Fuel surge tanks.

"Thank you for reading our guide to fuel surge tanks"

We look at fuel surge tanks explaining what they are, how they work and the typical scenarios where you really need them like when cornering with low fuel in your tank, or to keep up with engine fuel demand on heavy load applications.

We are often asked What is a fuel surge tank? and Do I need to install one?

So let's first of all look at what a fuel surge tank actually is.

Think of the fuel surge tank as a buffer or reservoir between the fuel tank and the engine.

If your tank was low on fuel and you cornered hard it is not impossible for the fuel to flow away from the pickup leaving you without fuel.

Also the demands of the engine may vary according to load, and a fuel surge tank will help to balance the demand in a highly tuned engine that drinks fuel like a fish drinks water (ok so Fish don't actually drink much water in reality).

If the surge tank is full it will return fuel to the main tank, if it runs out then fuel will be running from the main tank anyway, but without the advantages of having a buffer.

When you uprade your fuel pump and injectors you may well find that you need to uprate the fuel surge tank as well, or even add one if it is not part of your cars standard specification.

With an external fuel pump, the fuel surge tank (many fuel pumps in surge tanks are mounted inside) will require a lift pump to top them up.

The fuel pressure regulator at the injector rail will return excess fuel to the surge tank, and then the surge tank returns to the main fuel tank.

Fuel pumps are rated to litres per hour the smaller ones will flow around 100 liters per hour, right up to 400 liters per hour.

Going with a higher flow than your car will use does not benefit your performance, but it will give a little overhead.

So just as we recommend overspecifying your injectors flow rate by 20% we also recommend you get a slightly higher flowing pump than your engine will use at peak load. (This will also allow you to increase power with other mods and not having to redo the fuel system upgrades.)

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss fuel surge tank options in more detail with our Galaxy owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Ford tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Engine Mods, Fuel, Tuning. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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