All,
An additional item when dealing with today's fuels. If you used
sloshing compound in your fuel tank back in the 80s as I did, be aware
that today's fuel may start dissolving the compound. Most of the
products available in the early 80s for sealing the fuel tanks were
designed for aircraft tanks and are not designed for the reformulated
fuels used in today's automobiles. Last summer I had the fuel pump in
our TD stopped ticking and the car ground to a halt. Since the pump
wasn't ticking, I assumed that something was wrong with it and swapped
it out. Imagine my consternation when the new pump ticked a few times
and also stopped. I finally traced it to stuck needle valves (or more
accurately, Gross jets that had been performing flawlessly for over 20
years). I put some old viton tipped needle valves in the carbs and
everything worked fine, so I put the original pump back in, only to find
that it still wasn't pumping. Off with the pump and onto the test stand
with it - it didn't work there either. Removal of the outlet fitting
and the valve assembly revealed that the valve disks were solidly glued
to the seats. The only thing that has ever gone into the tank of our TD
(besides gas) was aircraft sloshing compound back in 79 or 80.
This wasn't the worst of the problem. I took the tank to a Redi Strip
shop in British Columbia to get the tank stripped of all the old
compound (and paint) and treated with zinc phosphate. Upon getting the
tank back, I found that, in order to get all the old sloshing compound
out, they had left the tank in the stripper so long that the brass
outlet fittings were almost completely eaten away and I now have to
repair them before reinstalling the tank.
The point of all of this is that if you treated your fuel tank with
aircraft sloshing compound back in the early 80s, keep an eye on your
fuel system for any signs of the stuff dissolving.
Cheers,
Dave
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