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anyone ever cleaned out their fuel tank?


khughes

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I was wondering why the car was driving so poorly..

Originally when i bought the car, i drained the tank, it contained a thickish red/brown liquid which vaguelly past for oilly fuel..

So i drained thiscrap from the tank and filled it up with some nice clean ULP (with valvemaster additive)... the car had been running okay, but when it got onroad, the car has really been running quite badly.. noticed on the weekend that the fuel filter was once again filling with red/brown gunk so i pulled the fuel tank out and drained it.. (a waste of $50 of fuel :( )

It looks like the fuel has once again been coverted to mud!

Anyone got any ideas with what or how i can flush the fuel tank effectively?

the tank does not seem to leak, but this rusty / oilly crud must be coming from somewhere (unless the inside is just coated in it?)

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Best way is to pull the tank out , take it to a radiator repair shop and have them flush / boil it out for you. PIA but its the only way to be sure.

Mine was the same, rust + crap in a thick sludge, not a big job for the radiator shop...$70?? I think. Ask them to pressure test it as well, see if there are any pinholes

good luck

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I've also had good luck using a pressure washer with the long wand. After washing, blow dry with compressed air and allow to air dry.

Put in fresh gas with an absorbant/cleaner.

Good luck. The above method worked for what looked like a 2 litre bottle of coke. Molasses in the Tank!

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Hey Plutovich had it right. Go ahead and take it to the boiler shop! You can jack around with the home remedy stuff and still won't be as good as the radiator shop. Here in NC, guy will do it for 120$ and will coat the inside also. There is also a balance tube in the top of the tank that you must make sure is clear. They can replace that also

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A timely post for me and some excellent responses.

I am having identical symptoms with one of my own cars and was about to post the very same problem and ask for help.

My interim solution has been to replace the fuel filter ($4.50) but there is obviously a bigger problem.. Am now looking for a fuel tank that I can have "treated" so that I can minimise the time I have the car off the road.

I would appreciate you keeping us posted on how you go with your next step.

Thanks

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well,

I pulled the fuel tank out and the insides looked like they were absolutely coated in rust. no wonder the fuel was absorbing mud :(

i decided to use the fuel tank from my other project 240k, which looked immaculate inside, in the mean time

I also took your advice and blew out the lines, lucky i did, so much crud came out of it!

so now there is nothing that could possibly go wrong with the fuel aqnd lines, and now the cars idle is back to playing up.. it is driving me nuts

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A timely post for me and some excellent responses.

I am having identical symptoms with one of my own cars and was about to post the very same problem and ask for help.

My interim solution has been to replace the fuel filter ($4.50) but there is obviously a bigger problem.. Am now looking for a fuel tank that I can have "treated" so that I can minimise the time I have the car off the road.

I would appreciate you keeping us posted on how you go with your next step.

Thanks

I got a spare 2+2 tank if you are after one.....

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I had roughly the same problem in my 71. Wouldn't go more than 10 miles before it would die from a clogged fuel filter. Drained the tank and removed it. After banging and shaking, I recovered over a quart jar of rust flakes. Took it to a local radiator shop and had it boiled out. Some shops in the U.S. may no longer do this due to our 'wonderful' EPA regulations. Bought the Eastwood coating kit and sealed and coated the inside. No more problems.

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