Has anyone devised an "update" for the old two hose pressure gas tanks on the ol

[SeaKaye12]

Hi,

Locally here there is a 50's vintage Johnson 5.5HP for sale. It's missing it's gas tank. The older two hose tanks are hard to find...and I had been meaning to ask here if anyone ever devised a "fix" that would update those older motors to use the suction feed system.

Just curious more than anything. If I buy it I'll probably search e-bay for a tank and keep it "period correct"....but it's always good to know what my options are.

Thanks for reading, Chuck

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: Has anyone devised an

Re: Has anyone devised an

You may be able to fit a fuel pump onto that Johnson, depends on the year and model. My 58 FD-12 18 hp has been retrofitted with one and uses a modern one-line portable tank. Much better than the old two-hose systems...nothing wrong with those, but more maintenance involved. You can find just about anything on the auction sites. The guys on the Ask A Member board at http://www.aomci.org can tell you if your 5.5 hp is capable of having a fuel pump put on it...they'll need model and serial numbers to do so. Course someone here can probably answer that, too, if you post those numbers.

 

[Chinewalker]

Re: Has anyone devised an

Re: Has anyone devised an

The 5.5s are a bit harder to convert than most, as they don't have removeable transfer port covers. That means that any holes drilled to install a pressure feed line can drop metal filings into the crankcase. You could also run it off the pressure hose nub on the intake, but it requires modification to the reed plate (filling one hole, removal of the flapper valve) - again, more dissassembly than others.

I'll bet that if you poke around your local marinas you'll find a tank (or three). They tend to accumulate. Most motors of that vintage were sold with more than one tank, so there are probably more tanks than motors out there. Rebuild kits for them are readily and cheaply available through vintageoutboard.com. It's a good system and once rebuilt the tanks really don't need much more maintenance than any other as long as the gas is kept clean, etc. The tanks are common on eBay, too...

Good luck!
- Scott