We originally installed the Radium fuel cell in Project SC300 back in 2015! That’s like… a decade, man. By the book, you are supposed to replace the foam in the fuel cell every three years. Let’s just say that we were a touch overdue. Street gasoline has a bunch of stuff in it that isn’t necessarily good for the fuel cell foam, and, generally speaking, gasoline is pretty aggressive stuff. So that foam tends to break down over time, turn into mush, and gunk up your filters and other expensive fuel bits. No one likes that.
So that means it had to come out.
The foam. Not the fuel cell. We’ll get to that.
Also, when this fuel filter was originally placed, no one really thought about serviceability, and it’s in a miserable location for that. So I figured I would relocate that as well, while I was at it.
The first step in getting the fuel cell foam out of the cell is opening the cell.
KIDDING.
The first step is to pump out as much fuel as possible. I had installed dry break fittings on both the supply and return lines to the fuel cell, and I had made a little drain line to go with it. I simply connected my drain to the dry break, leaving the fuel cell, and put that hose into a fuel jug, and turned on the fuel pumps with the Racepak Smartwire. Easy enough.
But, as you can see, there is still a meaningful quantity of fuel left in the bottom of the cell.
- GASOLINE IS DANGEROUS. FUEL FUMES ARE DANGEROUS.
Not only is performing this operation a massive fire hazard, but it’s also a health hazard. You can die from exposure to gasoline vapors in enclosed spaces. Exercise EXTREME caution when working near open gasoline, especially with regard to flame or spark. Even things you might not normally think about, like the fact that your garage has the hot water heater in it, and the hot water heater is gas, and there’s an open flame in there that turns on and off. THINK before you act on this one, as the threat of fire, or even explosion, is real. - Use an adequate gas mask and filter that is rated for vapors and seals well over your nose and mouth. You can get them at hardware stores easily enough, or at the everything store, Amazon. You don’t need to go full milsim bioweapon here. A 3M P100 respirator cartridge is rated for organic vapors and is not expensive. Please note that the cartridge comes in a sealed bag and has a limited shelf life once opened, so get more sets than you think you need and change them often.
It goes without saying that if you feel dizzy, nauseous, lightheaded, or otherwise not-quite-right at any time when working on or around the fuel cell, STOP, and leave the area.
What’s the best way to soak up all that fuel at the bottom of the cell? Honestly, there isn’t any good way. I used many, many, many shop rags to soak up the fuel, and then left those rags outside in a bucket in the sun so that the fuel would evaporate. I sealed the dry rags in a garbage bag and will wash them in my workshop washing machine at some point, but you might just want to discard them. You can buy huge bags of cloth rags on Amazon for dirt cheap.
Radium has redesigned their FCST quite a few times since this original one. I could have used this opportunity to upgrade, but that would’ve required a fair bit of rewiring, and I wasn’t prepared to do that. So, instead, I decided to service the one that I had.
