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I found it - now what? [was fuel odor in car]

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Randy Harris

Randy Harris

Jedi Warrior
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I attacked the fuel smell early this morning. Inspected the filler neck for leaks - none. Fuel sender area - seems ok, no leaks, but does have fuel odor. The Armacord cover is heavy with smell of gas. You can actually see where the gas has soaked into it over many years, long before I owned her.
I wiped down the tank and Voila! The left front top of the tank, about 3 square inches, has been repaired by a PO. Lousy repair too. It looks at first blush like Bondo. It is dark gray in color, not metallic like JB Weld. I sand it down flat to get a better look. Sure enough, a microscopic amount of fuel appears from a crack in the repair, so small I cannot locate its precise location. I sand some more and one other micro leak appears. I wipe them down and as I watch they slowly start to wet the tank again. We're talking an area of 1/8" in diameter But the leak stops before it puddles and then appears to evaporate.

My hypothesis is that these leaks have been present for years. I never noticed because I rarely fill up with gas and they present on the top of the tank, so they rarely if ever get wet. With the top down (100% of the time), the vapor smells disappear before reaching my nose.

Can I do a temporary repair with JB Weld and then proceed to repair or replace the tank soon? Is this a sensible solution? I've got a full tank of gas right now and don't know how to remove it while it's full. The sender unit gasket should be replaced either way as well. Is there a better product to use for a temporary leak repair?
Advice?

Thanks

Randy
 
Hi Randy,


1] there is a drain plug on the bottom of the tank which will let you drain it.

2] clean the area thoroughly and apply a coat of JB Weld to close the holes. Let it cure.

3] go to a boat store and obtain a piece of 2 OZ fibre glass cloth and a tube of 15 or 30 minuet "Epoxy Glue" Note do not get Fibre Glass resin!

4] place the cloth over the area to be repaired and saturate it with the epoxy glue and let it cure.

Options: A] Replace the tank.
B] Have it professionally repaired.----------------------------Keoke

I might add that pin holes in the top of the tank may suggest there are others on the bottom side where water would reside.
 
Maybe you could disconect the line near the carbs where it becomes flexable and use the fuel pump to empty it into some 5 gal buckets to be re-used. If you get some plastic tubing from Home Depot you could pump it into your daily driver directly. This way you don't have to raise the car and save the ($) gas.
Pull the tank and see where else it looks suspicious and then make the dicision to replace or repair.
 
I know this is unscientific, but I was worried that as Keoke warned, there might be other pin holes beneath the tank. I covered the leak with duct tape and let the boot air out. I then conducted a "sniff test". This has never let me down. I come from a long line of excellent sniffers. Anyway, I could detect no gasoline odors emanating from beneath the tank or any other part of the boot except the extreme left front top, where the dumbass repair had been made. I feel fairly certain that the heavy odor was coming from the soaked Armacord that was resting on the top of the tank.

The tank itself, and the boot compartment look almost new. Not a spec of rust anywhere. Of course I haven't seen the bottom yet. I'm thinking that a PO may have dropped something sharp or accidently punctured the tank and decided to take the cheap idiot's way out and Bondo it closed. The fuel is leaking through a minute crack in the "fix".

I'll do a temporary patch repair and plan on pulling the tank for a more permanent solution when I have less fuel to drain.

Randy
 
Randy,

You may get out of this very cheap but you have to do it
safely and you may as well be prepared for what you might
find after you remove the gas tank from the car. If you don't take it out of the car, you will not be able to inspect it and the most likely place for rust damage is on the bottom where you cannot see it until it is out of your car.
Once you have it out and find no rust damage, you can patch the bad spot with fiberglass as Keoke has suggested, paint it and put it back in. Done. or....
You find some hidden rust damage. Ask yourself before you start, what you are going to do if there is rust damage, fix it or buy a new one. That way you can get prepared before you start.

Ed
 
Ed_K said:
Randy,

Once you have it out and find no rust damage, you can patch the bad spot with fiberglass as Keoke has suggested, paint it and put it back in. Done. or....
You find some hidden rust damage. Ask yourself before you start, what you are going to do if there is rust damage, fix it or buy a new one. That way you can get prepared before you start.

Ed
Click to expand...

Well, I'll pull the tank in a few weeks when I know I can drain it properly and I'll only lose at most a few gallons of gas. If she has rust on the bottom, I'll buy a new tank and be done with it. If not, the simple patch fix is obvious to me. Meanwhile as a stopgap I've applied some JB Weld. Maybe it'll work.
Randy
 
Might want to price a new tank, then price repair at a radiator shop. Most radiator shops do excellent repairs for surprisingly small amount of money.
 
I would agree with you Randy. Use this time, while waiting to drain the tank down a bit, to locate a gas tank repair shop. They're getting rare these days as most cars use plastic tanks. Talk to the shop and see what their schedule is. They can repair a tank for about half of a new one and you'll have the benefit of the original tank. It should only take about 2 or 3 days to repair. First they'll hot tank it to remove all paint sediment etc. Fix any rusted areas, seal then paint as new. Also they'll test it to make sure it doesn't leak.
Good luck
 
The JB Weld seems to have done the trick for now. No gasoline odors in the boot or the cockpit. She smells good again, just like chocolate chip cookies in the oven. Well, maybe not like cookies, but she does smell like a proper 41 year old Brit sportscar should. I'll keep a close eye on this "fix" and plan on getting it repaired properly soon.
Pretty cool stuff, that JB Weld.
Thanks to all,
Randy
 
I just used some JB Quick to patch up a big galvanic corrosion hole in my OEM BJ8 fuel tank sender. seems to have done the trick. I agree, cool stuff. Bought a new tank sender but now I'm not so sure if I need it!
 
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My god guys.

Randy just replace the tank.
 
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