tank options?

[ericjon262]

we don't have any real options for fuel tanks except for another stock tank, or the aluminum tank the one guy on Old Europe was offering do we? mine started leaking when I removed it yesterday, either a small hole or crack on the underside...

[Shaun41178(2)]

jbweld it

[ericjon262]

while that is an option, the leak is very close to the tank straps, and I'm not sure I'd trust it there.

[Emc209i]

Grab an '87-'88 tank and the expansion tank. Big improvement over the earlier tanks and its enough to get the job done. You'll need to fabricate a new strap, can't remember which one it was - front or rear.

The aluminum tank on piffler has way more cons than pros. And he never even posted the capacity of the tank. I can only speculate why such a rudimentary detail wasn't passed along. My guess is it was equal or less than the OEM tank.

[Shaun41178(2)]

it will be a long shot finding someone willing to box up and ship a fuel tank. maybe you will find a parts car nearby someone is junking or something. craigslist

[ericjon262]

I didn't like the aluminum tank, from both a design and materials standpoint, main one being that the bottom is flat. the flat bottom provides increased capacity, but does nothing to increase the usable capacity. I've got a line on a tank, I need to source the expansion tank still though.

[ericjon262]

picked up a new tank today, 87/88 model. do you have to run the expansion tank as well? I don't currently have one, if I have to have one, I will get one...

[Shaun41178(2)]

you can make and mount the expansion tank anywhere you want pretty much. You don't need a factory one. If you don't plan on topping off your fuel tank to the top of the fill tube, then you probably don't even really need one.

[Emc209i]

Get the OEM tank. Might as well. Small, cheap, easy to ship, hides under the right rear clip. Any '87-'88 car has one. Get some shmuck on piffle to grab it off a garbaged car.

[ericjon262]

Get the OEM tank. Might as well. Small, cheap, easy to ship, hides under the right rear clip. Any '87-'88 car has one. Get some shmuck on piffle to grab it off a garbaged car.

yeah, seems like the best option.

[ericjon262]

ok, so I've been working intermittently on the tank swap, here are some cliff notes:



Left to right, you have 1985 rear strap, 87 rear strap, 85 front strap, and 87 front strap. the early straps are longer than the later straps. The rear requires that you use the earlier strap, but neither front strap is long enough for the front.



To solve this, I cut one end off of each front strap, and riveted them back together at the correct length.

I'll try to snap a couple of pictures of the new strap, along with measuring it's LOA tomorrow.

now onto sending units, the early and late senders will fit in either tank, but the later tank uses an o-ring that it much smaller in diameter than the early tank. the outlets of the senders also point in different directions, I suspect this is because the evap can on the early models is on the driver's side, and the expansion tank on the later models is on the passenger side. I stuck with the early model sender mainly because I had already modified it to better suite my needs.

[Emc209i]

Ok, so it was the front strap. Cool beans.

[ericjon262]

New front strap is 10.5" long overall



seen here(right), compared to the '85 rear(left), the '87 rear(middle)



overall, the new strap is about one inch longer than the 85 strap.

I did make the strap a little bit on the long side to accommodate a cushion in between the tank and the strap. Classic industries makes tank strap cushions, I didn't feel like waiting for a kit to come in the mail though, so I cut up a piece of rubber cove base molding. The cove base is inexpensive, about $3 for a three foot strip, is easily cut, and very durable. worked out well.

[Emc209i]

Good job. Enjoy the extra capacity.

[ericjon262]

Good job. Enjoy the extra capacity.

thanks, I plan to do a write up on it here when I get some time. working 13+ hour days kinda saps up my time here lately.