From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Petrol tank tests covering spillage on corners, gauge reading loss overnight, and issues with a shorter filler.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 17\5\ Scan105 | |
| Date | 18th January 1932 guessed | |
| (2) On the straight road the air vent was satisfactory. On left hand corners taken fast large quantities of petrol flowed from the air vent. By screaming tyres with a perfectly full tank about ½ pint of petrol was lost through the vent. On right hand corners under the same conditions a very slight amount of petrol escaped. This shows a large difference between left and right hand corners. The loss on left hand corners is considered to be bad on extreme conditions, but with 19 gallons instead of 20¼ gallons the trouble ceases. Test III. Loss of Reading over-night. The flow of petrol from the air vent in Test II. completely upset the gauge readings. At the end of Test II. with a full tank the gauge was showing 17 gallons having stood over night the next morning reading was 14 gallons, at the end of the next day 11 gallons, and the following morning 8 gallons, all these readings are taken with a full tank. The tank unit, gauge itself and the pipe lines were all thoroughly blown out, and carefully reinstalled. After 30 miles on the road the reading became within 2 gallons of the amount of petrol in the tank. Standing over-night it lost 3 gallons on the gauge. Shorter filler on the tank. This is approx. 3" shorter than standard and is required to be filled 1" from its spilling level to fill the tank. When one gallon is removed the petrol is 1.5" below the spilling level of the tank. Owing to the different cambers of the road it is difficult to estimate the fullness of the tank from appearance in the filler. It is normal to fill a petrol tank very steadily when the petrol is ¼" from the top of the filler. With the short filler either one has to fill very slowly or risk spilling petrol. This however would be eliminated if the gauge was sufficiently realible to know when the 19 gallons mark was reached. | ||