still need a good tank fellas, anyone?

By bruce (67.200.12.113) on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 06:44 pm:

just a thought.....take a few pounds of nuts and bolts.....a lil kerosene.....put it inside the tank and a couple of ppl shake the #$%# out of it, then take it to the friendly do it yourself car wash and use that really nice high pressure water inside it, let it air out....

By Shea Laking (Sheaman71) (66.185.85.79) on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 05:59 am:

Cool! they're about two minutes drive from home for me...We used to take rads to them for recoring when I worked at the Ford dealership. Thanks for the tip, Dave.

Regards,
Shea

By Dave (206.172.136.175) on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 05:37 am:

The place is called Barrie Rad

By Shea Laking (Sheaman71) (66.185.85.79) on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 07:37 pm:

Dave-Who's the place you use in Oshawa? I might have need of this service in the future...

If you don't want to post it here, could you just send me an e-mail? Just click on my header name and put "fuel tank" in the subject line.

Thanks,
Shea

By jms (66.242.1.6) on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 04:45 pm:

Well Ive been flushing it and its actually not that bad, it cleaned up pretty good. The stuff inside sticks and is hard to get out. I cleaned it and it doesnt look like it was rust, because the inside was nice and smooth afterward. Ive been flushing it with solvents and water. Im going to get MARINE CLEAN from POR15 they say you can add as much as 10 times of water to it and it still works good. SO hopefully that and then running it thru a parts washer machine for an hour or two or more will do it. Ill let you know.

By Ted (63.224.195.169) on Friday, December 26, 2003 - 10:21 am:

That is some pretty nasty crud. I've seen this before on old tanks, usually with cars that have been sitting for a long time. Don't touch any old fuel or crud, as that smell is really hard to remove from clothes and skin. I've heard good things about the POR15 product, but undertand you need to remove all the crud and loose materials for it to do any good, which is pretty hard to do with an old tank. If you go with the old tank, buy a box of BB's, the kind you use with a BB gun, and pour those in, seal the holes with rags and shake the tank as best you can to remove the junk. If the tank was not leaking before, just go with it, and use it. Change the filters often, and install a filter near the tank so the line does not get more crud in it.

By Dave (209.226.249.126) on Thursday, December 25, 2003 - 09:42 am:

There is a place in Oshawa that I deal with but I know that they dont do it they send it out. Where are you?

By jms (66.242.1.35) on Thursday, December 25, 2003 - 09:09 am:

Dave who and where can line the tank? And what is it "lined" with. Yeah its just condensation from sitting, where ever there is AIR-which is inside all tanks, when left sitting without getting refueled it will get condensation.

By Dave (206.172.136.88) on Thursday, December 25, 2003 - 07:06 am:

In the colder climates water always gets in the tanks due to condensation. My cars tank was so bad that I had to change the filter 5 times till I finaly took it off and got it flushed. Even after it still was not the best. For about 150 they can line the tank. I this works well.

By John S. (152.163.253.2) on Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 06:26 pm:

Rust denotes water, plain and simple. So some how water managed to get into the tank.

By shreck (24.100.131.104) on Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 01:35 pm:

Hey Shea
I had my gas tank off last year and I dumped it out and there was no rust inside, just skunkey gas. The filler tube was very rusty under the clamps and where it went through the floor.
If you check your manual it says that you can use low lead fuel having a rating of 91 or higer octane or 86 or higher.

By farenheight101 (24.69.255.203) on Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 12:53 pm:

jms, what if someone pulled a prank and filled the gas tank with water before it sat? Hey...ya never know...

By John S. (207.160.161.161) on Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 11:56 am:

I have had good luck with all the POR15 products tried so far, I use them on all suspension components I'm using for restoration on my pet Civics. As far as the fuel tank sealers, I have to admit I am a little leary of using them on the Civic tanks because of all the vent tubing inside the tanks. I am afraid they would seal these tubes and thus stop their functioning. I really think the only options are either a clean used tank from one of those states that might still have them around, or a new tank. Used tanks will probably not be shipable for safety reasons so...
By the way a CVCC tank can be used in a 1200, thought not visa-versa. Only three of the bolts line up, but that is enough to do the trick. you do loose a small quantity of tank volume, but it is less than half of a gallon.

By Shea Laking (Sheaman71) (66.185.85.79) on Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 07:56 am:

Jared-I feel your pain, man. If that's what the inside of a fuel tank looks like in Texas, YIKES I'm scared to see what the inside of my Ontario fuel tank looks like! Think I'd go with the POR-15 fuel tank kit as others have suggested. At a place local to me here in Ontario, the kit sells for $85 CDN. I'm quite sure you lucky folks down in The States will get it cheaper...Best of luck with the project.

By Jonathan (66.252.173.251) on Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 05:49 am:

Jared, it's a dry heat outside of your tank, but there's different conditions inside your tank. Condensation can form inside a tank, especially if the car has been sitting for a while with half a tank full of fuel. If I were you, I'd go with the POR-15 tank resto kit. Cutting and welding a gas tank can be very dangerous. It's very difficult to get all the fuel vapors out, and the slightest spark can cause an explosion. If you really want a bigger tank, there's companies out there that specialize in custom fuel tanks. The one I've heard of is called Rick's Hot Rod Shop, and they're even in Texas. There's probably more places around if you want to shop around for the best price. If you really want to make your tank into a higher capacity, have it done by a professional who has the equipment and practice for welding tanks.

By jms (66.242.1.41) on Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - 08:24 pm:

The car is mint the outside of the tank is mint and Im in TX??? its supposedly dry heat out here so what the heck, its like this in both my TX cars.

I have heard good stuff about the POR-15 tank resto kit. But heres my plan, if it doesnt work oh well I have a spare tank-cut a square large hole in the bottom, totally bead blast inside the tank, and then weld it up with about an extra inch or so for added fuel capacity. How does that sound, good idea?

By Adrian (Evocivic) (165.228.11.61) on Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - 04:07 pm:

Just run unleaded (though you may need to use premium). That letter from Honda UK is just to cover themselves in case something goes wrong one day that *may* have to do with using unleaded fuel. They have always had hardened valve seats and unleaded fuel has been used in Japan since the late seventies. You should be more worried about the octane rating causing pinging than the valves seats wearing (thus the possible need to use premium). There have been quite a few discussions about this in other threads.

As to that fuel tank ... WOW! I've never seen a tank rust like that ... must be a cold weather thing .

By Jonathan (68.193.10.141) on Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - 03:50 pm:

That's pretty odd... everywhere else I've seen Hondas could run both leaded and unleaded. I don't see why they would go through the extra trouble to make a head without hardened valve seats. Are any later Hondas available with hardened seats in England? I'd imagine anything with a catalytic converter would have to, because any lead in the fuel would mess up the converter. Is leaded fuel still available there, or do you have to use lead additive?

By Keil Shepherd (Medicineman) (213.122.101.200) on Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - 03:26 pm:

Farenheight101 you've just reminded me, I've got quite a few original North American sales brochures for the Civic and some of them state, as I recall, that the Civic can use unleaded petrol. Now, over here I've got it in writing from Honda UK that you can't use unleaded, nor can you have the head modified with new valve seats to accept it. Does this mean that Honda had two heads, one for unleaded and one for leaded? Have any of you guys heard of this?

Jared, hope you get a new tank! That one is really nasty!

By farenheight101 (24.69.255.203) on Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - 02:55 pm:

I cleaned mine out when I first got my civic and I found lead deposits...big ones! You think its from people using leaded gas in it?

By Calvin (134.134.136.5) on Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - 02:11 pm:

I may have one, where are you? I am in Oregon.

Calvin

By jms (66.242.1.133) on Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - 01:24 pm:

I may do the fuel tank resto thing, but would like to find a non-rusty one, I took one off my parts car and its even worse.