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It was a relatively easy hookup, with the XR unit placed in the trunk area on a panel Ryan built near the Odyssey PC80 battery. Two kill switches were added with one mounted on the dash and the other out the driver's side window area, so a corner worker could disable the power if the driver was incapacitated.
TWIN FIRE SYSTEMS INSTALLED
This car is being built with serious safety in mind, to match the serious performance it will be capable of. To take it to the next level we built this car with two separate fire systems. And each system has two cables - for multiple locations.
One Aqueous Foam (AFF) fire suppression system is plumbed for the engine bay, where most of the fire situations break out on a race car. If there is evidence of smoke from underhood and the driver has the right mindset and training he can pull that release handle (only) and snuff out the fire without filling the passenger compartment with foam.
If something is on fire in the cabin the driver can grab that handle - or both - as he is bailing out. We have dual pulls for each bottle, too... with a pair for each system on the center of the dash (driver) and a pair outside the driver's window (corner worker, or driver after he bails out!)
These were cabled with the included cables that came with each fire system from Lifeline. The secondary cables were purchased from a local bike shop and added to each pull handle on the bottles. Each pull will be marked clearly and boldly, but if in doubt -
pull 'em both! I will cover these again when they are plumbed to show the nozzle detail in my next post.
FUEL CELL ARRIVES & INSTALLED, FUEL SYSTEM BUILT
One more safety aspect is finally wrapped up, and boy this one was a major task! You saw the creation of the fuel cell enclosure and then the firewall structure around that, but when we sent the drawing off to be quoted by "the companies everyone uses" we had a heart attack with their quotes.
A few years ago we found Harmon Fuel Cells. They had some BMW cells that we thought we could use in our standard swap cars, but this one was going to be custom. So we sent them the drawings and enclosure to quote. Their ballistic kevlar FIA approved fuel cell with an integral surge tank and twin Walbro 450 pumps was HALF the cost of the "name brand" fuel cell. This was an eye opener!
The reasons we got for the high quote were "time and materials" to make the custom cell, but Harmon seemed to use the same materials and got it done for less, with all of the right FIA markings. I'm now a fan of this brand, especially for custom cells. The twin pump sump looks good and should keep this engine fed with fuel down to the last drop.
The fuel cell is now mounted in the car's back seat, the lower section of the firewall enclosure is mounted, and Ryan is plumbing the fuel system from the cell to the engine bay.
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