petrol tanks

[davrian6140]

Hi folks, Just had the shock of my life , went to get the Davrian out to day
opened the garage doors a the smell of petrol, panic checked the engine bay
ok but under the front of the car was a mass of petrol. the ally tank on the
nere side was leaking. the modern petrol with all the cemicals which are added to it
had started to eat the ally. SO PLEASE CHECK YOURS. if the car is not on the road
replace them with ST/STeel. I could possible get your tanks made for you
at a reasonable cost if needs be.
Dave.

[intrepid]

Wow, I wouldn't have thought that could happen. Alan drained the tanks on mine when he stored it so hopefully they are ok but perhaps I will line them with resin before I use them (the same stuff you use on motorcycle tanks) to seal up any pin prick holes and shield the ally from the fuel.

Not a pleasant job to replace - perhaps worth fitting a stainless tank in the front and keeping the originals for show?

[Blade]

Mine leaked all the way back when Pat owned/raced the car which was well over 20 years ago! Maybe this could be a fault a little mpre common that we think so as already suggested a good check of petrol tanks would be advisory.

[Teddie2003]

Hi folks, Just had the shock of my life , went to get the Davrian out to day
opened the garage doors a the smell of petrol, panic checked the engine bay
ok but under the front of the car was a mass of petrol. the ally tank on the
nere side was leaking. the modern petrol with all the cemicals which are added to it
had started to eat the ally. SO PLEASE CHECK YOURS. if the car is not on the road
replace them with ST/STeel. I could possible get your tanks made for you
at a reasonable cost if needs be.
Dave.

Hi Dave,

that's pretty bad luck and a fair bit of work to rectify.

On the car logger section
GT 4 had that problem in his post a few years ago.
"Lots more info on my car here:
http://www.turbosport.co.uk/showthread. ... -different

Go to post 47 on page 2 of the link to see his problem, sounds pretty much the same as yours.

My only thought on using stainless tanks is that if there is an accident, isn't the original idea of the alloy tanks they will deform
a bit better before splitting compared to stainless?

Steve

[Dave6091]

Had the same happen to the drivers side tank on the Mk6 many years ago. Came out from work to find the whole sill section dripping fuel everywhere. Absolute bugger to get out and found a 3" patch that had rotted from the outside in, the rest of the tank was perfect. Had a piece welded in and it was ok altho keeping the cap lined up with the bodywork hole while refilling the gaps with expanding foam was a total pain in the bum!.
Not totally convinced that the fuel has rotted the tank tho Dave, the guy who welded my tank thought that the old foam had got damp and slowly been corroding the ali away for years.

Dave.

[Soyuz]

I remember Steve Brickell telling me that when he bought his Mk4 (Tim Duffee's mothers car) that a previous owner had drilled a hole into the tank about half way up and he only discovered it when filling the tank. He said it took him ages to scrape out all the foam around the tank to remove it.

[redgwick1]

Hi,

The same happened to my Mk 5 and also a friend of mine,Steve Mason's Mk 5.

I was trying to make a little more clearance for the new tyres I had bought(215 50 13's on 7.5 inch rims). I only needed to make 6mm more room, and once I carefully cut the rear of the arch I got a fountain of stale petrol pouring out.

The car had not been used for about 10 years by the previous owner and I have been rebuilding it for a couple of years so the fuel in the tanks were at the same level as the fuel in the surrounding foam.After investigation I found both tanks were the same.

Quite a protracted job taking the old tanks out !

I had two new ones fabricated by a local ally fabricator. That cost me £600.00 which was a cost I had not budgeted for, but the thought of petrol soaking through into the void between the base pan and the inner skin did't fill me with confidence .

I have been told that the chemicals in the foam eat into the ally over time so I guess it 's the age of the car that is the problem.

I was able to look at the inside of each tank with a small mirror taped to a stick threaded into the tank. I was able to see what corrosion there was with the aid of a flashlite.

It would make sense to do the same if you were unsure of the state of yours, if you see what you think might be pin pricks of corrosion you can have a scratch at them with a bent welding rod sharpened to a point whilst using the flashlite to see what you are doing.

Believe me you don't want to embark upon changing your tanks until you are really sure you need to.

I hope you are enjoying your projects as much as I am, I have spent the last 18 months designing and installing an electric system for mine( not a simple one of course, the longer it took the more it grew) Just like topsy!

Cheers,

Tony Redgwick,

Burton upon Trent

[shammycoupe69]

Well, the work started to take them out, here is a few videos!

http://s219.beta.photobucket.com/user/m ... d.mp4.html

http://s219.beta.photobucket.com/user/m ... 2.mp4.html

http://s219.beta.photobucket.com/user/m ... 6.mp4.html

Both tanks are now out and ready to be copied in Stainless steel. There was about 2 inches of foam underneath the tanks, both were saturated with fuel!!!

[redgwick1]

Nice videos, I could have done with seeing these before I had to change mine .

I managed without removing the front panel but it was a struggle.

Hope you took accurate dimensions of where the filler cap was !

The old ones might make a nice pair of book ends I often think....no good for anything else, except scrap

Did you ever get the electric windows fitted?

Best of luck,

Tony Redgwick

[davrian6140]

Hi Tony, the car looks a sorry state at the moment but come the spring
new life will be injected in to her. as for the electric windows they will be finished
off over the winter. the other new addition to the car just to slow it down will be
central looking its so easy to fit the only problem is if it fails how do i get in the car?
happy days
dave