New fuel tank

[jpyke]

Just wanting to canvas opinion on the best route to a new fuel tank. I'm at the stage in the rebuild where I want to fit the tank and my old one appears to have been repaired on the bottom with fibreglass, rattles a lot and is no longer fit for purpose.

I see the usual suppliers can provide standard replacements and then there's the option of alloy from Wards. Prices seem to be in the same ball park.
Web research indicates that alloy shouldn't be a problem with ethanol in fuel until it reaches 25% so I'm not too worried about that right now. I've also read on previous forum posts about potential fuel starvation/short pickup pipes so will need to look into this and if I went down the alloy route, ensure there is a surge/swirl chamber in there.

On the other hand, it's hard to know what the quality of the replacement standard tanks is? I worry that they're likely to be new old stock that has been tarted up with a coat of paint on the outside and therefore may have surface rust inside, or similar.

Any advice/opinion welcome!

James

[new to this]

my brother has the wards tank,he hasn't had any problems,dont know if there is a swirl pot inside,when fitting had to shorten the filler hose a bit

Dave

[StagnJag]

As far as I know, the tanks on sale are new ones. The replacement one I bought a few years ago was based on what I assume is MKI spec, it has a drain plug in the bottom and no swirl pot. The old one (1977 car) had a swirl pot and no drain plug.

Lack of swirl pot has not caused any issues, although I never let it drop below about 1/8 tank.

Regards

Dave

[jakesmig]

No need for a swirl pot unless you're fitting fuel injection, anyone says different speaks with forked tongue. Alloy or steel doesn't matter, if it's a good one you've scored, if it's a dud you haven't, just don't buy Chinese.

John

[simontink]

What's a swirl pot?

[mick the stagger]

Its one of those things some stags should have!!!???

[jpyke]

No need for a swirl pot unless you're fitting fuel injection

John

There are some plans afoot for this ...athough firmly in the future at the moment.

[jpyke]

What's a swirl pot?

It's a chamber within the fuel tank which has just a few small openings for the fuel to flow into and the pickup collects fuel from within the pot.
The idea is that if you corner hard, brake hard or alike - which causes the fuel to slosh to the side of the tank - that it won't drain out of the pot and so the pickup will always be sucking up fuel. Otherwise you can run the risk (when the fuel level is low in the tank) of the pickup being temporarily exposed and sucking in air when the fuel sloshes around. As John says, with carbs theres plenty of reserve fuel in the float chambers and you wouldn't have a problem but with fuel injection it can cause the engine to stutter which is not great if you happen to be cornering hard at the time.

[jpyke]

Thanks for the replies all