Fueling up and consumption Esprit V8

[MD355 84]

Every time I go to the fuel station it takes me for ever to fuel my Esprit V8..

I understand that the fuel tank is split it 2 tanks and there is a hose connecting the two, so it takes extra time for the fuel to move from one tank to the other..

Furthermore, I recently replaced the fuel gauge, but still it is fairly inaccurate when the fuel is low.. It shows zero and then jumps up to 10%.. Too risky not to fuel up..

I have never been able to put more than 50 liters, even thought the tank says it can carry 70 liters.. 
 

Also with 50 liter I can do around 125 miles / 200  km for aggressive spirited driving.. Highway it becomes almost double.. is this normal of too much ?

 

[v8GTmac1 57]

I like this topic. I also don’t seem to get a full fill up. The needle has never seen the F mark. It moves around a lot while driving. But I did calculate 22mpg hwy with some spirited pulls. 

 

I have been been wanting to measure the resistance of the fuel level sender in my garage and attempt to keep adding. 

Also could remove the fuel pump and add till it’s absolutely full then measure the resistance. Pump out 1 gal at a time and remeasure the resistance then mark the gauge somehow. 

[Escape 773]

It helps if you open the second fuel filler as well, one to let petrol in, one to let air out. Fill up 'till the pump cuts out, close the other filler and by the time you've walked around the car you'll be able to add another 5 litres or so. 

The gauge isn't very stable, partly due to fuel moving between the 2 tanks. Left hand slopes or right hand corners tend to give a higher reading as there's more fuel in the left hand tank, where the sender sits. I've learned to interpret the fluctuating needle and usually run it until I can fill 60 to 65 litres. On some occasions even managed 71 or 72 litres. I know when the reserve light starts to come on, I can still do at least 100 miles. That's with an economical 4 pot though, can't comment on the consumption of the V8.  

Filip

[jonwat 422]

2 hours ago, Escape said:

It helps if you open the second fuel filler as well, one to let petrol in, one to let air out.

Could have sworn I read that the V8 had only one filler cap. the second being a dummy. Silly me 

[Bibs 11,096]

They went to a dummy in 98, early V8's had both available for use.

[Escape 773]

4 hours ago, Bibs said:

They went to a dummy in 98, early V8's had both available for use.

My bad, I was not aware only the early V8s had twin fillers. That does explain the difficulty filling up. Did the breather system remain the same?

@jonwat one of the first times filling up my Excel I was desperately trying to pry open the dummy filler...

Filip

[Bibs 11,096]

From Deroure...

Pre-MY98

Post-MY98

[Yellow and Green 2]

My car has the single filler and I’ve essentially come up with two ways to fully fill the car:

 

1) Fill it full blast until the pump clicks off, then wait 2 or 3 minutes and top it off

2) Set the pump at about half speed (lock the handle half open) and let it fill slowly. 
 

I can typically get about 16.5 US gallons in after the low fuel warning starts to flash. I have measured my car at 23 MPG highway at 80 MPH, and about 18 in typical city driving. 
 

The V8s do have larger equalizer pipes than the earlier cars, but it still is slower than the pump. This feature just gives me time to tell more people at the station that, no, it’s not a Ferrari. 

[oneshot 152]

Yep I fill it up until it clicks off. Wait for around 20 seconds to let the tanks equalise and then carry on. Repeat until no more will go in.

I did a trip to Frankfurt from the UK and averaged over 30mpg (including some "spriited" driving where allowed in Germany.