Thoughts on Fuel Tank Capacity During a Long Drive...

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From experience - granted it was on an 80 Series and 100 Series that filling it all the way to the top is not a good idea. TeCKis300 is right with the charcoal canister going bad. The charcoal canister on an 80 is bad in terms of price, the 100 Series is even more so. I don't want to know how much it will be for the 200 Series.

I had A LOT of issues on my 100 with the LRA tank and gas vapor ONLY at altitude and off-road. The gas vapor is overwhelming to a point that I have to get my family out and vent the gas tank(s).

I had a similar issue with my LX570 over the summer at the White Mountains - off-road, about 10,000 feet and 80F+. It sounds like the gas is boiling - I will upload a video in youtube and will reference it to this thread. Maybe the heat and all that sloshing around? Not sure. It was a good time to stop and take photos anyway. I just drove around with the gas cap partly open to keep venting as we drove to higher altitude. No CEL - once we got back down to Bishop I closed the cap all the way.

A 2nd tank of the 200/LX would be great. I've thought about buying the LRA from AUS and just making a bracket to drop the gas tank itself to clear the charcoal canister. I think something else will hit before the tank drags or hits. Then have a stand alone aftermarket charcoal canister for the secondary tank to vent and not overwhelm the stock charcoal canister.

Happy New Year gentlemen.
This is the exact issue we had in Moab
 
Yea I agree with your points, I never topoff either, for environmental reasons, but as far as expansion, the stock tank can't be over filled by the baffle design. There are pockets in the top, that are located higher than the fill neck, so physics alone, you can't overfill a modern tank. Plus the charcoal canister in the back of the truck is also higher than the tank, runs through a j curve fitting into the fuel pump inner bucket. So physics again, fuel isn't getting into those components unless you fill the tank and tilt the truck over 45 degrees on its side. I found these things out on modern tanks from building auxiliary fuel cells, engineers don't trust buyer, so these stop gaps exist. The worst that will happen from overfilling a tank is spilling on the ground and side of your truck, which is why I stop pumping when the auto pump clicks.

Yup, engineers can't ever trust buyers because they are always right, even when used in ways the manufacturer did not intend. Some cars are prone to charcoal canister fouling/failure from topping up though. Because of environmental concerns, wasting gas, potential for causing premature failure of the charcoal canister, I personally don't top off to try to overfill the tank. But I do check to see if the tank is actually full with a click after the auto stop because it does stop prematurely at times. If it takes much more gas, I might give it another click. If it stops quickly, it's full.

In the spirit of this thread, I do encourage innovative ideas to get more capacity. It's been known that some other manufacturers leave capacity on the table, or will have the same fundamental design but support more capacity with detail changes. Jeep in particular with the Wrangler. They actually upsold a 15 gallon for 19 gallons using the same tank, just with some plumbing and float changes -
 
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That's about scary!
 
I don't think this had anything to do with overfilling our tanks, as I was one of the trucks that had this issue and never overfill my tank. But as we drove through the hot sun in Moab and our trucks shook around the expansion in our tanks was more than the system could handle. We had gas spraying out of the gas cap. you could actually hear the pressure whistling out of the cap prior to even removing it. Part of our look as we rolled through Moab was gas streaks down the side of our rigs. I'm guessing the system just could not alleviate the amount of pressure that was building due to heat and shaking? @Taco2Cruiser what's your best guess on this?

Must be secret Moab juju...because the ONLY place I ever experienced the bubbling fuel thing you describe was this Summer going up Top of the World. What's weird is/was...by the time it happened, I was nowhere even close to full...but sitting at a steep angle as I figured out how to get past an obstacle with the engine running.

Weird.
 
Yup, engineers can't ever trust buyers because they are always right, even when used in ways the manufacturer did not intend. Some cars are prone to charcoal canister fouling/failure from topping up though. Because of environmental concerns, wasting gas, potential for causing premature failure of the charcoal canister, I personally don't top off to try to overfill the tank. But I do check to see if the tank is actually full with a click after the auto stop because it does stop prematurely at times. If it takes much more gas, I might give it another click. If it stops quickly, it's full.

In the spirit of this thread, I do encourage innovative ideas to get more capacity. It's been known that some other manufacturers leave capacity on the table, or will have the same fundamental design but support more capacity with detail changes. Jeep in particular with the Wrangler. They actually upsold a 15 gallon for 19 gallons using the same tank, just with some plumbing and float changes -

Yea, your example is of a YJ, the worst designed jeep ever conceived along with its vacuumed powered 4wd and first attempts of compute management.

I'm talking about modern, post '06 Toyota 4x4s. You can fill the neck to fuel pouring out of it, but there will still be air pockets at the front of the tank and just forward of the intel tube.

We are agreeing on the same end state, I'm just saying that I humbly disagree with how you got there, while I agree that's how it was done 20 years ago, it's not how things are designed today.
 
I don't think this had anything to do with overfilling our tanks, as I was one of the trucks that had this issue and never overfill my tank. But as we drove through the hot sun in Moab and our trucks shook around the expansion in our tanks was more than the system could handle. We had gas spraying out of the gas cap. you could actually hear the pressure whistling out of the cap prior to even removing it. Part of our look as we rolled through Moab was gas streaks down the side of our rigs. I'm guessing the system just could not alleviate the amount of pressure that was building due to heat and shaking? @Taco2Cruiser what's your best guess on this?
Gasoline expansion can be calculated with by this
330055.image6.png


Long story short the expansion of a 25 gallon tank from an increase of 50 degree F is about .2 gallons, so thinking that a couple inch below the surface is around 70 degree, then even at air temp of 120 that is still a very little amount, think of the fuel used to get from the gas station out into the trails.

For boiling point of gasoline varies pretty wide. It starts an intial at 95 degrees but doesn't complete until 395. Though the average of US pump gas 87 is safe to be above 200.

For gasoline to be boiling at that rate, and at only those summer tempurates (try Kuwait in summers, I mean damn, and I never had issues with OOOLLLLDDD ass vehicles there) with that fuel consumption. I would say that the fuel is compromised and has water in it.

Do you know what that truck was filled up with? From a station in Moab or from a jerry can?
 
Gasoline expansion can be calculated with by this
330055.image6.png


Long story short the expansion of a 25 gallon tank from an increase of 50 degree F is about .2 gallons, so thinking that a couple inch below the surface is around 70 degree, then even at air temp of 120 that is still a very little amount, think of the fuel used to get from the gas station out into the trails.

For boiling point of gasoline varies pretty wide. It starts an intial at 95 degrees but doesn't complete until 395. Though the average of US pump gas 87 is safe to be above 200.

For gasoline to be boiling at that rate, and at only those summer tempurates (try Kuwait in summers, I mean damn, and I never had issues with OOOLLLLDDD ass vehicles there) with that fuel consumption. I would say that the fuel is compromised and has water in it.

Do you know what that truck was filled up with? From a station in Moab or from a jerry can?
thanks for the feedback. I filled mine up the morning of the trail run at the City Market in Moab and it did that exact same thing... The truck still ran fine, it appeared to affect nothing else.
 
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This is the video I mentioned above about gas boiling.

Was the gas physically hot? Could the fuel pump have been overheating for some reason?
 
Thought #1: After lift, tires, bumper, etc., I'm pretty convinced I am singlehandedly causing global warming. My highway MPGs are 13 at best...

LOL. That's worse than a 60 series. Sounds about on par with an FJ55. :D

My thought is that no Cruiser has come from the factory with a big enough fuel tank.
 
Slightly off topic, but my 2014 Tundra also suffers from too-small fuel tank!
 
As I Understand it there is a larger main tank available for a Tundra. I could be wrong, but I think Dave Conners swapped his
 
Was the gas physically hot? Could the fuel pump have been overheating for some reason?

That is a really good question - the vapor coming from that video was warm - I didn't touch it.

On the 100 I did use Dynamat insulation on the sides that was close to the exhaust. I also wrapped the exhaust near the gas tank with header/exhaust wrap.
 
Today I ran my tank down to the point the trip computer literally said my range was 0 miles (low fuel light had been on for a long time), but when I filled up (including topping off just to see how much I could get in there) I only managed to fill 19.2 gallons. Combined with the mpgs I've been getting lately in stop and go city traffic with winter blend fuel in freezing temps, my fuel range is pretty dismal. Any ideas why I can't get more than 19 gallons in the tank even though my range is zero? Does it have something to do with really low ambient temps?
 
Today I ran my tank down to the point the trip computer literally said my range was 0 miles (low fuel light had been on for a long time), but when I filled up (including topping off just to see how much I could get in there) I only managed to fill 19.2 gallons. Combined with the mpgs I've been getting lately in stop and go city traffic with winter blend fuel in freezing temps, my fuel range is pretty dismal. Any ideas why I can't get more than 19 gallons in the tank even though my range is zero? Does it have something to do with really low ambient temps?

Normal. Once it says you have 0 miles, you still have somewhere between 4 and 5 gallons left.

It's annoying. It's like Toyota doesn't trust you with the real range limit...

-Sorta like someone sneaking in and changing all your clocks to 5 minutes early...because they want you to be on time.
 
Today I ran my tank down to the point the trip computer literally said my range was 0 miles (low fuel light had been on for a long time), but when I filled up (including topping off just to see how much I could get in there) I only managed to fill 19.2 gallons. Combined with the mpgs I've been getting lately in stop and go city traffic with winter blend fuel in freezing temps, my fuel range is pretty dismal. Any ideas why I can't get more than 19 gallons in the tank even though my range is zero? Does it have something to do with really low ambient temps?

Toyota knows its customers. When my Explorer or any of my previous German cars said they were empty they were damn close to it. I've had to help out so many family and friends who never planned ahead or were used to Toyota fuel ranges :)

In these freezing temps my wife's GS350 said it was 0 miles range for about 10-20 miles and then when I filled up 17 gallons in the 17.2 gallon tank I was pretty shocked. It was probably doing much worse mpg to be in such a dire need of petrol. I guess it's better Toyota's way.
 
My german car gauges work like real gauges. You don't have to do any second guessing as to what it's telling you. It works linearly and accurately. On the japanese cars I've owned, the gauge is very optimistic in the top half, and will drop like anchor in its bottom half. It's been said this gives the illusion of fuel efficiency.

It's taken some getting use to, to second guess what the LX570 fuel gauge and range meter are tell me. I don't like it as I prefer to optimize and use the full capacity of the tank through my own interpretation of fuel level and range.

I can certainly understand why Toyota does this however. The left over range can sway dramatically based on driving conditions. With a mpg rating of 13 city, 18 hwy, consider that with 4 gallons, this represents a pretty wide range of 52 - 72 miles. With towing, or running in sand for example, it could be shorter than 52 miles. Then consider that there might be steep grades when off roading, and what is truly accessible by the fuel pump, may be much shorter still. German cars don't have to reliably deal with these mixed conditions.
 

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