How big is my gas tank

nealf

nealf

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Never seem to fill as much as I thought. The car is a '70 2800CS. Also, my fuel mileage is lousy. Twin Weber 32/36's seem to gulp gas. Makes my E34 535 seem like a Hybrid...

Thanks,

nf
2800CS
2002
2002Tii
535i
323i
 
I must have the 14.5 gallon tank

If not I am REALLY getting BAD mileage.....

Thanks.
 
Never seem to fill as much as I thought. The car is a '70 2800CS. Also, my fuel mileage is lousy. Twin Weber 32/36's seem to gulp gas. Makes my E34 535 seem like a Hybrid...
Click to expand...

It's not your imagination. Carbed m30's are thirsty engines. Your e34 has the best engine management BMW ever bolted to an M30. My e12 has a warmed 3.5 with the earliest version of Motronic, and it gets much better fuel mileage than my '70 2800CS with Zeniths.

If you really want to line the pockets of big oil, bolt on triple DCOE's. That should let you achieve single digit fuel mileage with a heavy right foot. But you'll love every minute of it!
 
With the Zeniths on my 2800 I've figured to be getting 16-17 a gallon.

Which got me to thinking about sitting in gas lines in the early seventies, and gas being about $0.39 a gallon. With it being roughly $3.00 a gallon now, that is about 8x as much as it was.

A new e9 rolled off a BMW dealer's lot for 10,000 with options and tax. A new 6 series is in the neighborhood of 80,000, which is also at the same rate of 8x the price. Salaries of workers?
 
Question posed--"how big is my gas tank"

The 2800 and 3.0 CS tank capacity is 18.5 gallons--fitted with the original Zeniths on the 2800CS, and when quality leaded fuels of 96 or so octane rating were available in SoCal--long ago when they were young--would yield 20-21 mpg around town and 25-27 mpg touring with a 4 speed at 75-80 mph--the 3.0CS dropped down 2-3 mpg less in both categories--however you could feed them mid-grade fuel due to lower compression--US models. When fitted with Webers there was further lowering of mpg.

BLUMAX is now fitted with a built 3.5L, special cam and twin weber 38/38's--and mileage is down to about 10-12 locally--performance way up--and temptation to feel it come on the cam keeps it low. Don't have any long trip experience yet but suspect it would be around 15-17mpg if right foot is not too deeply planted.

I also have an automatic Bavaria fitted with a 3.2L, mild cam and Weber 32/36's and later ZF transmission--still 3 speed--in town is 12.5mpg and touring at about 75-80 its 15.5mpg--so what you are getting is about whats available with your set up

Todays fuel here in California is growing less compatible with our motors with each year passing and with infusion of greater amounts of ethanol or equivalents so less energy available/gallon for pistons to pump out the power--sad to say--mpg will no doubt continue "shrinking"
 
Mr. Petrus, make sure to figure in inflation when you talk about gas prices, cost of automobiles, and salaries. I don't know what the statistics are for gasoline, but crude oil prices (per barrel) are still below the all time high (once adjusted for inflation) of $90. Of course, crude oil is 3 times what it cost per barrel only a few years ago and it's probably going to continue to go higher, so we've only got 15 dollars more cushion before it will be at an all time high (crude is around 74-75 dollars per barrel currently).

I would assume that gas too is not really much more expensive now than it was during the oil embargo (which was ironically the government's fault, and which caused the high prices and fuel lines), but I don't know the numbers. Assuming the price of gas is directly correlated to the price of crude (which logic would say it does) then gas is still lower than it was (adjusted for inflation).

In the bigger picture, Americans still enjoy the lowest gas prices in the world (except for some of the countries in which it is produced) so we really don't have much to complain about.
 
Unfortunately, Canada is not one of the countries whose internal price is less than world market driven. I pay $1.10 per litre or $4.16 per US gallon for regular so enjoy your relatively low prices. I should drive down south to fill up.

The first tank of gas I bought in the mid 60's was $0.32 gal. (imperial gal) and regular was probably higher octane than today's premium!

Of course some of our more senior members were probably paid to haul the gas away so, yeah, it's all relative.
 
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