Spit 1500. Fuel tank vent.

[chrishawley]

Spit 1500, 1978.

Boot smelling of petrol. Whatever was attached to the vent on the tank has decayed to crumbs. But I don't see any witnesses of venting to the filler cap or external of the car. Is it correct that the 1500 just has the vent blanked off?

Not being sure, I've vented the tank with some PVC hose out through a grommet in the boot floor. Ok?

[Graham C]

Originally the vent had a rubber bung which was pushed into it to seal it, not sure if this had an air hole. However people have fitted a micro bore pipe end cap. Not sure how the tank then vented to allow air to replace petrol used.

Graham

[johny]

The Canley site shows the UK model as having a vented fuel cap seal while US models dont so presumably they had a carbon canister system attached to that blanked vent pipe...

[Stratton Jimmer]

My 1977 has a vent pipe going towards the off side and then down to a grommet in the floor. Will get a photo if you want, let me know.

[PeteH]

40 minutes ago, chrishawley said:

Spit 1500, 1978.

Boot smelling of petrol. Whatever was attached to the vent on the tank has decayed to crumbs. But I don't see any witnesses of venting to the filler cap or external of the car. Is it correct that the 1500 just has the vent blanked off?

Not being sure, I've vented the tank with some PVC hose out through a grommet in the boot floor. Ok?

Some times Aged rubber, gets porus, Enough Petrol weeps to cause a stink, with no real sign of a leak?

Pete

[NonMember]

As Graham and johny said, the vent pipe was added to the tank for the US market, where a charcoal canister was required. UK cars retained the vented filler cap and the stub pipe just got capped off. There's no problem adding a pipe (hose or microbore) to vent that stub pipe out under the boot floor and quite a lot of owners do so.

[chrishawley]

Yup, that all makes sense. No other suggestion of leakage and the fuel pipe is hard plastic rather than rubber. Might as well leave the vent pipe in place now it's there.

[Stratton Jimmer]

Here you go...

[johny]

Hmmm suppose you have to remember not to brim the tank?

[Mjit]

19 minutes ago, johny said:

Hmmm suppose you have to remember not to brim the tank?

Probably safer with that set-up if you DO brim right up the filler hose. I mean the difference between vent pipe and perished/missing vent hole bung is between the excess petrol pouring out under the car...or into the boot!

[johny]

Cor at any level it would stink in the boot/car without a good bung! My Vitesse boot used to smell just because the gland on the outlet pipe wasnt tightened fully....

[Stratton Jimmer]

On 03/09/2022 at 12:09, johny said:

Hmmm suppose you have to remember not to brim the tank?

Absolutely right Johny!

[Unkel Kunkel]

For the UK market, the pipe was simply sealed off with a blind ended bit of rubber tube held by a clip and the tank was vented via the filler cap.

As  the rubber perishes an disintegrates, a  petrol smell  become very noticeable.

Lots of different ways to cap it off

- but a brass compression fitting, “stop-end”  (micro -bore, 8 mm central heating)can be fitted in seconds - and then can be forgotten about:

 

[Peter Truman]

what was the third ie far left outlet/nipple for pls just out of interest?

[Unkel Kunkel]

2 hours ago, Peter Truman said:

what was the third ie far left outlet/nipple for pls just out of interest?

 That’s  the perished remnants of the blind-ended tube and clip that had been removed from the pipe that now is closed-off with the brass stop-end.

 

[Mjit]

14 hours ago, Unkel Kunkel said:

For the UK market, the pipe was simply sealed off with a blind ended bit of rubber tube held by a clip and the tank was vented via the filler cap.

...Although given the pressure equalization noises I get opening my fuel filler cap I'm not convinced by the latter part of that statement!

[DanMi]

3 hours ago, Mjit said:

...Although given the pressure equalization noises I get opening my fuel filler cap I'm not convinced by the latter part of that statement!

It is always possible that the seal has been replaced with the non-venting version for the US market. I think they are identical except the vented version has a small hole in the rubber seal

[cliff.b]

So if I leaked fuel under the car recently when I brimmed the tank, does this mean I have a breather pipe fitted? 

 

[johny]

If the boot doesnt normally smell of fuel Id say you have a vent pipe running to the underside of the car rather than a leak....