Serious question about inspection hatch placement.

Go large...one big one...and investigate silicone hose for the breathers...won't need doing again...I've seen a post with the exact dims for the cut out...will have a look. These are available from Penn Elcom (flightcase components) about 11" x 9" with a flush slam lock....would make for a nice job, assuming you have ply boarding or similar in the cargo area....some folk use the piece they cut out and fix a couple of supports below the aperture along two sides, so the piece can be dropped in and screwed down...

 

@poptop2 if you need any more of the cargo area metal, (the stuff above the tank)
I have a fair bit spare..

 

Stop taking pictures and sort it all now, while you have the firewall out.......muppet

 

"Three things I want to be able to do through the hatch. 1 - change bottom fuel filler,hose, 2 change breather hoses. 3 inspect and or replace fuel sender.

The piece of cargo floor I have is about 10" X 10" so plenty of room to get my arm in when it's done."

No chance of doing all that through a hatch. You need hole directly above the sender to get it out and won't be able to do filler from there. The small breathers need 2 hands and at extremes of tank.

You need to take the engine and tank out which will be quicker and you won't won't chop up your van for nothing.

 

Serious answer? Why the feck would you want to cut a hole? Drop the engine, do what you need to do, properly, then forget about it until you take that one way trip to Switzerland.

Or Vegas

 

^this. Seems a lot of work for a one-off job.

 

i got a 4 inch hole saw and cut a hole above my sender
then put rubber seal around it to stop me getting cut
pleanty of room to get me hand in and have a ferk around

 

as the others have said.....you wont be able to do it all through on hole

I'd go for the sender hatch method.......only as and when you need it

I think from memory you can change your filler pipe through the 'biscuit tin lid' .....although it is very tricky.

If you need to do the breathers, then you will have to drop the engine and take off the firewall .....if your happy with your engine at the moment, in that you dont want to take it out to re-build, then why not drop it down out of the way (but not completely removed from van engine compt) replace breathers and filler pipe and jack your engine back up and bolt it back in place .....its only 4 bolts

Or it sounds like a good excuse to buy a 2nd nice big engine, tinker around with it for a year getting it nice and shiney....then swap the 2 over in a couple of hours and change the breathers etc at the same time ...that way you dont have to have the van off the road for an age while you fiddle with your engine

 

You need a hatch if you change the sender as the new ones only last a year

 

I really don't see the point of cutting your van up for a job you only need to do once or twice a decade. The exception might be the sender unit, but even then how many times will that happen? If the new ones are that bad, get the old one rewound, half hour job!

I'm also always surprised when people want to do this to save time, when cuts around the fuel tank should really be done with the tank out, if the hoses are perished, you risk blowing yourself up, so if you've got to take the tank out anyway why not do everything then and keep your van uncut.

 

Much quicker job to drop the engine Malc. I reckon an hour tops each way?

You then get to do what you need in comfort. You don't have to get it totally out if the engine bay, just drop it straight down. Its dead simple. I'd recommend one of those motorbike lifts to make it even easier