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Increasing fuel tank.

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Mychael

Mychael

Senior Member
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Has anyone had any success with increasing the fuel tank capacity of the Mk1 Frogeye. I was thinking of getting a custom tank made.

How hard is it to remove the original tank?
 
Original is very easy to remove
just disconnect the rubber line from the tank nipple, remove 4 bolts and lower it down.
The mk 1 even has a drain plug

but the grommet may need to be replaced with puts the surrounding paint at risk
 
Thanks. I'm assuming a custom made tank is the easiest way to go, unless you can suggest some other alternatives.
 
Mychael said:
Thanks. I'm assuming a custom made tank is the easiest way to go, unless you can suggest some other alternatives.
Click to expand...

The difficulty with increasing the size is, unless you want to cut the bottom of the boot, you can only go wider or lower. I have seen someone install a fuel cell that was lower but it was for a racetrack. This leaves only wider - and you might want to see if it is worth your while in terms of what you can put under there without interfering with the exhaust, suspension etc.
 
You can also extend it a bit towards the back of the car if you do not use the cross wise muffler(silencer).
 
Can't you fit a tank from the later cars? I thought the only difference was the long filler neck on the BE tank.

Kurt.
 
nomad said:
Can't you fit a tank from the later cars? I thought the only difference was the long filler neck on the BE tank.
Kurt.
Click to expand...

I was wondering that myself. In fact I wanted to ask how one identifies what tank is in my car.
It does not have a drain plug on the bottom of the tank which I thought all the early tanks did but not certain about that.

It has a "short" external filler neck, by that I mean the filler cap sits very close to the body unlike some othe Bugeyes I've seen where it sits a few inches high off the body.

I guess the only real way to test would be to drain the tank and then measure how much it takes. I thought 6 gallon was the capacity is this correct?
 
6 Imperial gallons may be correct. I've always figured 7 US gallons and I don't have any data at hand. It appears that no one currently on line has tryed to fit a later tank!

Kurt.
 
Mychael, any tank other than a BE tank would have to have a rubber coupling hose between the filler and the tank. Should be able to see that inside the boot. The only difference, I think, between the early square body tank and the later was the depth of the tank. I'm sure someone will chime in with some more info.

Kurt
 
Mychael said:
It does not have a drain plug on the bottom of the tank which I thought all the early tanks did but not certain about that.
Click to expand...
Some (maybe all?) of the reproduction tanks don't have the drain plug.
 
nomad said:
any tank other than a BE tank would have to have a rubber coupling hose between the filler and the tank. Should be able to see that inside the boot.
Kurt
Click to expand...

Ok, Well my car does have a rubber coupling between filler and tank. The filler is quite long and the coupling is right at the top of tank, basically in contact with the boot floor.

Externally the filler cap sits very close to the body. On some BE that I've seen the filler caps sits up quite high.
 
You don't have the original tank then. Changing to the deeper tank will make your fuel guage incorrect but I believe you can go to the bigger tank.

Kurt.
 
Assuming my fuel gauge is correct (which it probably is not) when it's showing just a needle under 1/4 I can get 21 litres into the tank.
That has me thinking it's probably a 27 litre/6 gallon tank.

I'm investigating the possibility of fitting a tank from a 1956 Holden sedan which would give me around 9.5 imperial gallons.
 
My butt usually gets tired and I need to stretch and stand up before I run out of gas. Around town you will get mileage in the 20's.On the road, steady speed, mileage jumps right up into 30's and some claim higher. Don't try to reinvent the wheel here. There are plenty of other items you'll get to spend time and money on. As long as inside of the tank is clean and not all rusted up leave it alone. IMHO.
 
Well some of the runs I do in the country the garages are few and far between and it's often the case of stop early (before you need to) to re-fuel when an opputunity presents or run the risk of not making it to the next stop.

I'd be hoping for consistent mileage in the 30's, my TR regularly gave me 33mpg. on an engine twice the size.
 
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