Man, that is nasty. I wonder what is at the bottom of the gas tank on my boat...

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

 

Assuming it is deposits from bad fuel sitting for too long. But I wonder why my tank doesn't have a layer of this stuff?

It isn't very sticky. Insanely thick. I sprayed some brake cleaner on it and it didn't even phase this crap.

 

The fuel senders are notoriously twichy anyway. I'd try and save the one you've got first. There's no guarantee another used one will work perfectly. Good luck! I'm enjoying your thread!!

 

Brad - Reminds me of old cans of deck stain I once found in a garage.... How do you know there's not more of that crap at the very bottom of your tank? While the float's out, maybe tie a white (clean) rag to the end of a yard stick or something and wipe it around the bottom and see how it looks.

When did you say that car last ran??? Wow...

 

I do not know when the car last ran. It has been several years for sure. I posted some pictures of the inside of my fuel tank and it didn't look near as bad as this does. I do want to clean it out now though... Would wiping with a good rag work ok or should I drop it and find a shop that can clean it? I know which is more optimal but just wondering. Also my hand can fit down into the tank through the fuel sender hole so I could do some pretty good cleaning/scrubbing through there.

I don't think the stuff you can see in this picture is anywhere near what is like on the fuel sender. I will check tonight to see if it is all gummy or not.

 

If it is that same gummy crap, I don't think you'd be able to wipe it out from the top. Dropping the tank is a easy project--and it's a good feeling putting it back on after it's clean knowing that 30 years of crap isn't rolling around in there. You'd have to replace the hoses and possibly the grommet by the filler hole depending on if yours has dry-rotted.

 

The white disc on top looks like its loose in there? I would drop the tank (not too hard, just need the rear end fairly high) and flush it out - maybe a solvent first to get the brown deposits out, then a pressure wash, and allow to dry thoroughly before refitting....worked for me.
jp 83 Euro S AT 54k

 

I have been calling around today trying to get quotes on fuel tank cleaning. Looking between $50-85 and a same day or next day turn around. Not too bad. So I may go ahead and do this. Now just need to find out where to get that money from.

 

Will this affect anything? As long as the sender goes through that hole?

When I had reinstalled the sender the first time I made sure to make it go through that disc. Does it secure itself to the bottom part? If so does anyone have a diagram of how it holds on?

 

I believe Berryans is what you want. It will desolve the stuff eventually. Pour in a gallon or so, let it sit for several hours, maybe overnight. Pour it out and then clean the inside of the tank the best you can. If neccessary, do it again. When I bought my last 79 it only had 36k miles but it was almost 30 years old. So you can imagine how much driving it had done each year. I removed the tank same as you, cleaned it properly, and replaced every piece of rubber line that I could find under there while the tank was out. Dont' forget to replace the seal under the tank cap. If you take that senden unit apart, you will find two very fine metal wires that are very easy to break. If you break one, forget ever getting it right again after that. Ask me how I know. LOL... There is a writeup around here somewhere with a pretty good description of how to do it.

One last thing not to forget, I did mine in the garage. For some reason, the whole house smelled like berrymens and gas for 2 weeks. Wife told me that if I ever pull a gas tank at home again, she would not divorce me, she would shoot me...

You might as well be ready to find the same crap in the fuel distributor. You can buy good remanufactured ones from some of our better vendors. Some do the job themselves but I think there are more failures than successes. There is also a pretty good writeup for that also. One thing that I think Stan (MrMerlin) told me was about the fact that at the attachment point of all those lines on the top of the fuel distributor, there are small fine wire baskets about 1/16 to 1/8" accross. These can easily get clogged up and I just disgarded mine. Once you get the bugs out of this car, you will find it to be one of the most dependable cars you ever owned. I have somewhere around 12 years split between 2 different 79s and have no complaints about either. I loved the 5 speed better than the 3 speed auto but both cars just ran great. I used to think my last one had ESP. It would start just about as fast as I could insert the key and turn. Neither one of them ever let me down. I had a timing belt break on one of them but that was because I used a remanufactured water pump off of ebay (Said new in the ad) instead of getting a new one from one of our trusted vendors. The pump lasted about 2 years. Since these are non-interfearence engines, all I had to do was clean it up, replace the belt and start driving again. The only reason I am not still driving my last 79 was that what ever I did, I just could not get any better than 13 to 14 mpg and the car just didn't have the performance to warrant that kind of expense.

Let me know if I can help in any way. I love the OB's and you can call at any time if you need to talk or just have questions. If you need to, send me a pm for the phone number.

Cheers,

 

Thanks for the offer. I may indeed hit you up sometime if I have questions. My car is an 82 and doesn't have the fuel distributor. Thankfully I do not have to worry about it clogging. The lines all seem ok. Just appears to be the tank and sender that got the brunt of it. And I now know why the original fuel pump was not working.

 

Brad Hear is the ups tracking # for pump that John sent you 1Z7804810352618213. It is in OK and should be out for delivery today.
Good Day Sir
Mike

 

Awesome. I think I have a line on a fuel level sender. Just got to make sure I have the funds to get it atm. Thanks for all the help guys!! I won't be down in the car this weekend but I will be there.

 

Brad,
I think I would wait until you get the old one clean to find out if it actually works. I have a spare one of those also, so if you need it, you can get it Saturday.
Good Luck.

 

I will see how the mineral spirits did on the sender. I will check on it when I go home on my lunch break. Any real tips on cleaning this stuff off? Someone said something about being able to take them apart and clean them. I am going to do some looking around to see what all would need to be done to clean it. It would be nice if it wasn't too bad on the inside of the sender but I'm not holing my breath on that one.

But if it wont come clean then you are the man!