Road-Testing the New Fuel Tank
I took Pearline for a test drive this afternoon to see how she did.
As I mentioned in my earlier post today, we replaced the fuel tank and the coil the previous day. As I’d promised my friend and helper Todd a steak dinner in exchange for his expertise and tools, I didn’t test the car yesterday. My goal in this test drive, aside from making sure Pearline works, is to not get so far away from town that the local tow truck driver has to drive 45 minutes to get me.
I drove to the local gas station and put 10 gallons of 91 octane Premium in the tank ($4.09/gallon). From there, I headed to the next town, which is 7 miles away. Last summer, that short of a trip would already have the temperature guage on “High”. Now, she barely touches “Normal”.
Over the next hour and a half, I drove 75 miles (120 km) at speeds up to 80 MPH (130 km/h). She would hiccup a little on the upslope of a hill after decelerating from the downslope. Pretty standard behavior for an old carburated vehicle. I stopped 3 times and let her sit 15 minutes or so each time and she started back up strong each time. It’s hard to say decisively that we solved the problem with the new tank, but it’s certainly better than it was before.
When I returned to town, I pulled back into the same fuel station and topped her back up. I went 75.3 miles (120 km) using 3.3 gallons (12.5 L) of fuel. This came to 22.9 MPG (9.7 KPL) for the trip. Not great, but better than I was getting last summer, when I was getting closer to 15 MPG (6.3 KPL).
When I pulled in my garage, my friend Todd pulled in behind me, having seen me speeding through town. We had a beer and talked about (American) football for a while. I noticed a small puddle of fuel beneath Pearline as he was leaving. My guess is we didn’t get the fuel pump line tight enough. Tomorrow is a work holiday, so I’ll get her put up on jackstands and track that down.
2023-01-16 - I got the MGB up on jackstands on Sunday morning. There was some drips on the floor of the garage. I drained the full fuel tank into 2 empty 5 gallon (20L) fuel cans, leaving perhaps 2 gallons (8L) in the tank. I tapped the lock ring off and compared the gasket from the sending unit with the one that I ordered separately. If only a bit, the separate gasket was a bit thicker. Or at least to my imagination.
I reassembled everything and made sure to tap the lock ring as tight as I could get from a prone position, on my back, under the tank. I refilled the tank from the fuel cans and then stopped at the filling station to top up any lost fuel. I went for a 75 mile (110 Km) drive, stopping a few times to let her sit and rest to see if any leaks happened. I had no issues.
The next day, I could smell fuel in the garage, but there isn’t any evidence of dripping. I am hoping it’s just residual fuel smell from the previous day.
It turns out the drip was because the sending unit lock ring wasn’t tightened enough. I’ve since edited the previous post to indicate that the ring needs to be firmly tightened.