The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Fuel tank

I hope this is in the right place.

I bought the "kit" from LMC, and oh my God was that a mistake. This thing came with 2 straps that wouldn't have strapped it into anything the way they were bent, 2 L-bolts with nuts/washers, sending unit/pickup, and that's pretty much it.

To start with, I had to bend/cut/drill the straps to make them work, then drill the crossmembers to bolt the straps. The next thing I noticed was that the filler inlet on the tank is 1 3/8", which there are zero parts stores in my area that sell fuel hose for. I'm told there's no cars/trucks that use that size, so I'm stuck using radiator hose for the couplings. I had to shrink the filler neck down from 2 1/4" at the cap to 1 3/8" at the tank, while making two bends in the tube, one at a 15 degree angle, then the other at a 90 off to the side to get to the frame rail, where I used a short slightly curved small piece of rad hose to go into the tank.

While my friend was working this up, I bolted the tank up, to test fit for the bed. The rear bed support sat right on the center of the tank. I had to notch 1.5" out of the crossbeam to get the bed to sit right, and to clear the sending unit/fuel outlet.

Next was the bedside, as the tank inlet lined up right behind the bed mount, and came out into the wheelwell in a part that had a section of steel coming down at an angle, so I was required to cut here, as well. Then we picked the bed back up, found a good spot for the ground, and the sending wire to the gauge.

The next issue we ran into was that the vent tube on the tank sits directly behind the bed mount, making this not fit well, either, as well as only being a 1/2" tube. So, we figure this all out, and here comes the real kicker.
The tank needs to be able to be put in from the bottom, without taking the bed off, as the flange on the tank completely covers the area between the tank and the frame, making it impossible to get to the two nuts for the bed mounts. We drop the tank, bolt the bed back on, put the tank back up, and fill it up. It now works, fuel gauge is accurate and no leaks.

No leaks and good fuel reading is awesome, but I'm going to need to find another way to fill it soon, as the radiator hose won't hold up to the fuel for long.

If anyone has done this install, and had the same issues I did, please feel free to help me out with some tips for the filler, as I am about out of ideas.
I did not call LMC, every time I got home from working on it, I was a little hot :mad: , so any conversation would've gone bad.

Thanks all, sorry so long
Tony

My advice: cool off and call LMC, it may help but it sure won't hurt.

I'm going to call them tomorrow. The tank is in, it's stable, but I just really don't like the filler tube setup.

I read on here or some other forum, I don't remember, but I should have followed the advice- not to use that tank.

Oh well, live and learn, right? Good advice, though, thanks.
Tony

Tony you might want to check with the boat shops that carry inboard ski boats as they I believe carry the fuel inlet hose for their tanks. 1 3/8" - 1 7/8" fuel hose. Also you might check equipment parts houses like Delta Rubber. Hope this helps.
62Blue
Don

Thanks, Don. I'll check that out, and I'll be happy when I can replumb it with fuel line.

Tony

It is an adaptation of a Blazer tank to a pick-up, some fabrication is required. The straps are just bent so they fit in the box for shipping, nothing is pre-bent to fit the tank. I made a "framework" for my tank so that it's supported on all four edges instead of just by the frame rails. My truck is a 4X4 so the box will sit a little higher off the frame and I'm putting in a steel floor from a rust free 89 C3500 I got. I'm not sure what mod's I'll have to do, if any, to clear the top of the tank with the bottom of the bed. I'm also undecided on how I'm going to fill the tank. I may graft in a filler door into the side of the body or a filler door on the inside of the bed. I definately don't like the ones in the floor.
Scott

I called LMC, the gentleman I talked to said nobody's ever called about the 1 3/8" fuel inlet before, so tomorrow I have to talk to customer service, find out if I got one that was put together wrong, or something along those lines. He didn't have any specs on what the in/out sizings were supposed to be, nor did he have info on what the tank was originally built for (ie. Blazer). He did say that I may be able to get my money back, but didn't say anything about an exchange if the tank is just wrong.

I found some 1 3/8" fuel filler tube, but one is a vendor-only page, I sent them an email asking where I might be able to buy this, the other was on Gates' homepage. No prices on that one, and I tried some of the auto parts supply places online catalogs, no go on the tube. I'm still searching, I'd kind of like to keep the fender filler, if I can get it plumbed up right.

Good luck with yours, Scott, and I hope yours works a little better than mine did. Sounds like you have access to a couple more tools that I do at the moment.

I've already got a GM fuel filler neck and hose on mine. I think it came off of a mid 70's pick-up. I think that diameter is correct. Have you gone to a tractor supply store? I can usually get that odd stuff from our local CarQuest store too. You may have to go up to 1 1/2" hose and clamp it down tight,
Scott

I'll go measure mine, it's an LMC kit, and let you know.



OK, I'm back. My inlet is also 1 3/8" and my filler is from a 78 pick-up. I looked on LMC's on-line catalog and they list those hoses in a couple of different configurations for a 73-87 era truck. Get one of those and you'll be set,
Scott

Thanks again, Scott. I guess I didn't think to look at the 73-87 book from them I'll look today and hopefully order it.

Tony

*EDIT* Is your truck a stepside? Remembering what the filler needs to look like, I didn't see anything resembling that in the blazer/truck catalogs.

My truck is a long, fleetside. Can't help you much on a stepside, never had one,
Scott