Gas Tank: 3.0cs vs 2002

Tundra

Well-Known Member
Messages
320
Reaction score
4
Location
South
As per Maximillian a gas tank for a coupe is over $1,000. A gas tank for a 2002 is about $450. They appear to be the same. Does anyone know the difference between the two? Could a tank from a 2002 be used in a 3.0cs?
 
Maybe an off the shelf 3.0 S/Si Bavaria part? Any of you out there know for sure? Or is this one of the rare coupe specific parts ? RSVP
 
andre said:
As per Maximillian a gas tank for a coupe is over $1,000. A gas tank for a 2002 is about $450. They appear to be the same. Does anyone know the difference between the two? Could a tank from a 2002 be used in a 3.0cs?

Regarding tank alternatives for the price quoted I would think you could find someone to build you a fuel cell to suit your needs.

The 2002 tank may resemble the tank shape and size, but I have no idea whether they are interchangeable so that they may be able to bolt in either model. The easiest thing might be to literally put the two tanks side by side. I believe the 2002 Turbo tank will hold roughly 18 gallons or 70 liters so that it may approximate the E9's capacity. I doubt these are any more plentiful than the E9 tanks, but really do not know.

In the recesses of my mind I seem to recall someone telling me they managed to adapt the E3 tank to 2002 for the extra capacity. It may have been they were really looking to approximate the capacity of the turbo, but it was a long time ago. One of the issues for the 02'er was the extra height of the E3 tank, effectively raising the trunk floor.

Hth, and please let us know what, if anything, you discover regarding this issue.
 
The 3.0S tank will definitely not work. If you recall the fill port is behind the license plate whereas the coupe is on the side.

I looked up the tanks in the part database and found that the 2002 tank looks similar but it is only 46 liters where the coupe tank is 70/72 liters. The coupe tank from 68-10/73 was 70 liters (16 11 1 110 627) and afterward was 72 liters (16 11 1 112 233). I suspect they are interchangeable but I would check carefully.

This sort of reminds me of a scary episode in my life. I was working in Italy and I needed to get to Barcelona to catch a flight. One of my customers offered to give me a lift. He was from Belgium and he commuted to Italy weekly. His pride and joy was a '78 TransAM that he bought from a US serviceman. It didn't have decent shocks and to make it more interesting he drove at 210kph on the Autostrata. I could have dealt with this but, because gas was so expensive in Italy as compared with Belgium, he had removed the rear seat and installed a 55 gallon supplemental tank (basically just a big drum. Talk about a white knuckle ride... 140mph, old TransAm, no shocks, with a bomb in the back seat! He could barely keep it on the road! I was never so happy as when he dropped me at the check-in counter. :shock:

I wish I could help more.
 
Gas tank options

2002 tanks do fit. I have one in my 2000CS and it has the same size trunk floor opening as the 6 cylinder tanks.

As with most 2002 and E9 parts, there are several tanks for both models. The 2002 tanks are smaller capacity: 14 gallons vs the E9's 18 gallons. If you are going with a 2002 tank, get a late (74-76) tank. The 2002 Turbo tanks are 18 gallons, but they are probably as expensive as the E9s.

Also, consider that you may have to do some fabrication to connect the filler neck as there are at least a couple different arrangements for 2002s.

Finally, I have read that the 74 E9 tanks are different so this may not apply to them.
 
Bill Riblet is absolutely correct. As luck would have it, I had found a gas tank from a 2002 in a junk yard for $25 inlcuding the sender. The problem is that it has a puncture hole (looks like a bullet hole) and a rustrough spot near the lip where the two halves are welded. I didn't have much to loose for $25. The sender alone is probably worth more. I'm not sure what year the 2002 was but it had the square back lights, not the earlier round ones. The tanks fits in perfectly in the coupe that I'm restoring. I'm not sure if it can be repaired but I'll try to find a shop that may be able to do it.

I've posted two pictures below. One shows the tank in the trunk. You will note as Bill said above, the filler neck does not reach the filler door. Concerning the bolts, there are 5. The two nearest the spare wheel well match perfectly as does the one near the rear wheel well. The other two, on either side of the filler neck do not match so holes would need to be made.

In the second picture with the tank out of the car you will see the orinal neck from the 2002 and a spare coupe neck which came with the car. This filler neck is a little too long so adjustment would need to be made as Bill said.

The reason for my initial question was that I knew it fit and it appeared to be the same as a tank for a coupe and I couldn't understand why one would cost over $1,000. and the other (2002) is about $400. That's a $600 difference for an extra 6 US gallons a coupe holds. Unless you are a travelling salesman or plan long trips on a regular basis i don't see the advantage of the larger tank for an extra $600.

Trying to have some fun by putting my Banker's hat on, a quick financial analysis fails to show the cost effectiveness of the larger tank. That translates to $100 per extra gallons!! With the $600 saved you could buy 375 gallons of gas at the average price of $1.60@gallon. I could drive from LA to New York and back. Or, drive the car for free for about 2 years at about 3,500 miles per year. At about 20 miles per gallon, with the larger tank you could drive about 400 miles. With the 2002 tank the range would be about 260 miles. I wouldn't try to figure out what the extra weight of the larger tank ( when full) does to the engine and the rear shocks over a 37 year period wich is how old my 72 is.






0a2e255fd6161623c05cf9f81505702c.png



8c6317292381c041bbe13827b0c37fc0.png
 
Tierfreund said:
The reason for the price difference is simple economics: supply and demand...
The reason for my initial question was that I knew it fit and it appeared to be the same as a tank for a coupe and I couldn't understand why one would cost over $1,000. and the other (2002) is about $400. That's a $600 difference for an extra 6 US gallons a coupe holds. Unless you are a travelling salesman or plan long trips on a regular basis i don't see the advantage of the larger tank for an extra $600.

The real reason for the price difference is the perceived value of the car platforms. Neither tank costs substantially more or less than the other to produce. Still, coupe parts (02 parts too, actually) have been going through the roof lately, and apparently) people are paying thewm, so they will continue to rise. Now where do the BMW people get their inputs for pricing of the old stuff?
 
mostly those are not new parts but NOS or even used parts. And they are running out. That´s why the prices are rising. With the 02 beeing more plentifull, there´s more used ones around thus lower prices (even for the leftover NOS ones)

If those tanks were beeing (re-) produced these days, prices would be quite a lot lower and the price difference between the 02 and the E9 would about mirror the difference in cost.

But economics 1o1 tells us cost has nothing to do with price when there is limited supply.

Less usable E9 tanks around: skyrocketing prices.

Until BMW classic starts a repro (then prices go back closer to maufacturing costs as the intent of BMW classic is not only to make some money but also to increase the brand value of BMW by keeping the heritage on the street (for marketing purposes of course to increase the sales value for new BMWs again and so on...)

It´s all about the allmighty €uro in the end...
 
Crazy Texans!

How do you suppose they get the coconuts? Perhaps they are flown in by pairs of African swallows.... which begs the question just what is the terminal airspeed velocity of a coconut laden sparrow ? :shock:
 
What do you mean African or European unladen swallow?
(Well, you have to know these things when you are a King)
 
Sorry for reviving and old thread. I just found a NOS fuel tank belonging to a 2002, part number 16 11 1 111 567. In a way, I'm very lucky as my E9 is rusty and leaking from almost everywhere

Been reading, apparently this fits our E9?

Please do let me know if this is the case? Presumably that since it is a 51 liters tank, I will have to find the correct sender? With the correct sender, am I correct that the fuel gauge will display the correct reading?

Sorry lots of questions...

Luck has not been on my side for e9 parts, but found a number of 2002 and e3 parts

Attached picture of the tank
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    84.5 KB · Views: 211
Back
Top