Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

The ?69 came with the original shell tank and an aluminum one.

The steel tank will need a fair amount of reconditioning, any reason not to use the aluminum one?

6 Elans later, I vote for throwing away the (incredibly thin rust prone) stock tank and replacing it with either stainless (heavy) or alloy (light).

How handy you have an alloy one available!

One thing to think about with the alloy one is how the mounting studs are attached. Welded alloy studs are likely to have issues down the road. There are designs out there where there is a thick mounting pad with female threads allowing the use of a replaceable steel or stainless steel stud, or even a properly short bolt. But beware the bolt method as if it's just a wee bit long you can crank it in too far with rather bad results.

Have it anodized black or paint it if you want to be less obvious.

Thanks for the detailed response.

This tank has stoutly welded studs on it.

Are they under that much stress?

Thanks!

tdskip wrote:Thanks for the detailed response.

This tank has stoutly welded studs on it.

Are they under that much stress?

Thanks!

As long as you use rubber washers between the body and tank plus rubber washers between the nylock nuts and body, you'll be fine. Just snug the nuts gently home.

Thanks, will go gently when tightening.

Rubber washers = large neoprene fender washers?

Has the aluminium (aluminum) tank got an oulet pipe on it? I can't see one but the steel one has. Definately scrap the steel one.

lotusfan wrote:Has the aluminium (aluminum) tank got an oulet pipe on it? I can't see one but the steel one has. Definately scrap the steel one.

It better!

99.99% it does but isn?t visable due to angle of the picture. Will double check later today.

tdskip wrote:Thanks for the detailed response.

This tank has stoutly welded studs on it.

Are they under that much stress?

Thanks!

Not stress, but rather alloy threads tend to gall (and eventually strip) if you don't religiously use a bit of antisieze, and they don't like to be bent and re-straightened.

As for stress, they are prone to stretching (leading to breaks) if over tightened, but you won't be doing that.

Got it!

@lotusfan - glad I left myself a .01% out!



Well well well - guess what is missing?

No fuel outlet!

oops

For what its worth - I probably shouldn't have done this but I sat my alloy tank on a thin yoga mat between the tank and the boot. I haven't yet fitted the boot floor but when I checked it didn't look like it was going to be a problem. I guess the actual fit depends on the tank design and dimensions.

Gavin

Love the yoga mat idea.

Can I drill and rig weld an outlet there?

Other ideas?

What if I simply ran my fuel line in a slightly different way, using the drain plug as a pick up point to connect to the engine via a low pressure electric feel pump?

I assume this is where the fuel line is supposed to connect on the back firewall /trunk shelf?

tdskip wrote:I assume this is where the fuel line is supposed to connect on the back firewall /trunk shelf?

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Yes, to the fitting on the black nylon fuel line.

Regards,
Dan