Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello chaps and chapesses,
Any opinions over a larger fuel tank for a saloon? I’ve enquired at the Birmingham shop about their larger tanks but it seems their tank grows upwards so the spare wheel doesn’t fit into its slot in the boot anymore. So, what about cutting an existing tank just below the flange and welding in a strip all the way round to make it deeper. The logic is that all the baffles and the fuel strainer and pickup will still be at the bottom where they should be and with an extension on the sender arm all should be well. A strip 3” wide should give an extra 3 gallons by my rough calcs. Does anyone see any problems? Someone must have tried it before.
Cheers, Colin.

Does anyone see any problems?

Leaky welding, igniting petrol vaour..... big bang.....

Hello Colin,
my only reservation is, could there any chance of the bottom of the tank catching something, say when you reverse over a verge. I suppose you could always install a skid plate to protect it.
As for welding a tank, I have done that a few times, (repair not modification) by filling it with water, no bangs so far. At least if you cut it in half you can get it properly steam cleaned.

Alec

You can make up a method to fit the spare under the bonnet, and that also allows for Van rims etc..

If your modified tank hangs down further than normal there is more chance of scraping it. Also it's more likely to rupture in the unlikely event that your Minor is hit from behind and the other vehicle's nose burrows under the bumper.

Unless you're on a long distance rally miles from civilisation, why bother with a larger tank? Good practice is to take a break every couple of hours driving anyway, and the standard tank will easily do that. There can't be many places in Britain where petrol stations are that far apart! It really sounds like an "improvement" that isn't.

simmitc wrote:Unless you're on a long distance rally miles from civilisation, why bother with a larger tank? Good practice is to take a break every couple of hours driving anyway, and the standard tank will easily do that. There can't be many places in Britain where petrol stations are that far apart! It really sounds like an "improvement" that isn't.

Agreed. Most people, I suspect, fill their fuel tank to capacity each time. I know I do, more from habit than necessity. So why pay the oil companies the extra money for more fuel and then just carry it around longer?

Guys,

this is a very good idea for a conversion, I have been muttering about it for a long time. In our '57 the tank is about 6gals (I think). For those of us that use the car EVERYday and not just jaunts at the weekend, this translates to having fill the tank up at least once a week, in the other car, we can go 3 weeks without visiting the petrol station. It comes down to practicality.

As it happens, with Marina wheels I cant a spare underthe boot floor anyway, so I can get the off the shelf version. Ray suggested moving the wheel to the bonnet, I had heard stories of tyres not liking the engine heat, but cant comment on the truth of that, otherwise that sounds like a good suggestion. Alternatively can you get away with can of tyre foam?

Might be worth considering. We carry one aswell simply because it is less hassel than changing the tyre.

regards

H

Alternatively can you get away with can of tyre foam?

75% of the time that's fine.
I read last month's Porsche mag and lack of spare wheel got a mention. The Jouralist had been given a Cayene for the day (the Porker 4x4 that costs as much as a house). As it had the 19" alloys there is no spare. The guys didn't get as far as the off road track as they had a puncture whilst still on tnice tarmac and then needed a recovery vehicle to get their sorry vehicle back to London. So a big 'clever' company like Porsche think that a 4x4 is fine without a spare
Personally I think carrying a spare should be a legal requirement.

having fill the tank up at least once a week

When I used my mog everyday i had to fill up 2 or 3 times a week normally......

I had heard stories of tyres not liking the engine heat,

You could get some heat resistant material to reflect the heat away from the tyre........

I had heard stories of tyres not liking the engine heat, but cant comment on the truth of that

I've wondered about that too, but having never burnt my hand on a bonet stay I don't see it will be very hot. After a long drive, road tyres can easily be above 30°C so if you used just a sheet of ply under the wheel in the bonnet to reflect any radiated heat, then it probably stays plenty cool enough. If you are really worried about tyre life then yopu can rotate the wheel with one of the others often enough so that it doesn't sit in the warmth for donkeys years.
The underbonnet location has been recommended in the owners club mag as well as showing a simple way to fabricate the brackets.

I am sure i have seen some citroen's of old with spare tyres over the engine??

I am sure i have seen some citroen's of old with spare tyres over the engine??

yes - and some Peugeots too.

I am sure i have seen some citroen's of old with spare tyres over the engine??

And god forbid the Talbot Samba

G'day Colin,
the normal mod down here in OZ is to use a tank from a Ford Escort MK2 van... you have to change the angle of the filler pipe slightly, but hey presto, 10 Gallons!! With regard to the spare tyre , the tank does stand slightly taller than the morris but all you then do is raise the timber shelf accordingly. Hope this is a help to you
Cheers from sunny Australia!!

G'day to you Frosty and welcome to the board . I'm sure a Winter's day in Queensland is better than our British summer....

Interesting that a mk2 Escort van's tank is the same shape as a Moggie. Unfortunately in the UK I bet that 99% of them became razor blades before the end of the 1990s.

frosty wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2004 2:42 am G'day Colin,
the normal mod down here in OZ is to use a tank from a Ford Escort MK2 van... you have to change the angle of the filler pipe slightly, but hey presto, 10 Gallons!! With regard to the spare tyre , the tank does stand slightly taller than the morris but all you then do is raise the timber shelf accordingly. Hope this is a help to you
Cheers from sunny Australia!!

Heya Frosty just wondering how do you go about changing the angle of the filler pipe and also what do you do about a fuel level sender?

He may have forgotten, it was 14 years ago!

I love it when these old threads come to life again.

There’s a lot of interesting information on this board you may not otherwise come across unless you happen to be deliberately searching the topic.

OK this is nothing to do with cutting petrol tanks to enlarge them as per the OP, but having upgraded a little 803cc five gallon tank for a 6.5 gallon tank, there are three slight modifications required:
You will need to cut the fuel pipe so that it is slightly shorter.
You will need to obtain the later spare wheel clamp as the original is now too short!
You will need to bend the wire on the sender gauge so that the float sits lower in the tank.
I also had to fabricate a gasket out of a large cardboard box for the tank where it sits in the boot area. I think I used the box the bigger tank came in. I also needed a new gasket for the sender unit as the old one was destroyed by taking it out.
Hope this may help someone going down the same route in one of the older models. You can then get a bit further on a full tank!