The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk gas tank baffle

Last Saturday I followed the "Bringing a Dead Engine Back to Life" article (Thank you Stovebolt ,very helpful) and my 1940 Chevy PU started first try!

Now I want to get the fuel system cleaned up, working and connected so I took out the fuel sending unit to see what was rattling around in the tank and I found a completely loose baffle.

It seems I have no choice but to extract it bit by bit as it will interfere with the float. Will removing the baffle cause any problems? Are there any other options?

Shouldn't be a problem. Keep the tank a quarter or more full. Since a 40 pickup isn't going to be in slalom type racing around tight corners I doubt you would ever notice fuel shifting. How are you going to cut it into pieces? Some ways could be dangerous and others could leave trash in the tank. A good cleaning and filter use either way.

You will likely notice a lot of movement in your gas gauge. Gauges in that era were pretty much linear in that when the float moved the needle moved. The purpose of the baffling was to minimize it. It won't hurt the sending unit or the gauge (to the best of my knowledge) so if you can live with an 'active' pointer you'll be OK.

I had a loose baffle in the gas tank of my 35 Chevy coupe. I removed and drained the tank. Filled it with water and cut a flap on the top side and removed it. Welded the flap back in place, checked it for leaks and reinstalled it. No problems.

Rick

Thanks coilover,

It doesn't look there has been gas in the tank for years so I don't think an explosion is a concern but I wont use a torch anyway. My thought is to use snips and needle nose pliers to nibble it away. It might prove to be too heavy a gage for that however. Cleaning is definitely in order. Overall the tank look pretty good. I will do a leak test to be sure but I'm optimistic (perhaps overly) that I wont have to coat the inside.

Thanks Tiny,

I can live with an active pointer.

Good idea Rick,

Somehow my loose baffle is bent to. I don't know how or why that would happen.

Hi Coilover,

I removed the loose baffle with needle nose pliers and snips it worked quite well as the baffle was pretty rusted and thin. After removing it I vacuumed all the rust and dust out by connecting the vacuum hose to the filler neck and tipping the tank up so the filler neck was at the lowest point and banging the tank. That also worked well and the tank looks pretty good and should clean up nicely. Now I am tempted to remove the other baffle (which isn't loose) so I can clean the entire tank better and if needed coat it better. What do you think; good idea, bad idea, indifferent?

I would leave it in, it might also be a structural member as well as helping the gas from sloshing all around.

Find a local chemical paint/rust removal company the can soak the tank and de-rust the inside of the tank. Then coat the inside. It costs me about $120 to do a 20 gallon tank and they come out looking new, the chemicals don't hurt the original tin coating or lead seams at all.

My .02

Mike B

Thanks Mike!