Name Greg F.
Subject: Fuel tank
Message: Hi George,
Thank you for your informative CD.
One thing I notice a common thread on is the poor quality of the Indian fuel tanks as supplied with their “CS Listeroids”
Who makes decent tanks or what do you suggest as a replacement for these leaking fracturing items. We bought a couple of “new” stored motors from a guy in Australia a couple of months ago and the first one we ran fractured the tank and broke off one mounting bracket. A subsequent fireworks display followed after contact with a rotating flywheel. Luckily we were standing nearby and shutdown the whole show.
Thank you again for your service.
Regards
Greg F.
Greg, good to hear from you!
As you likely read in the long article, (small book) “Listeroid Longevity”, I wrote that Lister clone tanks are from barely useful to junk. I did find the cheapest of tanks had fuel caps that were far worse than ‘one time use’ screw tops that the western world makes and tosses away, but over the last 12 years I have seen some pretty fair tanks. I’ve seen them on Lovsons, JKsons, and a number of others, fact is, the names being shared by various Cousins in Aus, are some of the better brands of clones. The worst of the lot are made of very thin sheet metal, and normally find their way to markets where there is little money to buy better quality. I saw a few of them arrive on our North American shores where the caps were so cheaply made they could be crushed between your thumb and fore finger.
There’s a question to be asked right off.. are you attempting to build a replica of the Lister CS, or are you attempting to make a stationary reliable power plant? If it is the later, you are best off mounting the fuel tank off the engine. I highly recommend you mount anything possible off the engine frame, whether it be a gauge, volt meter, even a light bulb will last longer away from vibration.
Here, I highly recommend plastic fuel tanks of about six gallons. I guess that’s near 24 litres for you. and most have a carry handle, and can easily be placed on a shelf above the engine for good gravity flow.. I use a quick connect, same as on an outboard motor, this allows one to move the tank out doors, or even take it to a petrol station to be filled directly. Once you try this, you’ll never have it any other way.
I don’t have a good picture of this tank right now, but you can see a red tank above on a shelf in this video.. easy to pull down, fill, and return to the shelf..
All the best,
George B.
I have never got around to changing tanks but it is on my list. When I do I will install an outlet on the bottom of a five gallon plastic bucket and put a Gamma seal on top. That way the whole top is open and pouring fuel in will be extremely fast and not involve a funnel.
Bill, it’s what’s nice about DIY, every guy gets to try it his own way. It would be real easy for you to fit a prefilter inside your bucket too.. The boat tank is cheap, many have durable fuel gauges, their made to stand up, or lay flat, they have a generous flat surface. One down side, most need a little help to get the siphon started, I add a squeeze pump like you find on boats to act as a primer, this can help prime pumps and lines when you’ve changed filter elements, etc. We note that many diesel trucks have such a pump to aid in filter change..