Are you being
fueled?
That
really should be “Are you being fooled?” as we are talking about your fuel
supply in your lovely old car.
This actually begins at the refinery, then
goes to the distribution point, then to the transport that takes it to your
favorite gas station. Up to this point, you really don’t have any control in
the latter except by choosing the brand, grade and
station.
At
the station, you have two things you can control—first, try to fill up or get
gas in the a.m. when the gas is coolest. More important, though, is never get gas while the tanker truck is
filling the underground tanks. This stirs up the sediment in the bottom of the
tank and you are likely to get some in your tank. If at all possible, try to
wait at least two hours for settling.
So much for someone
else’s tanks. Let’s talk about yours. If your car is over 30 years
old, chances are good that your fuel tank has suffered sonic corrosion and/or
rusts, along with a few dents. You can bet that any dents have caused a breach
in the original preservative and left some rust and/or scale. If you are lucky,
it didn’t rust through and all that happened was some particles of rust and
dirt found their way into your fuel system (including the carburetor).
If
you are finding dirt, etc., in your fuel system, you probably need to take your
tank off and have it cleaned. Of course, when you clean it out good, you remove whatever was left of the original
preservative, which means it will rust that much quicker. The tank should be
relined and done right.
This is not a do-it-yourself project. I know that our
hobby and trade publications advertise all sorts of tank lining materials and I
have seen the results many times. Most of these do-it-yourself tank liners come
apart and fill your fuel system with residue worse that the rust ever was,
particularly in
The liner I recommend is a product called Tank Guard and
is only sold to professionally-trained shops. This process requires a real good
cleaning and a curing time after application. Once this is done, before you
install the tank back on the car, you should disconnect all the fuel lines and
blow them clean. You should also clean out the fuel pump(s) and the carburetor.
I like to cut the fuel line above the rear axle and install an inline fuel
filter. The reason for this location is that it is easy to change periodically
without spilling a lot of gas.
This
probably should cure a lot of your gas problems, except, of course, for those
that are more of a personal nature that require diet changes or assistance from
your medicine cabinet.
See
ya next month.
—Walt