The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Ballasted Gas Tank?

Hi Everyone, wanted to know if anyone out there ever installed or even heard of a ballasted gas tank for a behind the seat 57- 3100. I have had a couple of close calls with mine when I am going up a big hill and the tank is only a quarter full. It stalls and sputters till I level out,then its fine. And it only does this when the tank is less than half full. My understanding is that GM solved this problem in later years by installing ballasts in the tank. Do you know if anyone sells a tank like that or if you know of another solution other than filling it more often. I would like to make this my daily driver so this could become a problem at some point.

Could I push more tubing into the tank so its closer to the bottom? Maybe angle it to the back of the tank? The gas unit appears to be correct for the vehicle and I haven't done anything with it except to make sure the float was working correctly for the gauge. Thanks for any advice, Kevin

I've never heard of a "ballasted gas tank", but have heard of baffled gas tanks, is that what you mean?

Have you inspected the pickup tube to make sure it doesn't have a rust pin hole and is sucking air. Did the end of the tube rust off making it to short? Is the sock still there?

Mike B

You need this, https://www.holley.com/products/fuel_systems/hydramat/hydramats/ Look on youtube for video of it working.

Thanks Mike, yes I did check the pickup tube and it seemed intact, the sock was in place, I actually thought of seeing if I could lengthen the tube some how but it would require adding an extension to the current unit.

I had that up hill/down hill problem with a 1971 Blazer. It was the carb float bowl/accelerator pump well starving for gas. Rochester has baffles. I got new Quadrajet and it stopped. I seem to remember that a product improvement was made on the Q-Jet. Maybe you are missing the baffle. (You probably don't have a Q-jet).

Could just be float level/float drop setting......or a vacuum leak.

could be carb as bart sez - with a number of 5-9 trucks I've never had such a problem, except for one with a worn fuel pump actuator arm - try a new fuel pump

Bill

The tank is "skinny" in the up hill/down hill direction. So that is not your problem. As Bill says, maybe the pump is weak. Maybe a filter is partially clogged, etc.
I'm trying to relate the 1/2 tank syndrome while knowing that the fuel level is not the problem. Only thing I can think of is: as the tank level goes down, it tries to draw a vacuum. If your gas cap is no longer venting, the tank will draw a vacuum against the flow/fuel pump and starve the carb. Notice any noise when taking cap off? Next time going up hill and it stalls. Take cap off and try it.

Wow, that is genius - what a problem solver!

Agreed, an ingenious product for racing. We don't have those kinds of bank track problems to solve. Trying to reduce pit stops, etc.. Especially at those prices.

I have to agree, I don't think it's a tank or pick-up problem, the sock pretty much touches the bottom of the tank and unless you are very low on fuel and tipped to one side it should be able to supply fuel. I would be looking at the pump and carb.