bweSteve

Hey guys,

Was just filling up my tank today getting ready for the early morning trek up to Hershey PA Swap Meet. Decided to pull my owners manual out & check on capacity & reserve size. I researched other threads here and only really found this one..... (most others spoke of racing & fuel consumption)

https://rennlist.com/forums/964-turb...ip-issues.html

Decided to build this new thread and focus on the reserve tank...

Does anyone know how this reserve is built into the tank? I know from ownership of motorcycles, tanks have a valve you can switch to open up the reserve & then fuel flows down into the main cavity. I've never heard of, or know of a switch in our vehicles, so I'm assuming it happens without any intervention on our part.

Having asked that,... now also wondering,... based on the design of that reserve, is it really possible to get built up sludge from that reserve to flow down & get sucked up? I'm wondering this because its been a long time since I've let my tank get down to less than a quarter (maybe an 1/8 a couple times over the past 12 yrs!! Lol).

Clearly that thread link above from 2004, shadopadla had a lot of trouble after getting all his 30k service + fuel filter changed, etc,... and then let his tank get down to reserve before filling up, then his troubles began. I've seen "C2 Turbo" active on RL here in the past couple years, and he said it happened to him too, so maybe he can chime back in.

So any knowledge here of our "Reserve" tank design,... and/or whether we should have some sort of routine in periodically letting our tanks get low (or NOT)??

Owners Manual states we have a 20.3 gallon tank, and a 2.6 gallon reserve.

Thanks,
=Steve

Metal Guru

The fuel tank is blow molded so there is no way to put an internal reserve tank in the main tank.
So after you hit "E", according to the owners manual, you are supposed to have 2.6 gallons of reserve fuel left. That will vary on the manufacturing tolerance of fuel float/sender card assembly and the actual geometry of the fuel tank (plastic fuel tank as are used on our cars and many others cannot be manufactured to the tolerances of a steel fuel tank). It could be greater than 2.6 gallons or it could be less.
The issues of fuel capacity and reserve fuel quantity are sources of complaints and warranty issues for all manufacturers. Customers tend to get upset when they can't get the advertised capacity into an empty tank or run out of fuel prematurely.

bweSteve

Ok,... so then from a design perspective, that leads me to asking whether our external reserve tank fuel ever gets used. Certainly important info if we are keeping our main tank at half full or higher (yr after yr).

So is the reserve fuel ever flushed through & used? If so when?

I certainly hope so,.. or I probably need to remove my 26 yr old reserve tank & clean it out.

Thanks for chiming in Paul. Just trying to be a bit proactive & maybe avoid some pitfalls if any.

=Steve

Metal Guru

Steve, there is no external reserve fuel tank in our cars. There is only the fuel left in the tank when the gage hits "E". That is why it's called empty reserve fuel.
That little tank that sits on top of of the fuel tank is a vapor tank. If fuel ends up there you got big problems.
I've removed my fuel tank to replace the in-tank filter (it's more like a screen than a filter) and assorted vapor lines that were getting mushy. If there's any dirt in the tank it will be trapped by the in-line fuel filter in the engine compartment.

bweSteve

Ahhh,.... Thanks Paul. Keep hitting me in the head with the 2x4, and eventually something will sink in. Lol.

I guess since that other thread spoke of trouble with gunk at empty, and they speculated that it had to do with the fuel held in "reserve",... that I jumped to a conclusion that we had external. Thanks for clarifying.

All good. Now this thread is not really so interesting, since there's no real "design" here with the 2.6 gallons of reserve. haha,... nothing to see here,... move along. Lol. But I must say this forum has been prity quiet over the months. Guess all our cars are running perfectly!

Anyway,... it has been a long time since I replaced my fuel filter,... so I'll look that date up in my records & get on it.

=Steve

Metal Guru

Yes, too quiet.
However, with the arrival of spring the cars will be coming out and hopefully with them some stories.
I have an oil change to perform this week (10 quarts of V-Twin; I always have to visit two O'Reilys stores to find that quantity) and then it's down to Roush next Saturday to mount my new tires.
At this moment , my car is sitting in my driveway as I clean up a massive oil spill in my garage. When I'm done, I'm going for a ride!

bweSteve

speaking of oil, I did make the choice (described it one of our other threads), to switch to the Porsche 10w-60 Classic oil. My dealer Parts Mgr gave it to me cheaper than I could buy the M1 20w-50 vtwin that I have been using for the last many years. So I tried it. So far so good.

But it probably won't be till end of summer, or early Fall before I drain it out & send to Blackstone to have some analysis done on it. Was also planning on sending them some virgin sample of the same oil, just so I could compare the two.

We will see. Have fun cleaning up oil on a garage floor. Always a fun task.

Thanks again Paul for chiming in here. Keeping it real, and much appreciated.
=Steve

Metal Guru

Fifty lbs of oil dry did the trick

maverick

I concur...this forum used to be "alive".........My kids tell me a lot of forums have gone to facebook....I'm not on facebook.....so I guess old school:-)

Metal Guru

Facebook? Never!

urquattro20Vt

Glad to hear you're going to go for a drive - seems the car has sat with various projects a lot over the past couple years...

Metal Guru

Well, it's about to get pulled apart again but I should have it ready to go by early June, fingers crossed.

urquattro20Vt

what now? and what was the massive oil spill? Inquiring minds want to know....

Metal Guru

Oil spill was caused by a leaky used oil container (not my car )
The rest is due to my personal automotive OCD:
(1) After having Roush carefully mount my tires with their beautiful mounting/balancing equipment, I was distracted by my dear wife while unloading and dropped one of my rears face-down. Now I wait for Jim Dorociak to make a new outer up, followed by the prospect of a dis-assembly/re-assembly and re-mounting of said wheel.
(2) Since I chose to make my crossover out of 321 stainless, I couldn't get bends in a 2 inch radius, so I lose a little spool at 1800 rpm. My plan is to have the Roush fabricator who built it add a septum to divide the two branches and I will get a twin scroll Garrett.
If anyone is interested, I'll have a compact KKK K29 (K29 compressor, K27 hot side) with 5 hours on a Durabilt rebuild available for a reasonable price