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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Fuel Tank

I've read that a 1500 rubber bumper 7 gall fuel tank
can't be fitted to a mk111.
I need a larger tank as the one I have presently does not hold enough for rallying.
Any ideas?
Peter King

Where did you read that?

As far as I know I fitted the later 7 gall fuel tank to my 69 Sprite and you only need to convert to the later type of fuel sender (which was negative earth same as my 69). However, the tank turned out to be more like 6.75 gall and it wasn't worth the bother of swapping.
Daniel

On the MGOC Spares site it's confusing and a bit contradictory -
"Petrol tank- 1500 NRP1199
Fits G-AN6 182001 on 7 Gallon

Deeper capacity 7 Gallon tank, only suitable for rubber bumper midget 1500

NB NRP8Z reproduction 72 on tank is suitable although tank capacity reduced.

Related Items;
18G8601 FUEL FILLER CAP CHROME
BRA960 TANK SENDER UNIT MID72>
CHA452 CONNECTOR FUEL FILL
CPP7148 FUEL PIPE OUTLET
E020 PETROL CAP RV8 STYLE LOCKING
E021 PETROL CAP SS LOCKING
NRP8K FITTING KIT FUEL TANK %"


"Petrol tank- 72 > NRP8Z
From Chassis No G-AN5105501

Tank capacity = 5.83 imperial gallons or 25.5 Litres

Depending on year it may be necessary to bend the sender float arm to compensate for reduced capacity

Related Items;
21A168 TANK SENDER UNIT MID>67
2A404 TANK SENDER UNIT FROGEYE
53K165 SCREW SENDER UNIT
AHA5663 FILLER PIPE
AHA7381 PIPE TANK OUTLET 1275
BHA4711 TANK SENDER UNIT 1275>72
GGT104 FLEXI FUEL HOSE 10
GHC1622 HOSE CLIP 55-70MM
NRP9K FITTING KIT FUEL TANK %"


"21 - Petrol tank- Midget > 72 NRP9Z
Up to Chassis No G-AN5105500

Tank capacity = 5.83 imperial gallons or 25.5 Litres

Depending on year it may be necessary to bend the sender float arm to compensate for reduced capacity.

Related Items;
21A168 TANK SENDER UNIT MID>67
2A404 TANK SENDER UNIT FROGEYE
53K165 SCREW SENDER UNIT
AHA5663 FILLER PIPE
AHA7381 PIPE TANK OUTLET 1275
BHA4711 TANK SENDER UNIT 1275>72
GGT104 FLEXI FUEL HOSE 10
GHC1622 HOSE CLIP 55-70MM
NRP9K FITTING KIT FUEL TANK %"

6.75 gal is better than 5.83 gal but not for another £129.30 (£244.25 against £114.95) plus different sender.
Nigel Atkins

Thanks Nigel,

The problem that I have on rallies I'm finding that I'm getting low on petrol after about 80 miles as the engine not far off race spec and finding fuel on route can be difficult and this is when we lose time and have to go like the clappers to catch up.
So I'll have to think whether to carry on with rallies or go hillclimb & sprints unless I can find an alternative tank.
Peter King

Surely the obvious answer is to have an extra tank in the boot.

Trev
T Mason

I'm guessing that a tank in the boot might be difficult due to spare wheels etc for rallying?

You could have a larger capacity ally tank made to fit where the standard one goes. Would cost £2-300 I guess. You could still have the standard filler neck etc but I think you would need to remove the original tank studs and bolt through.

John Payne

This was good enough for John Sprinzel (just saying)!


Gary London with Gapless

You could make a deeper tank by cutting 2 new tanks at the 1/3 point (top on one and bottom on other and welding together. If you have access to a steam cleaner to thoroughly clean the tanks of any petrol vapour you could do the same thing with old tanks. You'd need to use an aftermarket tank sender or extend the rod of a standard tank sender. Or buy or have one made in stainless steel.
Daniel

I'm doubting you can have 5 gal. can strapped into the passenger side seat

I'd employ a little creativity to the boot area and just reorganize something to fit


If your only able to get 80 miles per tank... then it might need a plan B idea... less shoe leather perhaps

BTW..

8 miles per gallon of fuel ???

... what do you have under the bonnet of your car... that's one hot race engine
1 Paper

The Midget Atlantis used a modified early MGB tank with 10 gallon capacity. I don't know how they did it but would love to know. Searched the web for hours but cannot find any details.

Rob
MG Moneypit

I have an 9 gallon alloy tank bought at Frontline.
They don't sell them anymore but some others had them made on order at some welding place.
Make your own drawing and get an estimate from your local contact.

My tank is bolted to the original studs but could be that one stud was removed... at the back?
I don't think the tank is deeper or wider sideways but wider to the rear as mine almost stops where the rear bodypanelstarts.
And have a swirlpot (=/- 1ltr extra) hooked up in the fuelsystem (K-series engine swap).
Im very pleased with travel I can do before having to fuel up again



A de Best

fabrication job then. . . .
play with some cardboard, cut and tape your mock up, do a drawing, then you sir are ready to discover the joy off making your own custom solution. With a straight through exhaust system you must be able to utilise the space of the original 'across the back' silencer.
A mate of mine does aluminium welding, but he takes on more work than he can ever do, so if you are happy to wait a year then fine, but there must be a clever stick on this forum that could help you.
P Bentley

I know Neil Thomas(now editor MASC) had one made so he might be able to help you with dimensions/drawings.
A de Best

I had mine made at Alloy Race Fabrications near Newark. Ask for Jim and tell him it’s for a Midget. I just sent him a decent 3 angle drawing and got an estimate. Took couple of months as he has a waiting list for one offs. Really good quality and foam filled to avoid surge. I made mine deeper at the front than at the rear so fuel sits at the pick up point when nearly empty.

http://www.alloyracingfabrications.com


John Payne

alloy racing fabrications. . . .quality looking stuff, and its shiny. . . .whats not to like
P Bentley

One point to watch is if you're likely to want a new performance exhaust system, the new big-bore Maniflow one has a 90 degree bend and the main box is across the back of the car like late 1275s and the r/bs. Maybe the best large tank design is to go deeper and cut a hole in the boot floor?
David Smith

Hi David, The exhaust (bespoke) runs straight out the back and over rear axle very little chance of being ripped off.

As far as someone's idea of installing in passenger compartment this is a no-no as far as competition rules go and can't fit into boot as that's were spare wheel, jack and tools go.

But some good ideas for me to think about over winter.
Thanks all
Peter King

Peter

See: http://www.mg-cars.net/mg-midget-sprite-technical-bbs/long-range-fuel-tank-2017030519480310995.htm

http://www.mg-cars.net/mg-midget-sprite-technical-bbs/fuel-tanks-2017032820562120407.htm

Why don't you go for the BMC works rally type tank (see first link above) and put the spare wheel behind the seats (maybe with no diagonal rear roll cage)

Thanks
Mike
M Wood

Peter

See the Nov 2017 News item 'NEWS ON THAT PETROL TANK OF RICHARD ROOKS ~ FROM TOM COULTHARD' that details a 12 gallon tank that was fabricated from 2 standard tanks and fitted to a Frogeye for rallying in period: http://www.sebringsprite.com/latestnews.html

(This was the car I was thinking of in my post above - it was not a BMC works car - wonky memory,)

Cheers
Mike
M Wood

This might help Peter's current question about making a larger fuel tank.

From http://www.sebringsprite.com/news2017.html Nov 2017 (see pictures too)

NEWS ON THAT PETROL TANK OF RICHARD ROOKS ~ FROM TOM COULTHARD:
"I have a match for Richard Rooks’s fuel tank and, no, I don’t think it’s from a farm tractor and it may be the ’12 gallon’ fuel tank supplied by Healey Speed Equipment in 1960/61. We know that earlier (in 1958/59) the Healeys used two bottom halves of a standard Sprite tank welded together, but we also know that wasn’t very satisfactory: as John Sprinzel remembers, it took an age to get the last two gallons into it because of the shape and it required a large hole to be cut in the boot floor, reducing boot space and making spare wheel access even more difficult. It seems highly likely that the DH MoCo would have come up with an improved version. WER 354 needed a long-distance tank for its participation in the inaugural Nűrburgring 500 km race in September 1960, and owner William Franklin was a good customer at Grosvenor Street, as John also remembers and is confirmed by the “Motoring News” road test, although WER still had a standard tank then. This (right) is a detail shot of WER up on a ramp at Clifton’s ServWER tankice Station, Sidcup on the 1961 Monte:
And here (left) is a pic of the tank as it is today:

WER tank
You cansee from the shape of the filler that it is frogeye-specific: it looks like Richard’s tank dates from 1961 as it uses the Mk II Sprite filler arrangement, which must have made handling a lot easier. I suggest Richard’s cut-out is to give clearance for the Panhard rod assembly which was fitted to so many Speedwells – the tank leaves very little room behind the axle. One disadvantage is that, as the tank is full-width there is no space for a rear silencer, which requires the use of a side-exit exhaust. Also it is no lightweight – WER’s weighs in at something over 13 kg, which may explain why others do not seem to have survived: racers were having alloy tanks fabricated like the one Andrew Hedges fitted to 410 EAO".

Cheers
Mike
M Wood

There's another option as well
The GT500 Cortina that was developed for Bathurst here in 1965/66 had an extra tank made to fit behind the rear firewall in the front area of the bootspace-It was fed by 2 LeMans type fillers from up behind the rear window and the bottom of it fed into the original tank-This setup allowed for two people with churns to refill it at the same time as allowed in the rules at the time and a total of around 15 gallons if I remember corectly
I owned one of these for a while, the fuel gauge still ran off the original sender in the bottom/original tank---When it was full up you could drive around for hours with the tank on full till the top tank emptied and then it all worked as normal--good setup
You would only need one filler really but the concept could work on a Midget/Sprite

Actually, just looking at that pic, the rear firewall isn't actually a firewall,you can see the rear seat springs, they didn't pick up on that then
You wouldn't get away with that today----or want to-
Cheers
willy



William Revit

This thread was discussed between 20/11/2017 and 17/10/2018

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.