The current tank in my 1980 GTV has already been repaired with a top brand internal "rubber"coating, well after a year or so it has started leaking AGAIN >:(.
Are plastic tanks available as a substitute ? Does anyone have a steel tank in good condition for sale ?
I recently repaired my tank with por-15 kit
http://www.porcan.com/content/14-por-15-fuel-tank-repair-kit
I also had the outside primed and powdercoated plus replaced the gasket where the fuel sender fits
This solved my problems and cleans the tank out very well
Alfapride, that's the product I used on a perfectly clean interior surface (no rust or any type of oxidization). I cold-welded the hair-line crack and bead-blasted, primed and painted the outside.
IT'S NOW LEAKING AGAIN >:(
Where's it leaking from? How's the gasket to the sender and hoses? If it's clean internally a repair to sill should be ok to do I believe? Alfaholics sell new ones
It's leaking from the bottom of the tank, to be exact from one of the creases stamped on the bottom to give the tank more rigidity; instead of having a radius the crease was pinched during the stamping process and over time developed an hair-line crack. The inside was like new, I followed the instructions to a T and used a whole container of POR, coating all sides evenly.
I've welded a leaking tank and installed fuel foam in a couple then welded them up.
I pull the tank out then flush it with water.
Before welding or cutting I use the exhaust flow from a modern car to evacuate any residual gas from the tank.
But if your not up for this much adventure take it to a welding shop and have them repair the tank.
Or if you're nearby the sunny coast I might have a spare tank.
Brook308, I am concerned what the heat from welding or soldering will do to the Red-Kote epoxy lining.
I need to remove the epoxy first, will swirling acetone inside the tank do it?
Once removed I can contemplate welding.
Soldering will put less heat on the tank and less likely to warp it, welding also introduces flames to petrol fumes, after the explosion, as they say, after they put out the fire, 'Worksafe are investigating', so fill the tank with water, but the heat will melt the epoxy lining.
I went through all this palava with my first car, until i found a plastic fuel tank that ended all these problems, yhe water sits on the bottom of the tank and rusts it, Colin.
Quote from: colcol on May 22, 2014, 08:56:57 PM
Soldering will put less heat on the tank and less likely to warp it, welding also introduces flames to petrol fumes, after the explosion, as they say, after they put out the fire, 'Worksafe are investigating', so fill the tank with water, but the heat will melt the epoxy lining.
I went through all this palava with my first car, until i found a plastic fuel tank that ended all these problems, yhe water sits on the bottom of the tank and rusts it, Colin.
Careful slow welding will not warp an alfetta tank,
You dry the tank out after you've finished, leave it drain in the sun and Mother Nature will have it nice and dry in a few hours.
Good point though if you've coated the tank internally then the welding process will burn this coating.
Once the welding is done I'd just try flushing the tank again with water to wash out any loose burnt coating.
There's guaze on the pickup in the tank and you still have your fuel filter to pickup any crap before it gets to the carbs, and the the carbs have a guaze filter on their banjo fittings.
We have 3x2x2m caustic baths at work ::) :)
Outcome: Caustic at 65C temperature does not affect RedKote epoxy >:(
Next, industrial oven at 185C to convert epoxy into ash as outlined in material spec sheet ;)
These tanks can crack due to years of heat expansion / contraction. The ridges only serve, in that case, to create a point of weakness where the cracks can start. So once you have a problem in one place the probability of the same issue elsewhere should not be discounted.
Update: Inspected the inside of the tank and found that the bottom of the tank in flexing / vibrating would hit the fuel pick-up pipe which "chiseled" its way through the Red-Kote membrane :o.
Have enquired with Red-Kote whether it is possible to re-coat just the bottom.
The fuel pickup sits very close to the bottom of the tank, so any coating is going to affect the pickup, you may be able to bend the pickup pipe, so it sits a bit higher off the bottom of the tank, but miss out on a litre or so of fuel, Colin.
have already bent pick-up pipe, now approximately 10mm of tank surface; waiting on reply from Red-Kote reagarding recoating
With regards to the possible and necessary metal repairs to the tank, if not doing it yourself, any radiator place will be able to fix it at little cost. I had one repaired for a similar crack, $30, done which included a coat of paint.
I used one in Bayswater, great bloke, Mario.
Check your breather/pressure system is 100% operating, no blockages, no faults and get a new tank, your tank repairs will eventually just start leaking again, get rid of the problem or just keep repeating the fix :o
Wish the had redcote back in the day with all my fuel tank dramas in the Volksy, i used to throw some metho in the tank every now and then, so that any water sitting in the tank rusting it, would mix with the metho and get burnt off.
Then discovered a plastic tank and put it in and never had any more problems, Colin.
VeeSix, a new tank isn't easy to find. I checked in the US and UK, no go.
Kartone,
To chime in..
You have had some pretty straight forward advice on how to carry out the repair including safety cautions. All well and good. Nowhere have I picked up that you are a purist and want to retain the original tank. If that is the case, carry on.
Failing that, I am with VeeSix. Get a new tank but it doesn't have to be an original tank. It could be a hand made aluminium tank made locally to your requirements. It could be better baffled and reduce surge more so than the original one.
Just another approach..
MD the 34 year old car all original (including the radio/cassette player and factory ride height ;D).
The intention is to keep the original tank as it has absolutely no rust inside or out.
Fixing the symptoms (hairline crack/leak) is no problem, however rectifying the diagnosis (stopping the flexing/vibrations of the bottom of the fuel tank) without altering the appearance of the tank is not as easy.
No problem.
Got a sneaky solution for ya.
Cut the original tank in half at the seam.
Discard the top part and keep the bottom part.
Make a complete aluminium tank to fit inside the bottom remaining shell.
Use the shell as a mock up cover and hide the ally tank.
Who would know the difference?? ;D ;D
Sorry, when I said a new tank, I did not mean it had to be brand new, although that would be nice, there are heaps of second hand tanks out there, get one that is still good on the inside and has not been repaired ;)
Red-Kote indicated a second coat can be applied within one month of the original coat, a year plus has gone by in my case :(.
Has anyone split the tank at the seam? There are no spot-welds, just a continuous rolling mark around the perimeter, is the joint glued or brazed? HELP :o
A fuel tank or radiator in my experience is usually soldered, as it is low temperature and strong, brazing is high temperature and a bit stronger, usually for brackets and things that are thicker and requiring a lot of strength, soldering can be done with a friggen big soldering iron that won't distort the metal, i have actually been to a radiator/heater/fuel tank repair shop where they fix them, not many radiator repair shops left, as they just replace with new now, Colin.
I bought a new one from Greece. Check out Benavellis in Greece.
Otherwise Chris from Highwood Alfa in the UK might be able to source a good refurbished one.
Has anyone split an Alfetta fuel tank ?
I think you'll find that 'rolling line' is actually a resistance weld... In other words a continuous spot weld.
Yep, seam weld
Quote from: kartone on May 29, 2014, 07:03:00 PM
Yep, seam weld
Where are u located?
I've just had a look a spare tank I have in a wreck and it looks good.
If your keen PM me and I'll take a closer look in the morning?
Some pics of the spare tank.
More pics, some surface rust in the bottom of the tank, some surface rust in patches on the out side of the tank. The outside would clean up with a wire brush in places and a respray.
The inside I would assume is like any 30 year old fuel tank. Not sure how you would clean the inside.
Maybe a chemical treatment of some sort.
The tank is very straight, most of the tanks I've had or seen have some sort of damage from bottoming out or some idiot trying to jack the car via the tank.
Thanks brook308, as is my tank is in better condition, no rust or dents whatsoever.
The tank is now baking at 185C for 4.5 hours to remove the Red-Kote liner, after that I will solder the crack and solder stiffening sheet-metal angles on the bottom outside of the tank, followed by a complete reline with Red-Kote.
There you go, a member has even jumped up and offered you one, grab it, wash it in and out with wash and wax car wash, dry it out it, pour a litre or two of petrol in there to get out any rust flakes and use, you are back on the road with no leaks, do not worry about putting any interior linings in it, they will just end up in trouble in the long run, back on the road you have time to source a good tank
To be honest those under car GTV tanks just seem to trouble prone, sometimes I think they were a bad design, but as we know fuel has a heating up and cooling down cycle, maybe the problems come from a breather system going bad and the tank can not handle the rising and contracting cycle and just eventually splits, definantly not a tough tank, talking from experience here, I have been thru quite a few of these tanks
Even though you lose some boot space I think the best fuel tank is the GTV6 and 75 V6 3.0 boot mounted tank, never had a problem with any of them, plus unlike the 90 and 75 under car tank you get a gravity flow to the main fuel pump which cuts out the in tank pump which cuts out a problem if any should arise, you can definantly count out a in tank pump when you do not have one ;)
The tank has been cooked twice at 185C, as can be seen most of the RedKote has turned to black ash, the whitish finish is the original lining of the tank; one more round in the oven and a scrub with two hand-full of chain will do it. The external photo of the tank shows the hairline crack on the stiffening crease.
The intention is mig weld the crack and tack mig weld a 30x30 angle upside-down on top of all crease, notched at intersections, to provide extra stiffness
return of the tank II
return of the tank III
Can I suggest that when you are done with the tank, make sure you check the vapour system is working well? I replaced all the hosing and checked the operation of the breather valve.
I also pulled out the brass tube that enters the black plastic device and it was blocked. Some petrol and thin wire and it came good.
If the system isn't functioning properly then you can get petrol smells or worse, a pressure build up that might damage the tank again!