Ran out of gas

Mike

Lifetime Supporter
I've known for some time that when the fuel gauge shows a quarter tank that I can get about 10-12 gals max in it. The plan this morning as I left the garage at 6am was to run it on down to empty and see what the gauge behavior is. Unfortunately, I failed to consider that I had driven it to Cars & Coffee and then around a little last weekend and started off then right under a quarter. I had planned on making an early morning run up Clear Creek Canyon this morning with the GoPro but alas made it about 10 miles before it coughed once and that was all she wrote. Fortunately, I nice lady cop showed up and helped me roll it off the highway and into an empty lot while I wait for reinforcements. I did snap a couple pics as I waited. I gotta figure out a better fuel gauge setup than stock. Any suggestions?

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You should have used the pumps to empty her out.
My 40 is inconsistant in the fuel gauge as well.
I think the long tanks and fuel movement.

Jim
 

Mike

Lifetime Supporter
It was empty empty. I got 19.7 gallons back in it. I guess I will start watching the odometer.
 

Larry L.

Lifetime Supporter
'Simplier solution: Treat the 'half full' mark as though it were the 'empty' mark. You'll never run out of gas again...as long as the darn gauge is accurate at that stage.
 

Jim Craik

Lifetime Supporter
Yes, mine stops just before 1/4 tank, I learned that the first day. I was on US 80 outside Sacramento, it just quit, but I will say that 2264 is a good roller, it continued on for quite some distance, off an exit and right into a gass station.
 
Agree, 1/4 and that is about all she has. Mine has started coughing right around there but I never get more than 15 gallons in it at fill-up.

Kevin
 
lovely shots...

I would hate inaccurate fuel gauge's :D
redesign the tanks that way that they have a deeper collect pickup point?
but I guess there are no easy solutions.
 

Pete

Lifetime Supporter
I'm curious as to why the fuel tanks aren't designed to have a sump in the center length wise for the pickup tube.The floor of the tank can be ramped from either end to the center say with a 2 inch offset. Wouldn't that help the fuel feed situation on hills? I realize that would mean sacrificing some fuel capacity. Thoughts?


Pete
 
I'm curious as to why the fuel tanks aren't designed to have a sump in the center length wise for the pickup tube.The floor of the tank can be ramped from either end to the center say with a 2 inch offset. Wouldn't that help the fuel feed situation on hills? I realize that would mean sacrificing some fuel capacity. Thoughts?


Pete

Not using the last 1.5 gal of an 11 gal tank hasn't really been a problem for me. That still leaves 19 useable gal with 2 tanks. At 18mpg highway that still gives over 300 miles per fillup. I believe the tanks have some baffling to minimize full starvation on hills. If we were doing LeMans I might be concerned, but we'd be talking rubber fuel cells anyway.
 
I came across this website thanks for someone pointing it out when I found the aluminium welds on his fuel-tank so lovely done.

then I noticed their concept of fuel-tanks and it sounds pretty good, not have any experience with such but by the sound of it it looks "good"

most of all they do some amazing stuff with alu items and their welds and finishing of items look really cool.

a small part of the tanks talk>>

What are the internal collectors for inside some of our fuel tanks?
Our internal collectors are a fabricated box which has check valves mounted in the side faces. These check valves allow fuel to run into the collector but not out, so as the vehicle corners, brakes and accelerates the fuel is scooped into the collector through the check valves, this ensures that the collector is constantly full, even when the tank is almost out of fuel. This means that you are able to utilize almost the entire volume of the fuel tank without suffering from surge and pick-up problems, and can often remove the necessity for an external fuel swirl pot.

Pro Alloy Motorsport - Specialist alloy components - Bespoke alloy fuel tanks

but also look under custom products say like this>>

Pro Alloy Motorsport - Specialist alloy components - Bespoke Alloy Water Radiators

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:heart:
 

Dave Hood

Lifetime Supporter
When I fill my car at the 1/2 mark, I usually get about 10 gallons. Doing that also lessens the pain since the $$ on the pump doesn't look so bad...
 

Seymour Snerd

Lifetime Supporter

As the thread above makes clear, the supplied fuel level sender is a joke. I finally gave up on the idea of "recalibrating" the original (even though I'd done all the hard work) and purchased solid-state "capacitative" senders from Centroid after sending them my gauge's resistance map.

Reading - Ohms
E -170
¼ - 75
½ - 47
¾ - 28
F - 13

I suggest you do the same. Messing with the original is the kind of waste of time that keeps your car off the road for no good reason.
 

Seymour Snerd

Lifetime Supporter
I'm curious as to why the fuel tanks aren't designed to have a sump in the center length wise for the pickup tube.The floor of the tank can be ramped from either end to the center say with a 2 inch offset. Wouldn't that help the fuel feed situation on hills? I realize that would mean sacrificing some fuel capacity.

The tank has to slide into the front of the sponson and through the sponson ribs, which thus establishes the maximum cross-section of the tank. So there can't be a sump in the center without drastically reducing the tank capacity. A rear-ward swinging trap-door at the rear of the tank would solve the problem, as would having one of the tanks feed from the front.
 
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That top picture is just fantastic. Its now my desk top background (if you don't mind?). If you take pictures like that, you need to run out of gas more often!
 
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