Petrol Tanks - Alternatives?

[GTS290N]

More owners need them, they are becoming scarce.
Does anyone have ideas for suitable replacements? Or can a replacement be sourced by the club? (I'm guessing it won't have to be an exact replica, as long as it fits).

[mahony]

Do not know of any replacements as such but i wonder what the cost would be to get some made in plastic ? , would the cost be prohibitive and how hard would it be to make a model of a existing tank ?

[sprint95m]

If you are prepared to stand the spare wheel vertically,
a Ford Fiesta ST c. 2006 plastic fuel tank can be used.
It is 45 litres (about 10 gallons) in size.
They are very cheap from the breakers....

The KA tank is smaller but they only started to use plastic after 2010 so these aren't easily available from the breakers yet.
If it is not as wide then it may be an option that would permit the spare wheel location to be unaltered?


I have read that Vx Corsas have compact plastic tanks but have not seen one to judge its suitability.



Ian.

[Galileo]

I haven't measured the space either to see what would fit, but if you wanted a generic non car specific alternative how about a plastic boat one? ie. 550 x 390 x 200mm for around £100

Only other thing I could think of would be getting an aluminium one made up, or off the shelf I've used a local manufacturing company OBP for things like quickshifts and floor mounted pedals but they do fuel tanks as well, not cheap however, £200 or so.

http://www.obpltd.com/Alloy-Products/Fuel-Tanks

[trackerjack]

2 years ago I sold my "new" tank that I had kept as a spare that I found in a scrap yard.
I auctioned it on Flea and had little response and finally sold it to a very nice bloke in Southampton who had an extremely tidy brown 1850 HL.

[Carledo]

At the moment, there seem to be plenty of pre-owned Dolomite tanks around. Enough that they are cheap! Toledo tanks however are NOT easy to come by OR cheap! But this is only a problem for a small number of us! Personally I favour the more expensive aluminium tank option and know an aluminium fabricator who is also a big Triumph fan.........


Steve

[GTS290N]

Can a Toledo/Dolomite hybrid be manufactured? One size fits both? (sorry, don't know the Tolly).

[Carledo]

Can a Toledo/Dolomite hybrid be manufactured? One size fits both? (sorry, don't know the Tolly).

A Dolomite tank is too big for a Toledo, with the Toledo having the shorter boot! So no it's not possible!

Steve

[geeksteve]

If you are prepared to stand the spare wheel vertically,
a Ford Fiesta ST c. 2006 plastic fuel tank can be used.
It is 45 litres (about 10 gallons) in size.

Hmm how easily does that fit (other than wheel)? I'm about to modify my fuel tank to add a fuel return for my MX engine, but if I can go plastic with the tank then that'd be awesome.

Steve

[sprint95m]

The dimensions are approximately 80x48x24cm.




Hope this helps,

Ian.

[sprint95m]

Can a Toledo/Dolomite hybrid be manufactured? One size fits both? (sorry, don't know the Tolly).

A Dolomite tank is too big for a Toledo, with the Toledo having the shorter boot! So no it's not possible!

Steve

Surely it will be possible because the smaller Toledo tank will fit into the Dolomite boot space,
hoses and mounts are straightforward really.





Ian.

[Carledo]

Can a Toledo/Dolomite hybrid be manufactured? One size fits both? (sorry, don't know the Tolly).

A Dolomite tank is too big for a Toledo, with the Toledo having the shorter boot! So no it's not possible!

Steve

Surely it will be possible because the smaller Toledo tank will fit into the Dolomite boot space,
hoses and mounts are straightforward really.
Ian.

Well technically, I guess the Toledo tank would fit in a Dolomite, but a) Toledo tanks are hens teeth, b) Toledo tank only holds about 6.5 gallons which would make range useless on something like a Sprint, c) the outlet pipe to the fuel line is probably in the wrong place so you'd have to make a new hole in the boot floor and d) there would b nothing to support the back edge of the tank in a Dolomite body, so more brackets to fabricate. All things considered, I don't think the job would be worth the candle. Shaun Roche's big square compo alloy tank is more practical!
What i'd really like is a transverse alloy tank above the axle tunnel and behind the rear seat, it would even out weight distribution side to side, get the tank mostly inside the wheelbase (at slight cost to CofG admittedly) obviate the need for a swirl pot for those of us with EFi and free up more useable boot space. A 10+ gallon capacity would be nice too! Methinks, time for a trip down to the fabricators!

Steve

[SprintMWU773V]

Given it's largely covered I'd get a race style tank made up and installed, aluminium is probably easiest and actually not that expensive as there's quite a few suitable sizes already available. Given the relative scarcity of decent fuel tanks this might be the only option in future.

[sprint95m]

Where do you buy cheap aluminium tanks?
The race cells I found were all the thick end of £500 or more.

I went plastic because it is easily available and cheap (£10 plus postage or £5 if you collect)
and furthermore, for EFI has a built in fuel pump/sender/swirl tank.

If there was a Rover Mini EFI plastic tank I would have chosen it.




Ian.

[SprintMWU773V]

Plenty of people can make them up to size, unless you want or need an FIA spec one you can pick one up for £100-200 quite easily. That is not a bad price for something that's not full of rust and old tank sealer.