The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop No fuel from tank

I'm trying to start my '59, and I'm not getting any fuel from the tank. It hasn't been run since '91, so who knows what's in the tank. I put in a couple of gallons and if I take off the hose fitting under the cab, just a few drips of gas come out (probably residual in the line). I'm trying to understand how the tank is plumbed, and it looks like the pickup tube goes out the top of the tank and then down the back and through the floor.

Does the fuel system need to be primed to flow fuel? Is there a minimum amount of fuel needed in the tank to get it going? I tried to blow air through the fuel line from the line at the pump back to the tank, but it appears to be plugged. Is there a check valve in the system, or should I be able to blow out the line all the way into the tank (gas cap off)? How much pressure can I use to blow out the line (so far only used about 20psi)?

Any help in understanding the design would be appreciated. I'm thinking my next step is to pull the tank.

My guess is your fuel line is plugged! If you can't get air through it, why would fuel go through? Pull out your sending unit and check it. If it is plugged, unplug it of purchase new plumbing. If you don't, you will continually plug up filters, your lines or carb.

Mine did something very similar. It was a piece of trash in the bottom of the tank. I got it out by pulling the fuel line at the carb, put on a squeeze bulb ( like from a blood pressure cuff) and GENTLY applied pressure until I heard bubbles in the gas tank. I never saw it through the top of the tank but haven't had the problem return

I would use air pressure and blow through the line into the tank. If that doesn't clear it up you might want to think about cleaning the tank. Anything in the tank now will just get picked up by the fresh gas and end up in your fuel filter, flushing the tank will loosen up all of that so you can get it out. If you go one step futher and have it cleaned by a radiator shop they can flush it and seal it at the same time.

You need to stop trying to start this engine right now!
You need to, at the very least, remove the tank and have it cleaned out buy a radiator shop, or by yourself, or buy a new tank.
If you do not do this, you run the risk of having decades of varnish which has accumulated on the sides and bottom of the tank to be dissolved by today's blend of fuel (which is a very good varnish solvent), and cause it to migrate and accumulate in the fuel pump check valve and throughout the inside of the carburetor, and gum up the valve guides to the point where you bend push rods. A fuel filter will not stop this from happening.
Way too many, well meaning, but in too much of a hurry people make this mistake, and dread it later.
Carl

What Carl said.
My Model A had a layer of tar (varnish) mixed with rust. I cleaned it out with a gallon of lacquer thinner.

Sounds like time to pull the tank. I'll need to take out the seat, which is not even close to original, so the back doesn't fold down (the original seat folds?).

Pulled the tank and dumped the contents into a bucket. I've never seen such dirty gas! I pulled out the sender unit and it looks like the inside is really filthy. lots of a brown cracked coating on the inside. Any ideas on how to clean out the tank?

pea-stone gravel
Then you have to decide if you are going to use some sort of interior coating?

I strapped a fuel tank to a rear wheel of my tractor, added a couple of shovels of pea gravel, and ran the bush hog for a couple of hours in one of my pastures. The hardest part of the whole project was getting all the gravel back out of the tank.
Jerry

I just got done cleaning a small gas tank on a small generator.
I did not want to suffer with getting foreign objects back out of the tank, so I got a bunch of 1/4" nuts, threaded a string through the holes to hold them together. I left plenty of slack in the loop of string so that they would act like they were loose. I shook it by hand and it cleaned up the crud very nicely. I reached in through the fill hole with wire with a small hook on the end and fished the nuts right out, and since a added a pint or so of paint thinner, they came out nice and clean!
A truck tank would require a lot more nuts and a better way of shaking it to clean it.

Funny,
I went to my TSC and bought several pounds of nuts and put in my 1950 tank. I put the tank in my ranch truck and drove it around in the bed for about 10 days. Rinsed it out with paint thinner. The inside was Shiny Clean!!
Todd

My local radiator shop will boil it out and cream the inside for about $150.00, seems like a lot but the epoxy coating seals everything.

I have done with three radiators - as Craig describes.

If they do it right, it will last a long time.

i did the same on my 50 truck, but i used a bunch of rocks from the farm yard with hot soapy water, then some carb cleaner once the big rust and chunks was out.
final rinse with some gasoline (to be saved for washing shop parts)
then throw in some gas tank de-icier with the first fuel tank to pick up the last of the water.
seemed to work okay
-s

Mine was so bad that I purchased a new tank and replaced all the plumbing.

I had a tank boiled out at a radiator shop and it never stopped making rust. It looked nice and clean through the sender hole but it continued to make enough rust to clog up a fuel filter.
Bought a brand new tank from a popular aftermarket supplier (made in Taiwan) and everything bolted up & works like the OEM it replaced.
Delivered to my door for around $150.

New tank, fuel lines, filter, cleaned out carb and zero fuel related issues.

Good luck
Dave

Dave,

After you boiled out the tank, did you coat the inside with anything?

Priceless Jerry, absolutely priceless! Thanks for taking the time to share that.

As to compressed air. I wouldn't attempt more than say 15-16lbs pressure (with the cap off). Yes. You should have no trouble getting air to the tank from the intake side of the fuel pump with that much pressure. If you don't then the line(s) are also clogged. You've undoubtedly got sludge in the tank -- a mixture of water, solid particles (dust), and varnish (old gas). Take the tank out, and empty it through the neck for the gas cap. Then get some very light solvent -- lacquer thinner might be a good choice, about a gallon of it. Pour it in, and slosh it back and forth for a good while. Then empty it out the same way you did the old gas. Run the dirty solvent through an old t-shirt to remove all the solids, and gunk. Then pour it back in "rinse and repeat". Shouldn't take but a couple times to get you back in shape. If it's not too much trouble. You'd be well advised to remove the (fuel) lines, and blow them out. Replace any of the (rubber) hoses that look at all tired.
After all that, you should be in really good shape!

HTH

Chris

OH. Do take the time to examine the mesh on the end of the gas gauge/fuel sump. There's probably some gunk on that, as well.

Tim, No, radiator shop said it didn't need it and recommended not to. Would it have helped? I dunno, I do know new tank no trouble... Still have that original tank with the openings taped up sitting in the shop.

The radiator shop here recommended that I use the epoxy coating. It seals any pits and coats the inside against any future rust. It holds up well to methanol fuel. I had this done about 4 years ago, no issues.

I have tried just about everything. All the things posted here. But, I never tried the 1/4 nuts on a string. That is smart. Without the farm equipment to shake the tank(not a farmer) I have used an old swamp cooler motor with a weight bolted to the pulley. My version of a shaker. Strap to the tank and let it rattle the gravel and it comes out nice and clean. Getting the gravel out...is a pain. Nuts on a string..that is genius. Epoxy in the tank. Gotta be better than "Cream" that I used in old motorcycle tanks. New fuel messes with everything. Never did figure how to get rust out of the seams. Used 2 fuel filters, one just after the tank before the fuel pump and one just in front of the carb. Used the glass see through types and took them apart often to keep that crud out of the pump and carb. Epoxy seems a better idea. Older tanks have a bottom feed and a drain valve. Up to about 54 I think. After that the fuel feed is at the top of the sender. The sender is the same. The screw pattern is the same. So I have run them in my truck(52) just cap of the fuel line on the sender. There is no way I know of to clean out that varnish like stuff without removing the tank. And with the top fuel outlet, you have to siphon out as much as you can. No drain. Old gas is evil. It can stick valves. Clog pumps and mess up the carb. So I have learned to get it out and get it gone. Good luck with yours and let us know how it goes.

A length of chain. Whatever size and length is appropriate for the tank you are cleaning. That is much easier to remove than hundreds or thousands of nuts or pea pebbles. I was taught that as a teen by an old timer who repaired small engines. A garage sale bicycle and an electric motor can be turned into a way to spin the tank in the same way jerry did with his tractor.

On most truck gas tanks there are internal baffles. These will interfere with your hope of adequately cleaning a rusty/dirty tank with many of the methods described in this thread. These methods, no doubt, work well with a small engine tank. The proprietary process called "Gas Tank Renu" involves cutting holes in the tank where necessary to obtain vision and access with abrasive media. The holes are closed by braising in metal plugs followed by heating with a low melting point plastic to form an internal liner. The outside is then lined the same way. I had this done on an irreplaceable gas tank for my Diamond T. Fifteen years later I get no sediment in my filter.

This process is more costly than replacing with a good quality new reproduction tank, which is what I have done with my Chevy trucks.
Kent

"Most truck gas tanks there were internal baffles". In what year did this become true?

non of my farm trucks or full sized vans have baffles
they are mostly all 50s, 60s, 70s vehicles
I've spent time working on most of these gas tanks growing up on the family farm
glueing tanks, prepin' other for welding or brazing, or simply cleaning them out from dirt and rust, etc...

if you drive on a steep hill in the field the wrong way you will see gas shoot out the fill spouts
some have only one tiny baffle to help mitigate this spillage from the slosh action, but nothing across the whole tank or in the way of a gallon of rocks in the tank to clean it out.
-s