A Cautionary Tale

[FI Spyder]

OK, my car spent all it's time garaged in Stockton area (south of Sacramento, CA) a desert. When I brought it home in 2006 it stayed in the garage (with dehumidifier for winter) with tank full. In summer it usually doesn't get driven in rain. I figured the gas tank would be as good as any in the world. Last fall the pump got noisey (FI remember) and it would bog near 3,000 rpm and stay that way until it sat for 10 minutes. I figured a new filter (to be changed evey 30,000 miles) as I didn't know when it was last changed (90,000 miles on the odo). I've pulled the tank and was surprized to see gas with water and rust in it. The pump inlet was clogged with debris.

Worse it looks like there was an attempt to treat it with a red substance like finger nail polish according to some on the outlet holes.



I plan to flush it with POR-15 Marine Clean and/or POR-Strip to get it out, then use molasses to get at the rust, then Metal ready to etch and convert balance of rust, then their sealer.

Good thing I got it when I did. Moral of the story, reguardless how your car was babyed chances are it needs it's gas tank treated. Not as critical for carbs as 3 dollar filters csn be periodically easily be replaced but not so for we FI guys as the filters are $20 - $30 and not readily accessible (ahead of tank) and gas must be super clean for injectors.


TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

[Spectatohead]

I took mine to a local radiator shop. They were going to do some kind of acid dip to clean it out and then are lining the inside with some kind of epoxy coating and repainting the outside of it. It's going to cost about $150. I got a new fuel pump from Woody's and a new sender is coming from Rimmer's. both of the original pieces were very rusty / corroded. The tank had no leaks but the car had sat outdoors for about 8 years with only about 3 gallons in the tank. The bottom was full of rusty / gassy slush. It was really nasty. With some luck and care I'm hoping that this will never need to be done again.

Jim Clark
'80 TR8
'97 Maxima 5spd

[zekow1]

I had a similar problem
mine sat on the garage while I was doing the body for 18 months
and it had 5 gallons of gaz in it.
When i started it, It ran for a while and then no more.
The injectors where gone.
The filter cloged
The pump is still good.
The tank had about a 1/2 a gallon of Molasses.

I Cleaned the injectors
I changed the filter
I amd having a Guy that locally cleans tanks for boats come in and flush the tank , and placing somesort of protector he sprays inside the boat tanks.

hoping it works i would hate to have to take the tank out.
[:(]

[Hasbeen]

Spyder, I believe the water in our tanks is from condensation,
particularly in our climate.

I have found all the rust in the 3 tanks I have repaired was
restricted to a strip, about 3" wide, across the bottom front of the
tank, where water would lie, with the tank installed in the car.
The rest of the surface of the tanks still had a grey paint/surface
coating on there, in quite good condition.

I did the POR-15 treatment, after welding a strip of new metal in.
The oldest of these repairs is now over 7 years. If I was doing
another one, which had not all ready pin holed, I would I would
just do the POR-15 bit, & expect the same result. Probably, with my
welding, it is only POR-15 that is making the repairs fuel tight.

Hasbeen

[REPLIC8]

Spyder,
I've only recently done the POR15 tank treatment on my tank. The first two cleaning/ priming processes are quite straight forward, if a bit labour intensive. The hardest bit is using the sealer, once you've sloshed it all around the tank you need to get all the excess fluid out to leave a nice even coat. This isn't easy as the outlet holes aren't the lowest point of the tank, so it takes a bit of time & effort. Once you've got out all you can you need to stop it pooling in the bottom of the tank or it will skin over & ruin the job. Could I suggest before you start you set up some sort of mechanical spit device to constantly rotate the tank while the stuff goes off, I wish I had, it would have saved hours of tank turning in the garage & will produce a much better even coat. You only get 1 chance with this stuff & can quite easily riun the tank if it puddles. Let us know how you get on. [:)]

Andy
1981 UK SPEC TR8

[FI Spyder]

I was thinking of building some kind of spit for it but didn't know if it would be worth the time. I will rethink that. I have put some degreaser and water in it to flush out the residual and realise the effort to remove all liquid as you have to slosh it around. Interestingly what nobody has mentioned, my tank has screw with it's nut welded into tank. I haven't tried removing it yet but would be a good place to drain the tank as it is in the upper corner and all liquid would easily drain from it (when upside down). I wondered why they would put it at the top instead of the bottom where you could periodically drain the water fron the tank like in an aircraft. Has anybody seen this on their car's tank. My build date is July/80 Solihull. It may have even been added after when the tank lining was attempted but it does look original.


TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

[Rblackadar]

Scott at Team Triumph has tanks that heve been done over by the RENU company...offer a lifetime warranty on them as well. They use a similiar technique as the POR treatment from what I understand.

[jbsjim]

FI,
I wouldn't say Stockton is a desert. It gets 20 inches of rain a year here and has a ton of fog in the winter months. It's easy for me to imagine a lot of that moisture making its way into your tank one way or another. So far mine seems to be ok (I live 30 miles north of where you picked up your car) but I'm keeping the tank full of gas and I periodically run a can of injector cleaner/moisture absorber (Sea Foam is the best) through the system.

Hope to have mine back on the road in April.

Jim

[FI Spyder]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by jbsjim</i>


I wouldn't say Stockton is a desert. It gets 20 inches of rain a year here and has a ton of fog in the winter months.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

20 inches a year!!! (I've read 16) half of what we get here and that's with most of it a misty rain that doesn't add up to much. The area looks like Kamloops area northern part of the Great American Desert. It's desert to us.[:D]




TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

[Rich in Vancouver]

I did the repair it yourself routine on my tank a couple of years ago and would never do it again! I used a kit bought from Lordco auto parts. What an awkward, heavy, stinky job! Never mind disposing of the leftover chemicals.
To top it off, when I got the freshly sealed and painted tank back in the car I found it had a pinhole leak in one of the bottom corners.[:(!]
Next time I would happily pay the local rad shop $150. to save doing that crappy job again, and to get a warranty on the tank!

Cheers,
Rich

1975 TR7 ACL764U

[FI Spyder]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Rich in Vancouver</i>

I did the repair it yourself routine on my tank a couple of years ago and would never do it again! I used a kit bought from Lordco auto parts.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

What kit did you use? Mine was done by a shop (Lady who owned it did all work at shops) and that's why I have to do it again.[:(]

I'd rather do it myself and ensure it's done right. I don't trust shops that rush through jobs because their time is limited so called warranty or not (some of which are not worth the paper they are printed on.) I have an idea that will make the job easier. More on that later.

TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

[nick]

I had my tank out about 4.5 years ago. A radiator shop welded, cleaned and treated it with something. Last year I found a couple of pin holes. Not wanting to remove the tank I filled the holes with that epoxy sealer that comes in stick form. You break off what you need and kneed it and then press it in place. It can be applied to a wet surface so there is no need to drain the tank. So far it's doing pretty well. I was wondering how long I could keep doing that. I guess as long as there is enough metal to hold the epoxy.


nick
'79 TR7

[FI Spyder]

The sealer should seal it from the inside unless it's some kind of surface coating that's too thin to do it. Or unless it's failed and it's still rusting from the inside. While epoxy repairs from the outside is good for emergencies it not a solution for the problem which will only get worse and you get a tank failure that will leave you stranded or worse soaks the ground below and a spark turns your TR7 into a college homecoming bonfire. I would get a new tank from whereever the econimical source is as soon as practical, treat it then forget it.

I cleaned the area around the bung with aircraft paint stripper. It looks like it was installed when the tank was last treated. Haven't tried removing stopper yet as it looks like it's threads will be sealed with sealer (think finger nail polish). Will try to tap it out with two chisels and hammers.


TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

[FI Spyder]

I've got the bung Screw removed. I built a dam with acrylic caulking and soaked it over night with acetone which softens the sealer. I tried tapping it with a pair of hammers and two chisels but just succeded in deforming the slot. Then I bought a cheap chisel and ground it down to match the slot in the screw. Then with a socket and breaker bar it came right out as easy as pie. Don't think of a problem as requiring a solution so much as an opportunity get more tools.[:D]





TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

[FI Spyder]

Even if the underneath looks as clean as the day they rolled if off the line and even if you've had your gas tank sealed, if they didn't used a quality sealer and it fails you will get rust in your gas. See my under carriage pictures below. although it looks like there is some rust there. it's the way the camera picks it up. there is some rust red coating you can see where it dripped from over spray and the rest is Sacramento dust that I didn't get out when I cleaned it. I will spray this upper area with Pro Form's waxoil equivalent as it hasn't been undercoated over and above what ever the factory did.

Have I scared you yet?













TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra