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Larger or Auxillary Fuel Tank ?

Hi

I am a LHD 2006 UK Element owner but I travel around Europe as a PDR Hail chaser. The Element is just about perfect for carrying my tools and lamps with ability to stop on the excellent motorway services overnight.

My big bug bear is the tiny fuel tank I am getting between 280 to 350 miles per fill up but on long journeys I have to stop to fill up 3 times which is very annoying.

Any thoughts/solutions ?

Any other UK or European owners want to meet up ?

David
 
Only solution that would be feasible would be to have someone make(or buy a fuel cell that fits there) a fuel cell that would sit somewhere centrally located underneath the body. You would then need to get another OEM fuel pump to go in the tank, and a feed line that made a 'y' in to the existing fuel feed line, with a switchable valve(in car sounds like what you are looking for). This will not be an inexpensive mod, and probably can't be done for much less than 1000 dollars. You COULD use another set of OEM parts from the junk yard, but you may be pushing your luck, and a custom fuel cell will be much safer and more desirable.

I imagine that there are plenty of aftermarket shops willing to do the work if you have to coin to spend.
 
It has been discussed before on the site. Went looking for the thread. Did not find it.

As I remember it, the car lacks the room to add an additional tank. I believe the outcome of the thread, was to have a custom tank replace the existing tank. I don't believe it was ever done.

Dom

Thanks Lizzurd !! That's the one I was looking for !
 
I cant speak for awd elements but why not mod the exhaust muffler and cat to be more centralized and use a corvette style or mod a pair of element tanks

corvette fuel tank looks like this it has 2 tanks and a connector tube to equalize the fuel level between them.
Image


sure it would take some engineering but... under an element its pretty flat the floor isnt formed to exhaust and fueltanks like most cars/trucks etc so 2X element tanks would net you aprox 15.9 gal each so 31.8 gal and if companies do this to factory cars it must be relatively safe

just dont ask me how fuel gets from tank A. to tank B. theres only one fuel pump and its in tank B. you fuel up into tank A.

just remember it also makes a full tank of gas jump from 100lb to 200lb about
 
If someone really needed to have added capacity the most economical way would be to add a secondary tank into the spare tire well.

ATL makes these for SCCA Road Racing and they are perfectly safe.

Here is the page in their online catalog showing the 2 sizes. They come in 6.5" and 9.0" depths. I've never measured the well depth so couldn't say which would fit better.

These tanks can be purchased for around $400 or so, plus you would then need to get yourself Aeroquip type connecting hoses and figure out how to tie into the existing fuel system. You would also need an electric fuel pump for the new cell. I would not even try connecting the two fills together and just leave room fill the Aux cell from inside the E... or you can look into adding an external secondary fill using racing tubing.

I've done this, but it was all in a stripped down race car. Not something I would want to do for my daily driver that my family is in.

I have replaced my fuel tank on a previous vehicle to increase capacity. It was a half day project, but the tank was a stock unit made for my vehicle. I was able to go from 16gal to 35gal... it made long distance driving a pleasure! :)

A place to look would be for CR-V spare tire well aux tanks if anyone makes those somewhere in the world.



 
Has anybody thought of seeing if a 2007 or newer CRV fuel tank
will fit under the E? It looks like when Honda redesigned the CRV
they tucked the fuel tank up further under the body. They also
use a skid plate instead of a skid bar.
 
So did anyone ever do it? I've made my own tanks for cars before, but never for something this new. I've already designed a tank for my E but before doing all the work I'm wondering if anyone here is a Honda Tech, knowing if this could possibly throw a code in the OBD when the E tries to pull a vacuum on the system as a leak check and sees that it takes much longer to do so (because the volume of the system is now 30, not 16 gallons)... it could perceive a "leak" when all it really is was a system that was factory calibrated to troubleshoot a 16 gallon system.

So what the question for me becomes is... who knows the details of how the carbon cannister system works? I'd hate to spend all the mechanical work on this and find out it's unusable because the car self-diagnoses that something is wrong.
 
this would save all the guess work. and leak test issues.

pull over and fill yer self up

Image
 
So did anyone ever do it? I've made my own tanks for cars before, but never for something this new. I've already designed a tank for my E but before doing all the work I'm wondering if anyone here is a Honda Tech, knowing if this could possibly throw a code in the OBD when the E tries to pull a vacuum on the system as a leak check and sees that it takes much longer to do so (because the volume of the system is now 30, not 16 gallons)... it could perceive a "leak" when all it really is was a system that was factory calibrated to troubleshoot a 16 gallon system.

So what the question for me becomes is... who knows the details of how the carbon cannister system works? I'd hate to spend all the mechanical work on this and find out it's unusable because the car self-diagnoses that something is wrong.
Odb computer would, if any, could set a "pending" code. That will reset itself without ever blinking the idiot light.

In reality, I doubt that even that will happen at all. Time to reach the vacuum changes every time based on gas quantity and engine load. The computer probably waits 3 cycles rule before recognizing there is a cap missing.

Take your gas cap off, turn the engine on,wait a minute and then put the cap back.
 
Time to reach the vacuum changes every time based on gas quantity and engine load.
Thanks for the reply.

I'm probably overassuming that Honda would have already thought of that and had a trim function of the 'time-to-vacuum' result based on the fuel gauge reading, so it expects a different time based on the fuel level. It's probably simple and I'm worried about nothing. I'd still love to have a conversation with someone who knows some of the details of operation.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I'm probably overassuming that Honda would have already thought of that and had a trim function of the 'time-to-vacuum' result based on the fuel gauge reading, so it expects a different time based on the fuel level. It's probably simple and I'm worried about nothing. I'd still love to have a conversation with someone who knows some of the details of operation.
I doubt it would be "time to value" . It would based on repeat triggered event
 
best bet would prob be. run a dual tank vette style. alter the exhaust to be more central (easier on FWD) and buy another E tank and install on passenger side. with a crossover tube.

same idea could be used with custom built tanks also.

I feel it would be better to keep the weight centralized. more weight to one side or the rear could effect how the E handles or tow capacity

a pair of E tanks would get ya alil over 31 gal

Image
 
best bet would prob be. run a dual tank vette style. alter the exhaust to be more central (easier on FWD) and buy another E tank and install on passenger side. with a crossover tube.

same idea could be used with custom built tanks also.

I feel it would be better to keep the weight centralized. more weight to one side or the rear could effect how the E handles or tow capacity
Agreed. My current design leaves the exhaust as-is, and the extra tank goes in the middle where the driveshaft and rear differential WOULD be. Centralized, two tanks, crossover tube method... all in one shot.
 
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