Thread: Temporary Fuel Tank

Originally Posted by Dark61

When I eventually fire up the series 2 - pending a proper clean, I thought I'd bypass the fuel tank as it looks a bit murky. Is it enough just to stick the fuel lift pipe in a bottle or do I have to be a bit more creative? Surprisingly , I cant find an awful lot of anything about it on You Tube and not much in detail on here either.
cheers,
D

I dont see why that wouldn't work.... I'd do it.... but "suck it and see engineering" is how I roll!

That will work, but please be careful not to have any spilled petrol about, and ensure that there is no possibility of the bottle falling over or sparks nearby. (I assume a petrol engine - if diesel, the fire risk is minimal, but you have a fuel return line to deal with.

John

yep, I reccomend a 2 or 3 liter coke bottle, drill a small hole in the cap just undersize of the pickup, poke that through the cap so it hits the bottom of the bottle. fill the bottle mostly full screw it back onto the cap and then start it. if you need to you can lift it higher than the pump and give it a gentle squeeze to aid priming.

all good - and thanks for the heads up re safety etc. Yes its petrol so will be careful. I have a new smallish plastic petrol can which is quite robust and will do for the job. I was thinking you might have to provide some kind of breather? but I guess its not as technical as I thought.
Thanks for the help.
cheers,
D

You will need a breather if you're running the engine for more than a few minutes. I've seen a metal 4 litre petrol tin totally crushed by air pressure when attached to a fuel pump without a breather. The most important thing is to have your petrol container opening at least 2 metres away from any ignition source by using a long piece of fuel hose. Wedge the fuel container so it doesn't fall over and loosely stuff a plastic bag around the fuel hose into the container. If you could get a spare pourer top for the fuel container you could modify it to have a pickup tube and breather tube sealed into it.