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MG MGB Technical - gas tank w/o baffles

I just purchased a new gas tank. Looking through the opening for the sending unit, the new tank has none of the baffles as did the old one.

Is there any other purpose for the baffles other than to keep the gasoline from sloshing back and forth. Are the baffles a neccessity?
S Rechter

It is a cheaper construction. The baffles keep the gas from moving around and starving out the engine.
Frank Baker

I noticed this on my new gas tank aswell. Anyone have a problem with fuel starvation because of the missing baffles?
TIA,
Rufus
Rufus Pool

Don't know why you would. The baffled tanks weren't compartmentalized. Every baffle had ample passageways so gas would flow almost unobstructedly from place to place. What they did was prevent the sloshing noise on side-to-side movement. Most of this can be prevented by a good coat of sound deadening undercoating and keeping the gas tank pretty full all the time.
tom

I think the baffling was to reduce the amount of fuel gauge swinging, and neither my old or new 73 tanks had it, but then it has the thermal gauge which is less affected by needle swing anyway. With SU carbs you would have to put a helluva lot of G on it for a helluva long time to starve the engine.
Paul Hunt

Mine has only a minimal baffle next to the pick up , never a problem with fuel starvation , so maybe it's just I cant generate as much lateral G as the car is capable of ?
S Best

I have an unbaffled aftermarket tank in my 1977 MGB Rover EFI V8 conversion. It will unport when the gauge shows slightly less than 1/2 full during sporting right turns, slightly embarassing. So I have to do most of my showing off with left turns.

Edd Weninger

Thanks for all of your comments.

As for the quality of the tank, it is made in Canada and is contructed very well.

I saved quite a lot of money buying direct from the supplier versus the typical MG suppliers. Shipping costs were minimal and it was delivered to me in three days.

Here is a link to the web site:

http://www.autopn.com/autoparts/gastanks/steel_gas_tanks.html
S Rechter

I just cheked the site and the early tank thru 70 is $10.00 more on there site then from Moss. Bob Thompson/International Auto
Bob Thompson

I may have this same problem as posted under "high speed misfire". My tank is new and has no baffle. Under extended agressive driving the car cuts out. It did .98 G on the skid pad last summer so I'm assumming that's enough to sling the fuel away from the pickup even with half a tank.
Matt

Bob,

I paid $189 for the tank for a 75B, Moss wanted $287.
S Rechter

Here’s another thought on baffles. If you have five gallons of gasoline in the tank it weights just over 40 pounds and is evenly distributed across the bottom of the tank. In a turn you have all 40 pounds on one side of the car if there are no baffles whereas even one baffle down the center will keep approximately 20 pounds on each side.
George Champion

Spot on, George, that makes sense. If they find it worthwhile to balance the car by moving batteries and things around, I'd imagine how 50-100 pounds of fuel sloshing around the lightweight back end of an MG would add a pretty sizeable sort of 'random balance variable' that the carmakers might have wanted to avoid.

Even so, I doubt anyone ever envisioned that these cars would sustain .98g on the skidpad (tell me how you did that, Matt!)

Sam

I think there are a couple of issues in my mind:

- A lot of parts for the MGB are of lesser quality and more cheaply made than the orginal. the orginal tank had baffles. I have a new tank without baffles and with a low tank on a curve it can and does starve the carbs out. Baffles would be preferable.
- If the orginal tank did not have baffles, I could have gotten a sand blast nozzle in the tank and saved it. The rust could have been blasted out. Becasue of the baffles that was not possible. So the baffles actually forced the replacement rather than the repair.
- If I had my choise, I would rather have a composite material tank with the sending unit on the top (I like the GM unit - same ohm range, cheaper, and better). This setup would protect the ocupants in an accedent, improve this crazy leakage path in the side of the tank.
F Murch

I managed .98g last May with the help of 205/50-15s and a very large Addco front anti-roll bar. I think it will break 1g the next time. I didn't have a rear bar and it would lift the front inside wheel off the ground. I have a picture at: http://photobucket.com/albums/v307/dandomatic2/fall_down_dead/motorwerks/

It's the next to last picture. Oddly enough, I don't remember it starving for fuel and I had just fitted the new tank.
Matt

This thread was discussed between 22/01/2005 and 02/02/2005

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