Hello,
I need to make a small fuel tank, for diesel if that makes any difference. 5L petrol can should do nicely.
Into this I need to put a small pipe, roughly 5mm diameter out of which the fuel be sucked by the fuel pump. It will be in a vehicle so will be jiggling around quite a bit.
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So, a couple of questions. How do I seal around the hole I’ve made for the pipe? Tightest rubber gromit I can get, or will diesel cause this to perish? And do I need to make another hole to allow air in as fuel comes out and if so how do I stop fuel coming out of that whist the jiggling is going on? One-way valve of some sort I presume but then the same question about seals pops up again.
The jiggling is unlikely to be taking place whilst this tank is being used, it will be full sometimes, sometimes not, but most of the time the pump will only be drawing fuel once the vehicle is stationary.
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Thanks.

Can you not buy a tank for a night heater of eBay?

Specialist motorsport suppliers?

I take it that it is for a diesel heater. I personally would try and put the tank outside for safety and the fact that it will get spilt inside and the smell will be there forever. can you take a feed off the vehicle tank (or is it petrol)

Buy a metal fuel tank. they are freely available on’t interweb. Just because your local garage only sells plastic ones doesn’t mean that’s all there are. Then weld/solder/braze you outlet pipe onto it.

Or buy something ready made like this…
https://www.force4.co.uk/quicksilver-12l-portable-fuel-tank-with-quick-connect-outlet.html

As above, motorsports dealer like DemonTweets but cheaper. You can get an alloy tank made to your own spec for £150-£200 if you look around, I had one made last year. You can say what size pipe you need, and it will be welded in so no leaks. The non return valve is fairly standard, and should be ok in fuel.

Fitting a pipe to an existing tank depends if you can access inside. If you can, a bulkhead fitting will allow you to fit a tube on the inside and the outside, and be fixed and sealed to the tank

Aldi are selling metal Jerry cans right now, i’d Get one of those, drill a hole in the bottom and get a flared fitting welded on.

Or tap into a fuel line off your tank with a T-Piece connector.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CITALL-Capacity-Plastic-Parking-Eberspacher/dp/B07HTDRQRP

scooter or motorbike tank?

What you need is a  fuel tank for an outboard boat engine.

Yes, it is for a night heater. The supplied one is a really odd shape and mounting options are very limited (none-existant unless right next to the exhaust and that gets a bit warm) A 5L jerry can fits perfectly in the right bit of the chassis Trying to have it outside, slung underneath somewhere, rather than loose and needing to be taken outside and the hose putting in to run it, main problem here is crud getting in the end of the pipe when not in the tank.
Vehicle is diesel but I just thought this might be easier than connecting in to the van’s own tank (is that hard for someone with little mechanical nouse to do?) Again this raises the question of sealing around the pipe. A T off the van’s fuel line might work, is getting air into the fuel system a right PITA to sort out if I do this?

Coppice has just set me googling, gokart tanks seem to be the right sort of shape and dimensions and seem to have some sort of bracket/clamp thingy which might make installation easier.

Flared fittings are used in conjunction with proper fuel hoses and jubilee clips so no issue attaching a hose to it and sealing it.

Personally i’d to into a line from the fuel tank.

unless right next to the exhaust and that gets a bit warm

Having sat diesel fuel tanks next to a large thermal radiation simulator I can tell you that the result is very disappointing. 4 jets of a mixture of aluminium powder, propane and liquid oxygen which would melt your face totally failed to produce the fiery explosion we’d rather hoped for.

T in is the lazy option. Introducing potential vehicle breakdown inducing faults. As well as not all vehicles are suitable for such a t in to a line.

If you can access the sender unit and it has enough area by far the best way is to remove the sender and drill a hole in it for a feed pipe off the vehicle.

1. It’s usually plastic -easy to drill and seal
2its off the vehicle so no debris in the fuel
3 you can set the height so that it cannot possibly use all your fuel.

As for an aux fuel tank. How do you intend to fill this and not have a smell in the vehicle.

Anyone that’s ever filled and transported a jerry can in a car will attest to no matter how careful you are you get that lovely fuel smell in the vehicle from even the slightest bit of spilt fuel.

Do you really want that in your camper.

Trail_rat is correct. Don’t use a T connector. Draw straigjt from the tank, positioning the untake correctly to not allow the heater to drain the tank.

FWIW, a pal of mine ran his from a 5l plastic diesel can, stashed internally in a wobble proof location, no worries.

What Van is it? Do it properly and fit a stand pipe in to the vehicle tank.