Hi there! Maybe this has been mentioned before, but I couldn't find much... Anyway, to the point. El Gato Grande is sitting parked up on the driveway and I shall be doing some work to it through winter/spring. The thing is, I have about half a tank of petrol in it, and that means pretty much full tank for my wife's Peugeot 206. So what's the easiest way to drain it? I have full access underneath right now, just don't want to cause any damage to any fuel lines or anything else.

 

I dunno if there's an actual tank drain. That would be too easy.

I'd be tempted to disconnect the fuel feed to the injector rail, run a hose from there to some gas cans, and jumper the fuel pump circuit......and simply pump the fuel out

Other will chime in with ideas

Cheers
DD

 

Sounds like a reasonable option So what would be the best point to connect to in order to feed 12V directly to the fuel pump without causing too much chaos for the ECU or anything else?

 

Ok, so I searched the Autodata and found that there's fuse for fuel pump under the rear seat and there's the relay for fuel pump in the boot.





They are the ones marked pink. Now the question is how to hook up to it in order to keep the fuel pump running. As suggested before, I'd unplug the hose in the engine bay and connect it to another hose which would then get the fuel where I want it to be. It's just the case of making the flippin' fuel pump work all the time. All the suggestions welcome, as my electronic knowledge is quite limited! Cheers!

 

Just jump the relay. Take out the relay and use a jumper (piece of wire) to jump pins 30 and 87 on the relay base. The pump should then work continuously. No need to have ignition on.

 

Cheers mate! Looks like my wife will be getting full tank of fuel soon

 

Draining the tank in winter could result in rust due to condensation exacerbated by the temperature swings and high humidity.

 

If there's no drain plug then how do you get the water that seems to accumulate in petrol tanks out? I got nearly 2 pints of water out of my Range Rover tank before I got any petrol.

 

You can undo the pipes that are under the tank. A bit of a pain to get to though unless you drop the rear end

 

To gain access to the bottom of the tank to check for water or debris I just remove the level sending unit and look inside.

I have a vacuum operated brake bleeder with a clear hose that I use to suck the last drops of fuel/water/debris through the opening.

Venturi type shop air or hand pump vacuums will work, NOT ELECTRIC vacuums (sparks and fuel = BOOM)

Make sure you have less than 1/4 tank before removing the level sender.

bob gauff

 

Handy to know!

 

Success! I disconnected the fuel line in the engine bay, attached piece of hose I have prepared earlier, sealed the connection with some duct tape, changed the battery for fully charged one (I always keep a spare battery), got the relay out and jumped it with piece of cable with male flat connectors at both ends. And it started pumping, quite fast as well! In few minutes I pumped out around 30l of petrol! I know there's still some in the tank, but I've left it there, not being sure as what sort of crap could be at the bottom o.O

 

I see many people like myself (XK8) have had problems siphoning the Jaguar tank as it is difficult to get the hose past the (rollover ball?).
I used a length of 5/8 inch clear vinyl hose (cost at Home Depot plumbing dept 10 ft/$8.81). Wouldn't work until I cut the end of the hose at a shallow angle and sharpened the end with a razor blade (think veterinarian's syringe needle). Once I did that it slipped in immediately.
I left a couple of coils more than necessary on the tubing so I would have more notice of the gas approaching my mouth out of the corner of my eye.
Worked great!
Make sure to have enough empty receptacles/cans on hand because it will fill up a five gallon can in about as many minutes.
I kick myself now because I probably could have tried the sharpening trick on the odd pieces of 1/2 inch garden hose or washing machine hose I just had laying around and saved myself a few dollars (but the clear tubing avoided the "mouthful o'gas"!). It has to be relatively stiff hose or tubing though.
Oh another tip: I fed the tubing through an oil funnel I inserted in the fuel inlet to hold the trap door open without inhibiting the hose.

 

I believe some of the early cars had a tank drain fitted, but highly impractical as it was directly above the diff pumpkin with maybe an inch clearance (at most)
You can see where it "was" when you are underneath trying to disconnect the hoses for a fuel pump renewal.

 

To my small knowledge only XJ40's had tank drain plugs.