[Cheetah Wheelies]

My fuel tank is evidently killing my fuel pumps. I have another thread about this.

This car has been kept in a garage since new. However, it doesn't get driven enough. My bad.

Just looking in the tank it appears fine. I haven't scoped the whole tank but from what I can see with a flashlight it looks OK. I see zero rust.

Also, I stopped using ethanol fuel several years ago.

So I pumped the fuel from the tank and found that there was a greenish powder like substance in the tank. At first I thought it was just something wonky with the fuel.

So I pulled the tank out of the car. I bought two gallons of fresh fuel, poured it in, sloshed it around and then pumped it into a disposable cooking pan. The first time I did it it seemed as if about two or three tablespoons of that powdery like stuff settled into the bottom of the pan. So I put a filter into a funnel and pumped the gas back into the tank. The residual gas/powder in the pan was poured into my hazardous waste container.

I repeated this process 10 or 12 times. Every time the powder was less but it never stopped.

It does not look like rust.

Here is what I do not know. Does the original tank come with a coating on the inside? My best guess is that this powder is the original coating coming off.

So if that is the case it seems obvious that something needs to be done.

Here are my options as best as I can tell:

1. Have the tank boiled out at a radiator shop. This is a bit of a problem because most radiator shops have stopped doing this and the only one that I can find is very sketchy about the price. "Somewhere between $175 and $300." I assume that after this I would have to recoat the inside.

2. POR 15. I have used this product in the past on motorcycle tanks. It works great but is a big toxic pain in the tushy.

3. Buy a new tank. I see that Vicks Auto and Classic Alfa have tanks. I think I can get one shipped for about $300. Are they exact fits? Are they already coated on the inside?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[sriswit]

I think that is the residue from ethanol. I am bringing back an Alfetta that hasn't been driven for 20 years. The tank came in dry and no rust but greenish/grayish powder everywhere. A good friend of mine suggested that I take the tank out and then powerwash the inside, let dry and repeat a couple of times. I will do that next week.

 

[Cheetah Wheelies]

Really? Wow! I stopped using ethanol fuel a while back. I wonder how long the residue lasts.

Now that you mention it that looks like the same stuff I found in the carburetor and reed valves of my MC after getting "ethanoled."

May have to do a search on how to clean it. This may save me a lot of hassle and expense!!!

 

[Cheetah Wheelies]

I decided to try and clean the stuff out of the tank. I poured 40 big nuts in the tank, filled it with about 2 gallons of hot water and half a cup of dishwashing soap and shook and turned until I was too tired to continue. After draining and rinsing the tank looked much better.

I then applied the POR15 Cleaner Degreaser mixed 1:1 with hot water. I let it sit on each side for over an hour. After draining the tank looks great. However, after looking inside with a flashlight I still see a little of that corrosion on one of the walls. I guess this is where the nuts didn't scrape well or my pressure washer couldn't get to.

I had planned on ordering the Tank Prep and POR15 coating but since there is still a little of that stuff in there I am afraid it will botch the coating job.

I don't think what is left will hurt anything and the rest of the tank looks great. The car is kept in a garage and I only run non-ethanol fuel so it should be OK.

BTW - Lowes sells these: Stoppers They work great for sealing the fuel pump and filler openings. I didn't want the nuts buggering up the threads on the fuel pump screws so I only screwed them in flush and then let the stopper sit on the top of the screw heads. It weeped a little around the screws but otherwise it was fine.