Thread: Charcoal Fuel Vent Canister!

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Charcoal Fuel Vent Canister!

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Does anyone know of a very small charcoal canister that I could fit to a 1/4" gas tank vent line hose to keep the smell out of the garage? Thanks for your suggestions!

Why not make one?...........take some charcoal and break it into small pieces and wrap it in a piece of either cheesecloth or a piece of pantyhose. Getting it to fit into the hose has to be on you.just my .02

You can make one easily. Go to store that sells tropical fish, buy a box of activated charcoal, then using a length of tubing, install some hose barbs. BUT, before yoy wast your time and a few bucks, it wont work. I tried it using a Brita water filter cartridge!!

What I ended up doing is adding a stand off about 4-6 inches, installed in the vent hole of the gas tank, then taking a fairly long roll of gas line hose, making a couple of complete circles, then routing outside the car. It's about 90% effective. Any gas that condenses will be sucked back into the gas tank. You also need to use a non-vented gas cap. This was all documented in a thread about 2 years ago here - Gasoline odor

Originally Posted by IC2

You can make one easily. Go to store that sells tropical fish, buy a box of activated charcoal, then using a length of tubing, install some hose barbs. BUT, before yoy wast your time and a few bucks, it wont work. I tried it using a Brita water filter cartridge!!

What I ended up doing is adding a stand off about 4-6 inches, installed in the vent hole of the gas tank, then taking a fairly long roll of gas line hose, making a couple of complete circles, then routing outside the car. It's about 90% effective. Any gas that condenses will be sucked back into the gas tank. You also need to use a non-vented gas cap. This was all documented in a thread about 2 years ago here - Gasoline odor

OK! This was this mornings project. Still smelled gas, off came the canister.
I came off the curley-q with 3 loops as high as and behind the tank.
Then I dropped through the floor and attached a fuel filter with 1/4"
fittings then from the filter a 3' line terminating in the frame rail.
This afternoon it was 84 degrees---No smell!

Dave, I did about the same thing you did and it worked. 2days-no gas smell!
Thanks!
Joe

Dang, I love it when something works. Happy to hear that it worked for you too. I just brought my '31 into my basement shop yesterday for its winter rest. It still has a little gas in the tank - and this morning, not a bit of odor.

(Make sure you tell the folks at the other site as well)

It's cool to see this thread have a happy ending but I'd like to extend the conversation for a minute if you guys don't mind....

I've mentioned a couple of times that I'm prepping my 66 Ford F100 daily driver for an engine swap. Yes, I still need to start a thread and will get to that soon!
I'm going to swap in a 5.0EFI/AOD from a '92 Mustang GT. I got the complete wiring harness, computer & everything from the donor car with 62K original miles. I have most of the stuff figured out but here's a question about the carbon canister. I'm using the EGR system without the smog pump and have read that I should probably use the EVAP system, too.
There are 2 hose fittings on my Ford carbon canister - 1 goes to the intake & has a solenoid in the line. The other goes to the fuel tank. I'm using the in-cab tank with the high pressure fuel pump set up mounted to the frame below the cab like the late 80's/90's F150's.
I can create a vent tube on an unused section of the factory sending unit or perhaps drill a hole in the top of the tank to attach the hose to. I assume the tank is currently vented thru the gas cap but not sure. If I make a vent tube to the canister, do I need to have a sealed cap on the filler tube?

Thoughts?

Thanks!!!

Probably need the non vented cap.

BUT --- let's start another 'fight' and I'll be trying to spend more of your money.

GET THAT TANK OUT OF THE CAB!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by IC2

Probably need the non vented cap.

BUT --- let's start another 'fight' and I'll be trying to spend more of your money.

GET THAT TANK OUT OF THE CAB!!!!!!!!!!

LOL!! Ah, there's the rub! For now, I have no issues with the tank in the cab. I have reviewed countless methods of moving under the rear of the bed using a variety of different tanks, however, I have yet to see a satisfactory filler location for such a move. I refuse to have to open my tailgate and shift anything I might be hauling to access the filler cap. I also refuse the graft a door into the side of the rear quarter cause I just don't like the looks of it on a '66. A couple of guys have managed to use the late 60's Mustang tank(the most popular tank for this swap) mounted between the rear rails and routed the filler tube behind a flip down license plate. That method would be most acceptable to me but I haven't heard any good reports about whether the neck has enough angle to fill properly or whether gas will slosh out the back on acceleration.
As long as the rubber hose to the filler tube is in good shape, there is no gas smell in the cab. The cases where people have suffered or died because of the in-cab tank are minimal given the 50+ years they were done like this. So, for now, it's gotta stay there. I don't have time to be that much more innovative at the moment....

Originally Posted by randyr

It's cool to see this thread have a happy ending but I'd like to extend the conversation for a minute if you guys don't mind....

I've mentioned a couple of times that I'm prepping my 66 Ford F100 daily driver for an engine swap. Yes, I still need to start a thread and will get to that soon!
I'm going to swap in a 5.0EFI/AOD from a '92 Mustang GT. I got the complete wiring harness, computer & everything from the donor car with 62K original miles. I have most of the stuff figured out but here's a question about the carbon canister. I'm using the EGR system without the smog pump and have read that I should probably use the EVAP system, too.
There are 2 hose fittings on my Ford carbon canister - 1 goes to the intake & has a solenoid in the line. The other goes to the fuel tank. I'm using the in-cab tank with the high pressure fuel pump set up mounted to the frame below the cab like the late 80's/90's F150's.
I can create a vent tube on an unused section of the factory sending unit or perhaps drill a hole in the top of the tank to attach the hose to. I assume the tank is currently vented thru the gas cap but not sure. If I make a vent tube to the canister, do I need to have a sealed cap on the filler tube?

Thoughts?

Thanks!!!

You say there are two hoses coming off the Ford carbon canister, the one to the fuel tank is your vent.
The one to the intake with the purge solenoid sucks the fumes from the canister.
The purge part of this is why Dave and I couldn't get our homemade canisters to work.
Since you have the vent from the canister to the tank, you would then need a sealed cap.

Ok, so I've been doing some more studying on the charcoal vent canister thing and I have a few more questions. I snagged the venting device from a 90's Mustang and it looks kinda like a plastic version of the pcv valve . It was mounted with a rubber grommet in the smaller hole in the highest area of this 90's mustang tank http://c1385772.r72.cf0.rackcdn.com/lrs-9002bk.jpg It's called a vapor valve and it looks like this without the rubber grommet http://c1385772.r72.cf0.rackcdn.com/lrs-9593a_1332.jpg I don't think gas ever touches it. If I try to mount this unit in the top of my in-cab tank, it will probably dip into the fuel when the tank is full. Also, the line coming from it will have no choice but to go down under the cab to the chassis as it runs to where the charcoal filter is mounted on the chassis in the engine compartment. I assume that's going to cause problems, right? I don't know how or if the factory charcoal filter can handle the possibility of fuel running into it can it?

I assume I'll have a similar problem of the "unit" dipping into the fuel if I move the tank under the rear of the bed, though there won't be the elevation drop because the tank will be at frame level. I could use the type of "roll-over valve" that Dave used on his car but with the under-bed tank, that valve would also be partially submerged in fuel on a full tank unless I raised it, right?

Would appreciate some help sorting this out. (Yes, Dave, you'll be happy to know I'm giving more thought to moving the tank out of the cab!!)

Randy - first of all, congratulations on even thinking that moving the tank out of the cab.

OK - that roll over valve I have is mounted on a stand off piece of piping, 4" if I recall and just because I do have that much room to raise it above any possible gas immersion and plugging. Also, using that reasoning, that's why any new car owner's manual tells you to not 'top off' when filling the gas tank.

You can also put a vent/roll over valve on a piece of gas line tubing as there are two styles offered by 'Tanks, Inc', one being a remote style***.

Now - you being in sometimes sunny CA, how can you afford that amount of gas to fill it at one time. To fill my F350, 30 gallons @$3.60/3.70 gal (yesterday) is over 100 bucks


*** Remote Mount Rollover Vent Valve

Originally Posted by IC2

Randy - first of all, congratulations on even thinking that moving the tank out of the cab.

OK - that roll over valve I have is mounted on a stand off piece of piping, 4" if I recall and just because I do have that much room to raise it above any possible gas immersion and plugging. Also, using that reasoning, that's why any new car owner's manual tells you to not 'top off' when filling the gas tank.

You can also put a vent/roll over valve on a piece of gas line tubing as there are two styles offered by 'Tanks, Inc', one being a remote style***.

Now - you being in sometimes sunny CA, how can you afford that amount of gas to fill it at one time. To fill my F350, 30 gallons @$3.60/3.70 gal (yesterday) is over 100 bucks


*** Remote Mount Rollover Vent Valve

Thanks for the quick response, Dave! I must say I've never been opposed to moving my tank, I just haven't been pleased with the options I've seen to date. I could use that little bit of extra space behind the seat if I can figure out a suitable way to incorporate the filler tube in a rear mounted tank application.

I'm still planning to use the factory Mustang EVAP system with the charcoal canister. The purge solenoid is built into the engine wiring harness with a hose that runs from the canister to the intake. There is also a fuel pump shut-off switch wired into the harness in case of roll-over. This all leads me to believe I need to mount a raised "vapor valve" to whatever fuel tank I use since neither tank option will have an elevated section like the 92 Mustang tank. Am I thinking correctly about this??

Late 60's and at least the early 70's Chevy's (such as the Chevelle's and Impala's) had the fuel filler behind the license plate. As long as you had a good gas cap on them, they would not leak.

You might even be able to find a gas filler neck that has a baffle in it to keep the fuel from sloshing up the neck so bad. Might have to be something aftermarket though.

Originally Posted by Bug

Late 60's and at least the early 70's Chevy's (such as the Chevelle's and Impala's) had the fuel filler behind the license plate. As long as you had a good gas cap on them, they would not leak.

You might even be able to find a gas filler neck that has a baffle in it to keep the fuel from sloshing up the neck so bad. Might have to be something aftermarket though.

Thanks, Bug. Yes the "behind the license plate" filler would be ideal but those Chevy tanks are too wide for my frame rails. The gas tank of choice for these trucks (from all the truck forums) has been from 66-69 Mustangs. Depending on how it's mounted, there is possibly room to route the filler behind the license plate rather than up thru the bed floor. The bed floor fuel filler just seems terribly impractical to me, especially since this truck is my daily driver. I have to make a couple more measurements then make some decisions....