my gas tank is VERY old, and obviously i need to be able to fill it with gas.

i have no clue what to do. i think it may be filled with water, since the gas guage reads 1/4 tank.
any adivce would help.

also, i have been looking for cv joints, because mine are dead. i have not been able to find them.
if you have any recomendations, let me know.

thanks, matt

whats the issue???? ?

just old, take it to a stripper, repaint it, re seal the inside, re use

take out the sender and clean.

I have a pair on new used cv's and axles ( 10hrs), not cheap for new ones, rebuilds might be around.

for the CV's.. do a search here, some one posted some VW cv;s that supposed to work just fine

PLEASE don't just drain it and re-fill it. You're heading for clogged injector/jets that way. Take it out get all the rust removed (acid dip, boiled out). I wouldn't use the stupid sealer they try to sell you, but that one's open for debate. Take it out and clean it. It's quick, easy, pretty cheap, and will save you lots of headaches.

I took mine to a radiator shop (they boil out gas tanks as well). They did a good job. Clean as a whistle.
Cheers, Elliot

Check out POR-15 gas tank sealant. I have used it on my old BMW which originally came with sealant. Worked great.


Elliot, Your avatar is one of my favorite planes The Coast Guard used to have a similar one called the goat, but I think that it was smaller.

QUOTE (Dr Evil @ Jun 24 2005, 08:01 PM)

Check out POR-15 gas tank sealant. I have used it on my old BMW which originally came with sealant. Worked great.

Don't want to go over Dr Evil... I know a fellow 914 guy who used the POR15 sealer as per instructions, well now he is looking for a new tank because the sealer came off and it blocking the fuel pickup. As mentionned radiator shops will clean it and probably try to sell you a coating of some sort that you should refuse.

I opted to change mine after the car sat for 15 years, beware the the fuel lines may also be gummed up from old fuel so check that also.

You can try and clean the inside yourself, I let the thing dry, removed the sender and filler. Used a shop vac to get the big stuff out. I put some water in to get as much as possible the junk out. I followed with filling the thing with a CLR equivalent from Home Depot (mild acid) at this point you can add some old nuts inside for scraping action. shook it for a while and dumped the acid out. Finally I rinsed with water, of course it started flash rust immediately (but I didn't care) and let it dry in the sun. Finally I shopvaced a last time. Changed the screen and put a new filter and all is fine.

You may want to rinse it with some baking soda/water mix to neutralize the acid and then with some thinner or gas as a final step. Like I said I didn't do it because I was lazy and the tank was much cleaner to begin with than the original one.

PS: while vacuuming you can tap with a rubber mallet on the tank and specially on the seam to get as much as possible rust to flake off the walls.

Edit: I also forgot to mention that while I used the rust and scale remover, some people actually use Muriatic acid (the swimming pool kind) diluted for a more agressive bite in the rust. Also always wear protection, eyes, clothes, gloves and whatever else if it make you feel happy

I took mine to a radiator shop and they boiled it out for about 80 bucks. I didin't seal the inside, I figure it went this long it can go quite a while again.

Metal Ready at full strength, as per the instructions says it is effective for removing varnish, gunk and rust from gas tanks. Might be a decent way to go if your monetarily challenged.

QUOTE

Don't want to go over Dr Evil

No worries, but there will always be some that have experienced problems. Some things to consider, though:

There are manny things that can be done incorrectly when using the POR15 process. For the stuff to flake off that would mean that there would have had to have been a surface underneath that was not preped well enough. Understanding this helps in figuring out if you need ot do something over, longer, etc. If you follow the instructions to the letter without understanding this, the system may fail.

As for muriatic acid, I am not surew why this would work as it is just HCl (hydrochloric acid). Rust is typically FeO2. If you apply acid to the rust you get FeCl2 which is a salt and will re rust when introduced to water in fuel. If you are going to treat the rust use metal ready which has zinc phosphate, or jasco or Ospho with phosphoric acid. This changes the FeO2 to iron phosphate which is very tough.

If your friend did the system as per the instructions, then h shoudl have washed the tank out well with some cleaner that is water based, but disolves all of the lovely stuff that we don't want in our tanks. The system uses "Marine Clean", but jasco and others make a non organic cleaner thaqt will work as long as you rinse the tank really well afterwards. I woudl recommend letting the tank dry so that there is no residual water to dilute the metal ready or other rust converting compound that you may be using. Let it soak for a while to let the stuff work. Then you must rinse very well to remove all of the leftover acid residue. If not, your tank will have a fluffy coating of iron phosphate that will make a poor base for the mechanical adhesion of the sealant.

I am at the point where I acid washed the tank and am going to wash it a few more dozen times to make sure the surface is clean of the acid. Then I will be pouring in the sealant which will mechanically bond to the rough surface that is left behind. If the surface is clean there is no way that the system should fail (in theory).

Just my $9.14

I wont think less of anyone who decides to do something different (so long as it makes sense)

I have a good tank and CVs for sale....