The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Lead balls in the gas tank?

Ok, I finally got to removing the sending unit from the gas tank on my '53 3100.

Surprisingly the tank looks pretty good, and the sending unit looks great.....considering. It makes me wonder if it wasn't replaced not too many years ago.

The strange thing is that I heard something rattling around in the tank. I ultimately removed three balls (for lack of a better description). They are not perfectly round, and seem to be lead.

You can see the pics here. The measurement is in cm.
Sending Unit

As well, I have never seen a new fuel sending unit. If you look at the pics, it appears that the body is 'wired' together? Normal?

Thanks,
Steven

Maybe somebody tried to clean the inside of the tank and didn't get all the "bbs" out?
don

the balls are solder that got dripped in hot somehow, the wire is some ones patch job to hold the cover on

Bill

Could be when the refineries stopped putting lead in the gas the PO dropped some lead balls in the tank, lead leeches out of liquid , including water . his thoughts could be lead in his gas.

@wanderer1955,

You may be onto something. I never considered this, but never had a reason to until now. After a bit of research, the lead balls may be just that.

http://www.broquet.co.uk/

I read that web site and to me its reads like a 'Tornado' air intake kinda gizmo... a fraud.

First they are not lead, but TIN. "In essence Broquet, which is a tin based compound".. there is NO mention of LEAD anywhere on the site (that I could find, other than un-leaded gasoline)

None of the studies that it cites are liked or called out. Just the name of the institute. No report number, date of publication, etc. If the study was done in the 50's then there is a real issue with the capabilities of the instruments used, etc. If it's a recent study then cite them so we can read them.

Lastly, if Ford/Chevy et al could reduce the pollutants in the exhaust by 20-35% (as the site states) they they would be ALL OVER IT. Really. Like YESTERDAY. CAT/Kenworth/Peterbuilt et al would KILL for a 55% particulate reduction out of a diesel engine.

So I can only assume that the tests are outdated, wrong, or test for the the wrong things.

I was going to post a response like pfarber's (he is correct); but, I deleted my post because I think that Shaanxi's point is that someone might have put something in the tank as a silly attempt to replace the lead in unleaded gasoline (unnecessarily, of course).

I found the test results! They are from 1991.

http://www.yumpu.com/es/document/vi...orate-casella-environmental-ltd-tanstarr

The test was on two micro cars: 1.1L Ford Fiesta and FIAT Croma 2L

The bad news: It INCREASES POLLUTION IN TWO OF THE BIGGEST POLLUTANTS:

CO2 INCREASED from 6-8% (BAD)
NOx INCREASED from 37%-8% (BAD - will assume that its supposed to be 3.7, but the report clearly shows NO DECIMAL POINT.

There are several cherry picked stats that call methodology into question:

On the FIAT, only TWO results are shown (Lead and Particulates, while the Ford does not list Lead or Particulate) so how can you test two cars for different things and not both cars for all of them? Does pollution increase with displacement??? Is there something inherent in the design of the 1.1L motor than is different from the 2L motor (TBI vs TPI vs carb?).

No testing methodology, type of driving (urban, rural, closed course).

The product and it's 'tests' smell funny.

You could test the sender with a meter

Should read 30 ohm full
It looks like an older replacement

Clean the tank and your good to go. You don't want any foreign material in the tank, especially if it bottom feeds.

DAD550, thanks for that. I'll test that. Surprisingly the tank is real clean...meaning no sludge...just some discoloration. However, prudence goes a long way, and I'll definitely give a good going over.

As concerns the lead...Yes, in fact, I was not supporting that link or that method. I didn't even look into it far enough other than to notice that the 'pellets' looked similar to mine, and that all three of mine are practically identical. My rational was that IF this company is selling something in the UK, perhaps the previous owner, a German, found something similar there some years back.

Anyway, they are outta the tank, not to return.

Thanks for the comments.

Steven