TOPIC: '61 PowerCat dual fuel tanks

Now that the MFG is done, and Tim is on his way to finishing the motors for the 'Cat, I'm starting to work on getting the 'Cat ready.

Going to order 2 gas tanks, 19 Gal. each. One for each motor. I want to do Through Deck gas fillers. Do i need 2, or can i get away with one and "T" it to both tanks?

Whats the general rule for placing the fuel vents? Don't really want them through the sides of the fins.

I'll post some pics of my placement ideas once i get home.

Any input would be great!

Hmmm, if you go with the single filler, you'll have to amke sure your filler tubes are the same length so both tanks fill the same, or as close as possible anyway. Not real familair with a single fill dual tank system, just engineering in my head. The other thing is if you fill with the boat being on any kind of a slant to one side or the other, you run the risk of one tank filling more then the other I would think. I guess it would depend on how you set up the "WYE", to let one tank spill over to the other tank if one gets filled quicker than the other. Jsut a few thoughts.

Bob

dlatshaw,

Do you plan to have one tank on either side of the boat towards the stern? I believe a Powercat has a pretty wide beam and each tank plus fuel will probably weigh close to 175 pounds. You will probably need a system to keep the tanks somewhat equally full to prevent lean.
A a fuel line running from the bottom of one tank to the other tank with a shut off valve in the middle would let you manage that, but it does invite the "oh no,I think I'm out of fuel" scenario if you forget and leave the valve open.
Installing the tanks forward might get cramped and at that point it might be easier to go with one big tank on the centerline.
As far as one filler I don't think that will work. It's virtually impossible to split the incoming fuel equally and that could lead to one tank filling the inlet line until it kicks off the auto stop on the nozzle. You might want to look at some larger boats fuel systems and see how they are set up.
If you sized the equalizer tube large enough you could use a single fill, but that introduces other problems.
You just don't want leaking fuel in a boat and the less tanks, fittings, and lines you have the less likely you have leaks.
The Coast Guard has a lot of good info on fuel systems. I think it is easily found online.
I'm not saying twin tanks and a single fill won't work, but it will need some careful design to make it work properly.

Don

The vents were often put inside the splashwell so any liquid will still drain out of the boat. The other issue with the single fill
would be adding oil to the gas if you don't pre-mix your gas. Are you sure enough oil got in one tank or the other ?

Danny Leger

Thanks everyone for the replies. I had a nice long reply ready and somehow lost it.

So the gist is I'll stick with 2 fillers if i go with 2 tanks. To much headache it seems.

Can't do one tank on the center further up the boat, it would need to be in one of the sponsoons. Then it'd be off balance.

Probably need to move it/them forward some though. I'm putting (2) Merc 1000's on the back.

Maybe fit 2 of those v-bottom tanks into the sponsoons and under the floor i'm planning on installing. The floor will be removeable.

Danny, what do other PC owners do? I'll post this on the mailing list maybe. I looked around your web site and from some of the pics looks like there are usually 2 different tanks under the splashwell.

Thanks again!