FlyingDog

Think about this... 10lb tank and 1lb valve. When they seperate, the tank that you are so afraid of will launch at approximately 1/10th the velocity of the valve. The valve is gonna hurt more.

ZEUS+

On flat ground it would take off like a rocket. Who knows what would happen strapped in. Would one strap break or two ? Whatever hits the valve that hard did a whole lot of other damage. What if the valve leaked he gets high and crashes the car ? I hope we never know.

sublimate

It's the tank not the valve that you usually have to worry about when the valve is knocked off a high pressure tank. As the valve move away from the tank the force on it (from the gas escaping from the tank) drops off rapidly so it stops accelerating and never gets going that fast. The tank, on the otherhand, will continue to accelerate until it runs out of gas. And beside flying pretty fast it's heavy to boot.

AO

Highly doubtful. You're basically talking about shearing off the head of a bolt. It will most likely deform rather than shoot off. Tell me if you can find any proof of these going off - I never did. THe only picture I ever found was of a car where the guy had accidentially left his heater on... BOOOOM!

The typical nitrous tanks are the same tanks they use for welding rigs. Never heard of one of those going off accidentally either.

Can it happen? Maybe. Will it ever happen? I'd say there is a 99.999% chance of it never happening.

(Just standing up for my Ritous Nitrous boy! )

ZEUS+

I agree with Andrew. I have been using and installing nos since 1988. The only tank I ever saw blow was an O2 tank that fell off a pickup at a junkyard that was laying flat and not secure. Shocked the hell out of the guy driving. Looked pretty cool too. N2O is great used properly.

Bret928

We used a pressurized fire suppression system on Huey to put out engine fires. The propellant was housed in an alloy bottle that was spherical in shape and about 12 to 15” around. Anyway I was in the shop one day when I got to see how dangerous they can be when one being serviced decided to “take off” on us, when one of the technicians didn’t follow directions while servicing it. It was in for a recharge and the tech released was supposed to turn the pressure release hut one half turn every minute until the pressure released. Well I guess he was in a hurry that afternoon and loosened the nut a little too fast when it blew the nut out (could of killed him) stripping the threads and shot the bottle across the shop – blasting through the Gunny’s metal desk & a storage cabinet like they was made of butter. Came to rest after it hit the wall knocking a hole in one of the cinder blocks.

Not sure I'd like something like that sitting in the car behind me.

ZEUS+

Human error usually causes good things to look bad.

Larry928GTS

That might be why why he put it behind the passenger seat.

Coincidentally, on an upcoming episode of MythBusters:

Episode 64: Air Cylinder Rocket
Put simply, this episode is vintage, explosive MythBusters. Adam and Jamie have unfinished business from their Shark Week special, where they shot and then exploded a SCUBA tank. But they've always wondered if a ruptured cylinder- carefully aimed- can really cause the massive damage some people claim. Meanwhile, Tori, Grant and Kari go back in time to test some prototypes from the past. They all sound highly dangerous, and they probably are: engines fuelled by gunpowder!
Premiere: Oct. 25, 2006

FlyingDog

I heard the top come off a nitrogen tank (from outside on the otherside of the next building) and saw the resulting hole in the wall. A guy knocked it over without the halo on. It clipped a workbench on the way down and the valve came of when the tank hit the floor. The base of the tank was against a wall and went nowhere.

drnick

brett, just get an S4 - supercharge it and then add nitrous

inactiveuser92616

the only advice I can ethically give is not to do this. If you want to utilize the space and do some fabrication, rework the sheet metal of the spare tire well to hold in one or more certified pressure vessels designed for the nitrous oxide. I seriously doubt that you could find a shop that would agree to fill a custom vessel; the liability is huge.

The place where I have interned keeps two nitrogen bottles for trackside usage. He can only get them filled up at one place, the place that sold them, because no one will trust a vessel with unknown history.

RicerSchnitzzle

Legally any HPA bottle can not be filled with out a current certified hydrotest. It'll be hard to get a custom tank hydro'd.

The valve is locktighted onto the bottle, the force to knock it off would mean you have bigger issues to deal with. Most good pressure tanks will even have a double thread section on the valve so if you accidently unscrew it, it will release pressure before the second set of threads are engaged, keeping the valve on the bottle. A blow hard enough to seperate the valve will knock it to the side in the first place. It most likely will not launch forward into you. The tank however will continue to accelerate until out of gas. Make sure it's strapped in well.

As far as making the box, thin alumium will work fine, as long as you wrap it in fiber. Look at high end scuba or even paintball tanks, that's how they are constructed. Super light and super strong while hold over 5000psi. Plenty for Nitrous. Wrap the tank in CF.

littleball_s4

Engineering advice:

1) Simply don't do it. The energy is related to the amount of gas stored. Your shark will be a rolling H-bomb.

2) If you really have to do it, buy the tank, don't build it. Tanks are rated to certain pressures, according to thicknesses, yes, but also shapes and materials. Also, copying a hardware is not easy, because you can screw it up welding, for example, even if it looks identical from outside.

For example, if you build a cilyndrical tank of acertain thickness with flat ends, it will stand x pressure. If the ends are slightly curved it will stand 2*x. If they are hemispheric, it will stand 3*x. But if you build it and leave an imperfection in the welding (which can only be detected via X-ray) it will stand x/2 no matter what shape it is.

Brett928S2

HI ALL

Many thanks for all the replies

Some interesting thought there lol...

By the way....Nitrous is NOT explosive....amd NOT flammable....its just an oxyidiser....

I am looking onto diving tanks at the moment to see if they would fit and hold enough pressure...

Any divers reading this , care to add anything please ??

All the best Brett


PORSCHE 928 S2 AUTO V8 4.7 LTR 1986 IRIS METALLIC BLUE WITH X-PIPES ,RMB ,PROMAX CHIPS, KICKDOWN SWITCH, K&N, WIZARDS OF NOS - NITROUS KIT 150 HP JETTING - 505 BHP / 500 FT LBS TORQUE
PCGB UK 928 FORUM MODERATOR - Email managingdirector@pchealthcare.co.uk

macreel

Brett.. the SCUBA (I mentioned earlier) are readily available,
use standard fittings, are generally (periodically) hydrostatically
-tested to 5,000 psi (ours are locally, at any rate) and withstand
hard use. But still need care in handling, especially when charged.

Filament-wound 'bottles' are possibilities but may be more expensive.

G'luck.