[Joe Perez]

The four quart tank that's sold here is shown as measuring 10" x 8 1/2" x 4 1/4". Does anybody know if that's an overall measurement, including the width of the flange and the height of the filler cap? I'm trying to find a tank I can wedge into the engine compartment of my Miata- it's a tight fit.

[dvldoc]

The flange makes it 11 1/2 inches wide. With the top on and screwed all the way down adds less than 1/4 in to the height.

[Joe Perez]

So overall it is roughly 10.25" high (bottom to cap), 11.5" wide (width of flange), and 4.25" deep, am I interpreting that correctly? That's gonna push it over the edge. I was really hoping that 8.5" width was overall, but it looks like even if I trim the flanges down to only .75" remaining on each side, it ain't gonna work.

Any idea if it's possible (and practical) to purchase polyethylene in sheet form and weld it to make a tank, or use it to cut and modify an existing tank? If I could cut down one of the corners in sort of a diagonal fashion it would work.

[dvldoc]

A pic of your engine compartment would be very helpfull. 4qt tanks don't fit in to many underhood applications except trucks. A 2 quart for a miata should last a good little while do to the nozzle size you would use.

[Joe Perez]

Originally Posted by dvldoc

A 2 quart for a miata should last a good little while do to the nozzle size you would use.

Rate of consumption... That's sort of the unknown for me right now. I already have your kit, bought a progressive with a 3 GPH nozzle as part of WideOpenTuning's group buy over on MiataTurbo.net. It's not installed yet since I decided that with the extra bulk of the controller wiring I really needed to re-do all the wiring in the center section of the dash to clean things up. It'll probably be a week or two before I have time to finish the install, so right now I don't really have a good idea what my liquid consumption rate (quarts per week) is going to be like.

Pictures attached. You can see that it's a very tight engine compartment. Ignore the blue fuel pressure regulator mounted to the firewall, it doesn't need to be there. That's pretty much the space I have to work in, and you can see that the shock tower eats up a lot of the lower portion of it. The wiring and the stubs from the A/C evaporator can be moved around / eliminated if need be.

The plan for now is to use the stock washer bottle, which is normally located in the upper-left, attached to the side of that black fuse box. It's not there in the picture because I removed it to measure its capacity. Came out to approximately 1.75 quarts. So a 2 quart bottle won't really get me much extra. If the 1.75 quart tank that I have already turns out to be adequate for a week's worth of spirited driving (maybe 100 miles), then I'll just leave well enough alone.

Many of the 1'st gen Miata folks have taken to installing gallon tanks in their trunk, but this is my daily driver and I really need to keep that space available.

I wish I could just fabricate a tank out of aluminum, but I suspect that even at only 20-25% concentration (washer fluid) the methanol would not do it good.

[Eawaugh]

U mentioned going with an custom aluminum tank y not?

[Joe Perez]

Wow, just over a year old on that one.

Methanol is corrosive to aluminum. So that's why a custom aluminum tank is out. I wound up purchasing a 5qt kart fuel tank made by GMan. It has mounting flanges at the base and fits perfectly in the space exactly opposite the battery in an NA trunk. Here's my writeup: A different sort of water tank setup. - Miata Turbo Forum - Home of the turbo Mazda Miata. (must reg to see the pictures)

[Sharky]

I was very curious to see what creativity Joe would come up with. But I tried everything and just could not find an ideal setup that would put the tank and put in the engine compartment. I did not like the fact that the tank would be exposed to the elements of heat and road grime. So putting it in the trunk was a no brainer. I put mine where the spare tire was. I removed the spare and since affected the four corner weighting of the car.

[Eawaugh]

Hey I'm neew to this stuff/site, Just got my miata about a year ago and have been modifying it everyday since(wont go into specifics, way to many,...unless you ask). I was asking cause I'm a union welder here in Richmond VA and could make almost anything S.S. alumininum whatever. I purchased an eBay turbo/intercooler "kit" and have been researching additional/alternative power increases lately, I havent thought about water injection in 15 years.
My first encounter with WI was a very crued but effective jug O' water in the engine compartment of a VW. They had a stand pipe below water level for incoming air and a fitting on top of the bottle with a vacuum line running right into the carb,(kind of a controlled vacuum leak). He richened up the mixture to accomadate it. When he revved the motor you could see a cloud form in the bottle. I kind of dismissed the whole thing till I found this site.
I was considering a V8 swap pissibley, but thats a fortune and I don't feel like messing with the entire drive line. I'm thinkin now I'll just boost and intercool it and probily include a WI system too. Run that little 1.6 till she blows!(and I will/do). Then just swap a 1.8 or 2.0 and do the same thing.
Eric

[Sharky]

Sounds like you are another Miata owner looking for more power. I have a supercharger in mine. And I removed the intercooler and put in the water injection. The water injection really helped me. And I have no need for an intercooler any more. You ought to install one and see for yourself. Post some pics of your car here.