mark kibort

Ive been lazy on this one, as i thought i just had a small vent leak with the gas tank, as most races , i smell gas the first few laps, and then its ok.

turns out , in my Zealous body cutting to reduce weight, i cut a little too deep in the seat belt attachement area for the passenger side brackets. there is a long skinny tank in the fender area that i think allows for a gravity feed back to the main tank (anyone know???) Anyway, i gut into this, right at the top of the speaker mount areas in the rear A pillar area. made two pretty deep cuts that have been there for 3 years now. lots of tar looking material was leaking around that area and i thought it was just race track oil or water accumulating.

its thermo plastic, so it was easy to weld, and then used JB weld to seal it all up. that JBweld is amazing stuff.

anyone know the reason for that little tank coming back from engine area? It looks like some kind of fuel accumulator that allows for the fuel to flow back to the gas tank.

thanks,

Mark

macreel

Mark K... isn't that the Expansion Tank; a tube from
the charcoal cannister runs to it(the Rollover valve
is in that tube), and another runs aft to the filler neck.

G'luck.

PorKen

This is from my '81, the later cars are probably similar.


clic pic for more info

I ditched all this, in favor of an inline-gas-filter direct vent.

mark kibort

thats it! so, what is it good for. i was getting a lot of gas out of the area where the cuts were.
since i dont have a charcol canister, are you saying that entire set up can be removed? sure looks like its fed from the return line from the fuel regulators, but i certainly could be wrong. the line parallel going to the front of the car is the fuel pump, it just seems logical that the line next to it would be the return fuel line. especially, since i had so much gas in that area with the cuts in the little tank.
Mk

mark kibort

so, its the expansion chamber (just checked the manuals)
so, how does fuel end up in here and make a mess of things with a crack in the tank near the speaker cut out area? can fuel end up going back into the lines by the fuel splashing around near the filler area? I guess since i have no charcol cannister, its basically a system that can just be pugged up, right?

thanks!

MK

Chuck Schreiber

Kibort is getting excited, that's another 2 pounds he can drop from the Holbert car!!!

mark kibort

maybe 2.5 lbs with the air balloon up front. i forgot about that vacuum reservoir for the cruise control.

there goes .25hp to be freed up! (and .0001g's)
MK

Gretch

Mark I saw the piece you did on TV the otherday. The one where they interviewed you while the video of you emptying out your car and changing to race wheels using one jack was running in the background. Well done......You are becoming a media star...............

mark kibort

pretty funny , i know!


MK

mark kibort

so, anyone know why i could be getting liquid gas in the tank, leaking out of my, now closed up, cracks in the tank?
MK

macreel

Mark... I dunno; do you do many left turns with braking?(he he)
Any correlation to fuel tank level - more smell/liquid just
after tanking up, less after you've burned half a tank?
Vapor condensation on cool nights?
Are you sure all the liquid is drained from that plumbing?

Which parts (from Ken's photos) are still aboard?

G'luck.

mark kibort

I have all that stuff in there. except the charcol can up front.

definitely smell more fuel when i put more than 1/2 tank and certainly more on the track under those conditions. not really a condensation thing, as the car rarely is exposed to cool nights.

so, i guess that feed line is low enough so braking left turns can force some gas into the canister? it really has to be this way, cause it is gas i smell, and it has shown its liquid trail around the cuts and its path down the inside of the car. And, even some splashing marks on the inside back toward the rear quarter plastic windows that have little gas drop stains.

anyway, still have the stuff in there, as i thought it was the fuel return line from the regulators, but i guess its just the vapor stuff .

I definitely smell the gas more on half fill ups. (never fill all the way up) and probably due to the pressure in the tank pushing the air out this leaking cut area of the expansion tank. (and then right into the cockpit, due to an air path in my cut out covers not being sealed perfectly)

thanks for the help!
Mk

Chuck Schreiber

Mark,

Mine does the same thing over half a tank. I filled it up a few weeks ago the night before heading down for the Third coast and it stunk up the entire garage! If you find out what it is, please let me know.

mark kibort

Hi Chuck,

actually two comments.

my current issue would probably be due to the cuts i made with the sawsall when i was cutting the speaker steel out of the A pillars. i made 2 x 3" cuts in the plastic that was leaking the gas and possibly the fumes .

the old 84 tank, had a leak near the top of the tank. i mean , it was leaking if i filled it up until the level went below the crack. never fixed it, the car was wrecked at the track and the pieces sold off. it also smelled up the garage, but that was due to the crack in the tank.

so, good luck in finding the leak or crack!

MK

Chuck Schreiber

Mark,

Thanks for the info.

I guess the tank is a good place to start. It's coming out along with the cradle, sending unit, etc. so I can pull the rear cover to re-spray it. Another while your'e in there I suppose. Thanks.