Fuel filler baffle?

[JB455]

Is there supposed to be any kind of baffle or anything in the fuel filler neck? I've had my tank out to reseal and all vent hoses, etc. are intact. My issue is that during spirited driving I will splash fuel out through the cap on hard right turns. The rubber seal on the cap is dried out and needs replacing, so that would help for sure, but I noticed that my recently acquired '88 Esprit has a metal flapper in the filler to keep fuel from getting up to the cap. Is there supposed to be something like that on my '85 Excel? I had the Excel at the autocross track at Lime Rock last fall and so much fuel splashed out around the cap and then followed the body line up into the door jamb on hard braking that the smell inside the car became almost unbearable! The car otherwise was fantastic on the track. I'd like to take it up again this year, but I need to get this issue addressed!

[MetBlue]

No baffles to my knowledge, but would suggest trying different filler cap or getting the rubber seal sorted. There's a breather to to filler neck, so I assume the original design intent is that the car provides a seal to the filler neck.
Tony

[bash]

Ive had a constant battle with mine doing this, sometimes its the seal in the lock barrel, sometimes its the rubber seal on the cap which has gone hard, yet other people dont seem to get a problem. Ive recurved the metal spring strips under the cap too. Whatever I do it comes back. Its on my list for a redesign but although my car has many differences under the skin I dont like it not looking standard so I want to keep the cap looking standard.
Good luck.
Bash

[JB455]

Ok, thanks for the insight. Good to know I'm not the only one. In normal driving it's not an issue, but then we don't buy an old Lotus for "normal" driving do we? Being over here in the US, it's not so easy to just grab a few small parts. I'm going to get a large order together from one of the UK suppliers this winter, to try to get the shipping costs per item down. I guess since I do not seem to be missing any parts in the filler area, it'll just be a new gasket for the cap. I've already tried tweaking the ears on the cap to snug it up.

Even with a new gasket, I can't see that completely remedying the issue during extremely aggressive driving, such as you have on the autocross track. I may have to resort to sticking an inflatable bladder in the top of the filler neck next time out as the car did extremely well other than the fuel smell entering the car.

[bash]

The smell inside the car is likely to be the vent pipe that has perished in the boot, a fullish tank and a roundabout or twisty road does mine.
Bash

[JB455]

I've had the tank out of the car to repair a pin hole leak at a baffle spot weld. I then resealed the inside with the KBS tank coating system. All of the vent lines are intact and in good shape. I could actually see where the gas came out of the cap and then ran down the top of the body seam into the door jamb under heavy braking. The trunk area actually had no gas smell. I often have some fuel leak out through the cap during street driving if the tank is more than half full, but it is not a significant amount. You can see the residue on the side of the car. I can see a new cap gasket helping with most of that.

Motions are so exaggerated on the autocross track. Hard acceleration, hard braking, hard turns. The issue is not near as pronounced on the road course where speeds are higher and inputs are more gradual.

[richardw]

I have this problem on my Elite but I have to be careful going round both left and right corners when the tank is full or close to it. I do have non vented repair kits for the fillers, but the current fillers are vented (which is essentially just a hole) and there don’t seem to have any vent tubes off the tank - it is modified to have fuel injection. A baffle that could be retrofitted would be a useful improvement.

Cheers, Richard