The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Gas tank removal

I finally got the gas tank removed from my truck last night.

I got under the truck with a gas can to empty my tank. I took the flex line off the truck and opened the petcock, but got nothing more than a slow dribble for the next 20 minutes. I took the petcock off, thinking it was clogged but got no more flow.

I unbolted the tank and lifted it out of the saddles. I heard the remaining fuel and what sounded like a ton of stones rush to the other end of the tank.

Question(s): Is this normal? Is that something in the tank to keep the fuel from sloshing back and forth? Or is it 56 years of built up sh@#? What do you do with skunked fuel when you don't live someplace where you can just throw it on the weekend bonfire?

Bottle your old fuel up and take it to a waste disposal facility, most auto parts stores have an oil dump, you might want to call around and see who has what. I had to do that with my 61'. NOt sure I got it all cause I am barely getting 5 mpg on my rig at this point. Good luck.

-Will

there shouldn't be anything in your tank except fuel.
Take the tank out and shake the "stones" out.
real curious what you will find.

I'm curious to see what's in there as well.

The tank is out now and will get totally cleaned up before going back in.

The P.O. said he installed a new fuel pump. I think I may have found his underlieing problem (other than stupidity).

Thanks for the info.

It's probably a bit rusted inside. I have a way to help keep the line open that we use in old motorcycle petcocks. I did this before I installed a new under bed tank. I got from the hardware store a fine screen-mesh brass cloth and soldered it to the brass tube that fits to the bottom of my tank. I wrapped the screen around a pencil, soldered the seam and one end. The other end fits inside the brass tube, soldered in, then threads into the tank. It's about 1-1/2 - 2'' long and allows plenty of gas to flow. It acts as a pre-filter. My brass tube used to get clogged because there was SO much crud in my tank, like you redgreen, it would not flow gas. Also re-place a large inline filter close to the tank.

there is a product that you can use to reline rusty tanks. must be a epoxy type thing.

mystery solved. I just dumped about 5 pounds of rust and junk out of the tank. I'm debating between trying to reseal the tank or just bite the bullet and buy a new one. We'll see. That decision is a long way off.

Hey R.G.

Just went the same route with the tank in my 54. After bouncing lug nuts around inside to knock out the gunk and rust I got $44. kit from Eastwood.....save yourself some headaches...spring the $129.00 for a new tank from C/D and then you can concentrate on the other little things that are going to pop up on your truck. No rad. shop here in Fl. will boil out a tank and you'll be time and money ahead to bite the bullet and eliminate this major headache once and for all. My new tank is perfect....get a new sender for $29 too. Just my $.03.

Dave

When my oldest boy was about three years old I cought him putting gravel in my 46 chevy truck gas tank. He said he was putting gas in it.I did'nt have the heart to get mad. I never did try to get it out. It did'nt hurt the way it ran. I wish I still had that truck.

There's no reason why you can't clean and reuse your tank. You can get cleaning/recoating kits everywhere. I prefer Redkote but there are lots of good products on the market. Just be sure to follow the instructions to the letter. If you don't prep right the coating will often fail. I was able to save the tank in my 38 after 20+ years of neglect. That is a story in itself. The crud I got out of that tank smelled like the devil's arm pit.