TR8 Fuel tank needs draining

[Chris Mountford]

Hi All,

 

After a long drawn out divorce I now have my TR8 back, however the fuel tank is contaminated by water following 5 years exposed to the elements.

 

The car is a Jan 1980 build, to california injection spec although it now has a range rover 3.9 hot wire engine in it. I assume it still has the original 'california injection' tank fitted to it which may / may not be different to the standard tank.

 

I have got most of it out by pumping it through the injection pump (I fitted a new pump and filter) into a container in the engine bay.

 

The engine runs well but every now and then draws up some more water and starts to misfire.

 

Anyone have any clever tricks of how to fully drain the tank ? My idea was to take out the sender unit and syphon it out that way - is there a better way?

 

I know the best idea would be to take the tank out and replace it but I would ideally like the summer out of it first. Its been a long 5 years!

 

Thanks Chris

[Hasbeen]

Chris, I have used the syphon through the sender hole method on the tank of an injected 8, but it had an external swirl pot, so it may have been a carb tank.

 

I simply jacked the back up, reasonably high, with one side about 4 inches higher than the other. This gave me a low point to syphon from. I syphoned out about 8 litres of petrol, with a lot of water, & rusty silty muck.

 

I strained about 6 litres, & poured it back in to the tank, twice, getting a bit more muck each time. It worked well.

 

If you are going to replace the tank there is a "rough" way, I also used on another 7.

 

The tank on this one had a pinhole, rust through from the inside. I was doing a rolling restoration on the car & was not ready to do the tank, so I drilled out the pin hole with a 1/8"drill, & put a blind pop rivet in the hole.

 

I was having trouble with dirt & water from the tank blocking an inline filter very quickly, & this gave me an idea. If I had one hole, I might as well have 2. With a bit of shopping around, I found a 5/16" alloy blind pop rivet, although a 1/4" would have done. I jacked the back up, drivers side 4" lower, & drilled a 5/16" hole half an inch in from the side, at the lowest point. I used a hand drill, as I didn't want sparks.

 

The process was a bit messy, as I had to catch the petrol & muck in ice cream containers. I did the same strain this petrol, & pour back into the tank trick, to get the last of the muck.

 

I did pay for being rough, by breaking my hand rivit gun, when I tried to pop the large rivit.

 

This botch lasted quite a few months, before another rust pin hole appeared. I pulled the tank out, & repaired the 3" wide rusty strip, in the bottom front, which was the only bit of the inside of the tank that was rusty. The rest of the tank still had a grey coating, in good condition.

[tr7jim]

Chris,

 

I have use a additive which you an get from Halfords on my TR8 EFI and workS well. The additive is added with a full tank and mixes the water / petrol together.

 

So removing the water from the bottom of your tank so easy fix if your tank still ok.

 

Jim

[TR8IAN]

Hi Chris,

 

As Hasbeen says you could probably get most of the rubbish out of the tank by removing the sender unit and syphoning. But knowing how bad the tanks are for rusting I would be keen to drop the tank and give it a really good clean out.

 

I know everybody hates the idea of dropping the tank but its not that bad really! just need the back of the car in the air and drop half the axle and then pull the tank out.

 

Genuine twin hole tanks are no longer available new but TR7 single hole tanks are. You could if need be, get someone to chop up your old tank and graft in the required parts to a new tank.

 

Good luck with the jobs anyway,

I bet you cant wait to drive it again.

 

Cheers

Ian

[Guest Wayne S]

Hi Chris, hope your well.

 

I would suggest that pulling out the tank is worth it in the long run. I had the same problem with my 8 and I struggled along for a fair few months by draining and adding methanol to soak up the water, then adding Redex tank cleaner and in the end got to putting about 4 filters in the fuel lines to keep the crud out of the engine. Trouble is they rot from inside out and they just keep going and usually pinhole above the straps as they are covered in foam that holds moisture!

 

Its not too bad a job to drop the tank providing the trailing arms all come loose etc and if desperate you can either repair the tank when its out and seal or make a new one out of a single hole tank. The Roger Williams book gives a good guide on doing this.

 

Its worth it in the end because if there has been any kind of water in there it seems to pinhole and clog the fuel lines up on every trip no matter what you do - as I found out eventually....

[Chris Mountford]

Hi all

 

Thanks for al the helpful hints and advice. I had a look an it does have a two hole tank, one for the sender and one for the flow and return pipes.

 

For the umpteenth time I've put it on the ramp at my mates garage after he'd finished work.

 

This time I took the sender unit out and jacked it over on one side to pool the petrol and water on the low side. I then syphoned it out with a rubber bulb pump and hoses (the sort that lifts the fuel to an outboard motor). The tank was bone dry. I then blew out all the lines with compressed air and after building it all back up again 'hey presto' ran like a 9 guinea watch.

 

I then ran it around the lanes for 2 or 3 miles and was chuffed to bits, in fact so chuffed I set off again to really relax and enjoy it........... Yes you guessed it, I ended up walking back to the garage for the landrover and metal tow bar. Since I got it back its done more miles on a bar than its done under its own power.

 

Having said that...when it does go.....boy does it go! and still sounds sweeeeeeeet.

 

I'll try again before the masses turn up for MoT's in the morning, There just can't be that much left in it. Can there ?

 

I'll let you know how I fare.

 

regards, Chris

Edited April 17, 2009 by Chris Mountford

[tr7jim]

Chris,

 

Glad your cars working well, not to far away from you in weston, near crewe, Should meet up sometime.

 

Putting my TR8 on the road in may so not far away now.

 

On a genuine TR8 tank the two holes are for one the sender unit and the other one is for the electric pump.

 

Jim

[LeeEFi]

Hi All,

 

After a long drawn out divorce I now have my TR8 back, however the fuel tank is contaminated by water following 5 years exposed to the elements.

 

The car is a Jan 1980 build, to california injection spec although it now has a range rover 3.9 hot wire engine in it. I assume it still has the original 'california injection' tank fitted to it which may / may not be different to the standard tank.

 

I have got most of it out by pumping it through the injection pump (I fitted a new pump and filter) into a container in the engine bay.

 

The engine runs well but every now and then draws up some more water and starts to misfire.

 

Anyone have any clever tricks of how to fully drain the tank ? My idea was to take out the sender unit and syphon it out that way - is there a better way?

 

I know the best idea would be to take the tank out and replace it but I would ideally like the summer out of it first. Its been a long 5 years!

 

Thanks Chris

 

Hello Chris.

I had a nightmare time with a rusty tank. And after draining and cleaning it still continued to draw some form of rust up from the Tank and block the Filter and fuel lines.

The only surefire way to give trouble free motoring is to have the fuel tank re-furbed, which involves cleaning and testing and then some Acid treatment to disolve all the rust.

Otherwise you'll always have in the back of your mind that somethings going to block-up with rust.

[Chris Mountford]

Hi All,

 

Finally had to resolve to take the tank off after trying every which way to sort the misfire.

 

The riddle is it hasn't run for a number of years and so it could have been anything. So after substituting everything in the injection and electronic management system I resolved to take the tank off and check the inside of the tank once and for all.

 

 

Last time I syphoned it out through the sender unit hole I was convinced I had all the water out. Today, when I upended it, I would reckon on about 2 pints of orange water along with blobs of thick brown water (very rusty water?) in the bowl. I have now had a hosepipe in it on full bore and washed it out but may take it to be steam cleaned this week. I need a new sender unit but most of the rest will clean up. As ever along the way the associated parts fell victim, front to back brake pipe union twisted off, handbrake cable pivot totally seized so cut off, springs passed their best ..........etc

 

Makes taking the tank out of a TR2 - TR6 an absolute breeze by comparison. (For those lucky enough not to have to know whats involved , the axle and exhausts have to come off )

 

So on balance, a job to be avoided at all costs, keep the drain around the filler clear so the recess around the filler doesn't fill up with water resulting in the tank filling up. The catch 22 on this is if you do keep it clear the tank gets wet over the top and so rusts away from the outside!!!!!!

 

Who knows maybe it'll go this summer!

 

regards, Chris

[Guest Wayne S]

Hi Chris,

 

Can totally sympathise as I did mine over Christmas this year. Luckily all the bolts came loose without much of a protest and I took a week over the job to seal the new tank inside and out, renew the straps and paint and waxoyl all the hard to reach places up there. Should last another 20 years now!

 

I had brown murky water in mine and sure enough as I removed the left strap it revealed a hole the size of a 50 pence piece lurking underneath. This hole dumped the rest of the contents on my face - niiiice

[tr7jim]

Chris,

 

You can still get the standard TR7 tank, if all fails, you canvert the tr7 tank to TR8 spec by transfering the fuel pump ring from the old tank to fit into the new one.

 

The usuall week spot is under the old straps on the tanks.

 

I replaced my tank on the TR7 Sprint and purchased frost a tank sealer so hopefully prelonging the tank life, but to be fair the original tanks been in since 1977 so not too bad.

 

Jim

Edited May 11, 2009 by tr7jim