Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I picked up my donor ute body and leaf sprung chassis today, and had a thought today - use the ute tank as a sub tank (wagon with ute cab)

the basic idea:

- wagon tank in rear, ute tank in space under cab/along side chassis
- toggle switch between main tank/ute tank (ute tank runs on electric fuel pump when switch is activated) & toggle also switches to the sender on the 2nd tank (so you can still get a dashboard reading)

I'd probably have to run the main tank off an electric pump too (as the standard pump is mechanical)

Also, anyone know if the diesel ute tank/ fuel level senders are the same as the wagon petrol one? (and compatible with my petrol gauge dash)

sound do-able? any ideas/suggestions, or feedback from someone who has done this already?

Oh, and it's for a 4.2 petrol carby engine

Cheers,

Brian.

It sounds like quite a good idea. I have no idea if the petrol and diesel fuel senders are actually compatible, but from an engineering/manufacturing point of view it would be silly to do otherwise.

If your engine has a mechanical fuel pump it may be cheaper and simpler to use a solenoid valve to change which tank it sucks from. Only potential problem is if carby float bowl empties before mech pump can clear any air from the lines on switch over.

You could avoid this problem by using a system such as:

mech pump <== surge tank <== 'leccy pump <== solenoid valve <== (tanks)

But I don't see that this system is any simpler than your original proposal. You should also find out if your existing system has any return lines, and work out how to deal with them in your new system - or you may end up "over-filling" one tank.

Cheers,

Scott

a quick revision:

- use the sub tank to feed the main tank (kinda like a jackaroo/GU and whatever else)
- hook up the overflow line from the main tank into the fuel return of the sub tank (in case it's already full)
- hook up some sort of wet switch (like one that operates a low fuel light), that will activate a normally closed relay and will switch off the pump (and not kill the pump when the tank is empty and wants to keep pumping)

just pondering if I should run some sort of automatic switching for the tank to start filling up (ie microswitch on the fuel gauge) or just flicking a switch and keep going at it

Cheers,

Brian.

A mate did this very simply.
he just plumbed a fuel pump from the second tank into the main tank with an on/off switch.
on a long trip, he just manually transfered fuel from the second tank to the main tank which was being used, whilst parked up for a break.
When you empty the second tank, the pump sound changes and you turn it off.....

what sort of pump did he use?
how long would it take to empty the ute tank into the main one?
where was the fuel feed into the main tank from the sub tank? - I'm thinking about putting a fitting on the filler neck part of the tank, so the fuel will flow directly into the main tank, and use the overflow part of the tank as a return line (if it overfilled)