• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

E27 fuel tank replacement

Kevin A Wright

Member III
I switched from gas to diesel on my 1977 E27. Since the original tank was in good condition I just left it in place. Flushed it with some fresh gas and then converted it to diesel. Only thing needed for the conversion was to install a fuel return line which I could drill in the top of the tank while using a vacuum cleaner to keep the chips out of the tank. Also made a good little hole to poke a camera into to inspect the interior. Then screw the new spigot on with a gasket to seal to the tank. I also changed the deck fill so it said diesel instead of gasoline. That was it.

If you are going to replace the tank, don't go crazy trying to get another gallon of storage in there. The original A4 used about 1 gallon/hr of gasoline. My Perkins M20 averaged 1 quart/hr of diesel for normal cruising. For a nice long cruising year, and lots of crabbing trips, I might top the tank up twice per year. And that was without running anywhere close to empty before filling again (since there was no fuel gauge on the E27 I just used engine hours to estimate when to fill up). So with the same sized tank (15 gallons) you're getting a 400% increase in cruising range. If a 12 gallon was easier to install, you'd only get a 320% increase in range. Oh, the horror!

And to answer others questions, yes getting the original tank up and out of the lazarette would be a serious pain, unless you happened to be under 4' tall with 5' long arms with two sets of elbows.

Kevin Wright
E35 Hydro Therapy
 

bgary

Advanced Beginner
Blogs Author
...since there was no fuel gauge on the E27 I just used engine hours to estimate when to fill up)….

It's a good tip. I've learned that Makana uses about 0.45g/hour at a nice comfortable 6 knots (2400 rpm)

But in addition, being a "log" kinda guy, I'll add a random tidbit. Over the 3 years I've had Makana, each time I've filled the tank I've popped the inspection port off the tank and measured - yeah, stuck a tape-measure - down in the hole to measure how far from the top of the inspection port to the surface of the fuel it holds.

What I've got now is a pretty good yardstick (no pun intended). If I'm down 2 inches, I know I've used about 4 gallons of fuel. If I'm down 5 inches, I've used about 12 gallons of fuel. Etc. (note that the numbers aren't linear, because of the shape of the tank...)

A little bit anal, yes, but... even if I'll never really know how much fuel I have "left", it's nice to know how much I've used, and be able to plan accordingly.
 

Kevin A Wright

Member III
That's interesting Bruce. Since my E35 III averages about 0.43gal/hr. Pretty darn close. Even though I now have a fuel gauge I still calculate and stick a little note by the engine hour meter for "next fillup". And with a 40 gallon tank, I only fill up once per year now and don't ever come close to my note.

Using a stick wasn't an option on my old E27. There was an 'S' curve in the fill line with prevented a straight stick method of measurement. I tried a tape measure a couple of times, but who knows what angle it went into the fuel at. Also why I tended to refill when I calculated I still had 1/3 tank remaining. And after over 20 years of running that way it came out amazingly close to my estimates every fillup.

Actually there was no engine hour meter on my E27 originally. The reason I installed it was primarily to use as a surrogate fuel gauge. It was a whole lot easier to do than put in a float fuel gauge and with the odd shape of the E27 tank, was a lot more accurate as well.

Kevin Wright
E35 Hydro Therapy
 
Top