FUEL TANK / PLUMBING: LAND SPEED / TOP SPEED SETUP
Since the Land Speed/Top Speed setup uses the cell in the trunk as a water tank, the fuel tank has to be located elsewhere. In June 2013, the crew upgraded the Land Speed/Top Speed mode from naturally aspirated to supercharged. Since then, all references to this mode are for the supercharged setup with the The Elephant engine.
For this application, Dave built a custom tank to fit in the passenger-side front fender. The 2013-2015 Elephant ran on C85 fuel. The Elephant was alive again in 2017, and was modified to run on methanol. When they switched to methanol, which takes more fuel to go the same distance, they increased the tank to 8.5 gallons. Mark and Cliff make a list of the fittings they needed to plumb the fuel tank. Mark also had to custom make a few cork gaskets for the fuel tank. When the tank is installed, it actually takes up a little space in front of the wheel, and can be seen peeking out from behind the front fender, but doesn’t impede turning radius. The fuel system is equipped with a cable-operated safety shutoff valve mounted to the chassis structure next to the engine. The shutoff pull knob is located on the side of the automatic shifter. Tim clocks the shutoff valve to the perfect position, so the actuator cable can smoothly articulate. The tank is a tight fit in its location.
The Elephant 2 uses an Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator. It’s an Extreme-Flow EFI regulator with -12 AN fittings for use with belt-driven fuel pumps, and can handle up to 32 gallons of fuel per minute.
The system uses a Ron’s twin-gear fuel pump, driven by a belt located at the back of the supercharger drive system. Until the engine fires and starts turning the pump fast enough for full pressure, they need to use an Aeromotive A1000 pump to prime/start the engine. The Aeromotive A1000 and filter mount to the fuel tank and frame to make the system as modular as possible. The large Aeromotive fuel filter is in line between the Ron’s pump and the fuel tank, and a smaller filter is inline with the A1000 pump. The whole system is quite an elaborate and compact design, which works flawlessly to feed the 2,000-horsepower 565 Elephant 2.
