
