More parts collecting
I'll need bigger fuel capacity for the Vitesse although fuel injection should give me improved economy, and of course that's why I'm fitting it :-) The answer is either a twin tank arrangement al la works rally cars or a bespoke tank - I favour the bespoke idea. Making a tank to sit across the car behind the rear seats. However, such a tank would cost a fair amount and would have to be made up for me from scratch, I don't think I'm really up to the job. So back to twin tanks - put two Vitesse tanks in and you lose all your booot space,yes you do get huge fuel capacity, it's kinda overkill.
I was chewing the fat over this with Dave Pearson - he's got experience of twin Vitesse tanks and he thinks they were a contributory factor in his 10 Countries Run drive shaft failure. wo Vitesse tanks full of fuel are heavy! So, the solution is twin Herald tanks - smaller, lighter get bigger than one Vitesse tank. We have the added bonus that the piping already in place can be used for the PI Fuel return - you see you need to get fuel back into the tank with a PI set-up, kinda recirculating. For those that don't know, the PI system runs on high pressure fuel, regulated through a pressure relief valve. The PRV allows a constant measured pressure through, over pressure is handled by squirting the fuel back into the tank. The down side is that you don't want frothy petrol in your tank if you can help it, air bubbles in the pump would be a bad thing. So with the outlet in one tank and the return into the other you could have a good air separator set-up :-)
Anyway, I asked around for a couple of tanks and immediately Bill Davies from Rarebits for Classics pipe up - I've got loads, take some away please! He said. So today I took a drive down to his place in Calne and collected a couple of Herald 1200 tanks. I need to clean them out a bit and then they're ready for the project. One will have the filler turned around or maybe I'll just shorten it so it fills from inside the boot, that way I'll avoid cutting a hole in the rear wing - I;m undecided yet.
I was chewing the fat over this with Dave Pearson - he's got experience of twin Vitesse tanks and he thinks they were a contributory factor in his 10 Countries Run drive shaft failure. wo Vitesse tanks full of fuel are heavy! So, the solution is twin Herald tanks - smaller, lighter get bigger than one Vitesse tank. We have the added bonus that the piping already in place can be used for the PI Fuel return - you see you need to get fuel back into the tank with a PI set-up, kinda recirculating. For those that don't know, the PI system runs on high pressure fuel, regulated through a pressure relief valve. The PRV allows a constant measured pressure through, over pressure is handled by squirting the fuel back into the tank. The down side is that you don't want frothy petrol in your tank if you can help it, air bubbles in the pump would be a bad thing. So with the outlet in one tank and the return into the other you could have a good air separator set-up :-)
Anyway, I asked around for a couple of tanks and immediately Bill Davies from Rarebits for Classics pipe up - I've got loads, take some away please! He said. So today I took a drive down to his place in Calne and collected a couple of Herald 1200 tanks. I need to clean them out a bit and then they're ready for the project. One will have the filler turned around or maybe I'll just shorten it so it fills from inside the boot, that way I'll avoid cutting a hole in the rear wing - I;m undecided yet.
Comments