MCI Fuel Tank volumes.....

[Ncbob]

I recently heard that folks with a ring finger slightly longer that their index finger are supposed to be better at math than the average bear.  Hmmm....Urban Myth?

Both mine are a tad longer and I've always loved math and solving problems with math so I tackled the fuel volume question when I filled up my tank the other day.

Knowing I had 13.5 " of fuel on board before the fill I added 80 Gallons to fill up.  That gave me 26" at full.
So simple subtraction told me I had 66 gallons on board.  OK...If 26" is full...the by dividing 26 into 146 I have deduced that each inch of fuel is approximately 5.5 Gallons.  Simple huh?  Except for the fact that I'm not infallible should ever see me sitting by the side of the road, out of fuel, you may then stop and give me the raspberries for thinking I was so darned smart!

This may or may not apply to other MCI models...but it sure does keep the cobwebs out of the brain when just sitting around!

Bob

[Sam 4106]

Hi NCbob,
I know this new math is kind of fuzzy, but if you have 26" of fuel when your tank is full and you had 13.5" to start, that means you added 12.5". If 12.5" is 80 gallons then 13.5" is more than 80 gallons, not 66 gallons. So I think you have more than 160 gallons of fuel capacity, not 146. BUT, I did my figuring by logic, where you did your figuring by use of the length of your fingers, therefore, your results may have been obtained by fuzzy math. It is my guess that you have about a 165 gallon tank. However, if you use your figure of 146 gallons you should never run out.
Anyway, good luck, an I hope you never run out whatever size tank you have.
I'm still laughing, so thanks for brightening my day. Sam 4106

[maria-n-skip]

And to add to the fuzzies.....

   There is tank capacity and operating capacity. I suppose if you stick
to operating capacity you'll never run out of feul.......


Hope to never be there.

Skip

[Ncbob]

Sam, I appreciate your efforts...but please don't confuse me with facts!  I said I wasn't infallible!  It was just a brain exercise anyway.   

It makes sense to me that if I have 0" of fuel...I'm going to need at least a 5 gallon can. So, it would follow that if I had 13" of fuel I might just make it to the next fuel stop...but what the heck...it's full now so I'll just run it to FL this winter and back in the spring and see what happens.

If push comes to shove I'll put the wife in the toad and let her drive for a while...while it's connected to the bus ...of course!

Bob

[jjrbus]

 The only good thing you can do with those long fingers is pick your nose!!  Now were did you get the 146 figure from and is that hot or cold. Everybody knows you get more fuel when its cold.

[H3Jim]

Are you also assumng the tank is an even rectangular cube?  meaning it has no indents anywhere. 

The assumption is probably good, as I suspect that bus tanks are more likely to be symmetrical as opposed to most automotive tanks that are almost always weird shapes.

I know the tank in my coach is symmetrical, just a big plastic jug, evenly shaped.

[bobsw]

My stock fuel tank  MCI-7 Has a label stating capacity of 147 us gal.

[Kristinsgrandpa]

13.5 (fuel onboard) times 5.5 gal per inch equals 74.25 gal. not 66 gal.

My figures might be wrong since my calculator was made in China.


Ed.

[Fredward]

Bob,
You may recall I removed and repaired my tank last winter and the tank in the MC-5 is perfectly symmetrical. I also replaced the fuel guage sending unit because I'm terrible at math. Now I only carry the stick for the generator tank and my six year old tells me when I need fuel.  (By the way I will get the drop box question answered next Thursday when I take it to JD at C&J. I'll get back to you then.)
Fred

[gumpy]

I'm starting to see why I like both Bob and Sam 

[buswarrior]

Larger MCI owners best not play this game with out factoring in the high end of the tank at the fill end...

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[HB of CJ]

I toos have two ring fingers (one on each hand) but I do not wear any rings.  I also pick my nose in public (another story!) and also had fuzzy fun figuring out my fuel tank total CACAPITY from which I think one can finger..er figure out the useable capacity.

I crawled under the bus (not an easy thing at my condition/age) and took the usual measurements.  Then multiplied width times length times height then divided by 231 then took a arba-traey factor of .85 for no other reason but that it sounded cool and correct...

...since I knew that the metal thickness was kinda thick and that diesel is thermo-something sossss it volume and weight vary with the temperature kinda sosss then the final figure was around 85 US gallons or sooss, but I still use a broom stick handle since...

...the dashboard gas/fuel gage does not always work correctly sometimes and I heard all the horror stories about running a Cummins Big Cam 2 out of fuel sosss I do not want to do that either and anyway I am kinda rambling since I do that too.  Thank you.

[Ncbob]

And I really thought my original post was typical of my 'tongue-in-cheek' humor...but you fellas are really cracking me up and for that I feel I need to Thank You!

It's the Dog Days of August and we all know this is the most murderous month of the year.  What would we do without the comedic efforts of our fellow BusNuts...many of who might have the talent to earn Emmy's or better if they funneled their creative juices into that area?

Thank you all for a great series of chuckles and belly laughs!

Bob

[Fredward]

Bob,
No offense intended of course. But when I bought my bus the owner proudly pointed out the nice tank dipping stick he had for measureing fuel level. I was amazed, of course that the guage didn't work. He said none of them ever do. So now that i have it working again; I'm just so delighted - I brag about it any chance I get!
Fred

[belfert]

I'm wishing my fuel gauge worked.  I've resorted to sticking the tank for now.  But, I do know exactly how much fuel my tank holds since it is right on the tank!

My woes started when I bought a capacitance based fuel sender.  It either wasn't going quite to full or was staying on full too long.  So, I started adjusting the screw that adjusts the full reading, but now the gauge reads full all the time even when I have to put 50 gallons in.  I emailed the manufacturer of the sender, but never followed through and did the troubleshooting as I have bigger things to fix.