It was hard to get a good shot inside the tank, but I can assure you that some of it looks uglier than this!
Technically it is true that anything can be saved - but for me it will be new tanks sending units hoses etc.
Probably there have been older XJās scrapped out over the cost of this repair for owners who do not do the work themselves and have to pay shop rates. Its not especially bad in comparison to other intricate repairs I have done - but it is tedious with many hours of labor.
You can use the more common Series III fuel tanks that might be easier to find.
Motorcars LTD (British Parts International) in Houston used to have fuel tanks for sale.
A few modifications will be required to fit the later fuel injection style tanks but they will work.
Oh, Lord!
You know youāre forcing me to do the same thing, and Iām not looking forward to it. Ignorance is truly bliss
I 've just been caring around fuel filters in the boot. swap them out about every month when they start to change color. Crap, Iām gonna have to pull the tanks. Ugh!
Thatās the thing about "Barn Findā cars: the paint can be buffed and brought back to life like I have done here, but after 23 years of sitting in that manās garage some of the inner bits have decayed in archeological fashion.
Mark, Iāll be happy if I inspire you or any others to dig in and do the work that needs to be done. Wouldnāt it be nice if there was a show a hundred miles or more away and you once again had a longer distance capable car to make a day of it? Iāll make the suggestion that you make it a lazy repair process in which you donāt try to do everything in one day. Iāll even be happy to give you a more long winded explanation of all the details I have omitted. You can do it!
Carl, with all the changes that pump gasoline has undergone, I wish that stainless steel or polypropylene replacements were available. Otherwise fast forward a few decades into the future and even the current ni terne steel aftermarket tank replacements will have become rusty.
After a little online research - the ideal material is HDPE - high density Polyethylene. This can be injection molded or with a mold where they drop in some bilk material, and the mold is closed up, and rotates on a gymbal system while it is heated. I saw one of these at Raven Industries in Sioux Falls, SD. They were making VERY large storage tanks - like 10 feet or more across.Something like the XJ6 tanks COULD be made by one of the prototyping firms around the US, - my guess is between $5,000 and $10000 to prototype it. But then there is the liability if you decided to sell them. Weāre talking about an automobile component here, full of gasoline! Would be nice to plastic replacement that didnāt rust.
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
9
Wouldnāt it be more practical to just fab tanks out of aluminum? There are lots of shops that make fuel tanks for marine applications out of aluminum. Seems to me you just take them the old tanks and say āFab me replacementsā and they weld together something thatāll never rust.
Probably aluminum or steel. Iām seriously considering drawing up a plan to remove the XJ6 wing tanks and fabricate a single tank that would go in the boot space in front of the spare. It would have somewhat less capacity, but be a little safer than those wing tanks which would get crushed in a fender impact. I could attach Both filler holes on the fenders so the car could be gassed up from either side to fill the single tank. Put a drain in the middle, and move the fuel pump to the front of the boot.
Not a bad plan, but I think you will have a very small tank and very limited autonomy.
If I was to go on all that trouble and expense I would either remove the spare and use all that space, or move the ECU and put it behind the rear seat.
I opened the boot last night and took a quick look. There appears to be room for moving the spare down. That would place the tank and accessories (pump, filter, piping towards the top with the spare at te bottom. Iām pausing this project for now to give me a chance to examine the tanks and their condition. If it becomes necessary to replace them, (or even remove to fix) Iāll seriously consider the single tank option. It would make a nice conversation starter - being able to fill the car from either side.
Decades ago. CA mandated old steel under ground gasoline tanks be tested for leakage. many, if not most failed. Removal mandatory.
A major chemical company designed and marketed fibreglass units as non corrosive. Ugh, they split at the joint!!!
At one time, i tried to make a fuel tank from resin and mat for my Austin dune buggy/ looked awful and leaked like a sieve. Two WWII Jerry cans were far betterā¦
Iād suspect that the twin wing tanks were Jaguarās response to the consequences of the design decision in favor of that tapered rear end and the voluminous IRS. At the time fuel tanks were mostly placed behind the rear axle underneath the trunk. Not enough height available. It may have appeared clever to use the hard to access space inside the wings for the tanks. And no, I canāt see any particular risk in case of accidents. Jaguar XJs are loved by banger racers. Iāve never heard of any incident related to the location of the tanks.
The later position between the cabin and the trunk makes it hard to use the wing space and/or requires a different layout of the rear end. The XJ40 abandoned the IRS with inboard brakes and had a higher trunk line.
Most modern cars have plastic tanks molded into the shape of the car body, underneath the rear seats etc. Thank you, Carl, for your report! I would have loved to replace the XJ wing tanks by modern plastic parts - but this is certainly not a DIY job!
It started long before the IRS with the MKVII in 1950. I think the motivation was a bigger trunk. I have a MKV DHC, single tank under the boot floor, very strangely shaped and small trunk, almost as bad as an E-type OTS.
The twin tanks were designed both for the two spaces that were available but also to give the car better handling and balance. Imagine 20 gals (180lb?) sloshing from side to side in a conventional single tank. Definitely the twin tanks give the XJ6/12 Series I to III better poise and itās great to have a second tank if something goes wrong with one of them.
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
20
Youāre supposed to fill one with regular gasoline and the other with rocket fuel, are you not?
