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MG TD TF 1500 - Gas Tank Cleaning Fiasco

So, my tank was full of crud and the in-tank filter had come completely off of the adapter so all the crud was flowing unimpeded down the pipe. The crud was so bad that it would completely block the inline filter every 200+ miles. I'd finally had enough so Thursday we emptied and removed the tank. Yup, full of crud, the in-tank filter was gone and the PO had coated everything with clear silicon caulk.

We cleaned out the gunk and then scoured the inside of the tank with a slurry of gravel and soapy water. That went well and the inside looked very good.

Next, after a thorough fresh water rinse, we gave the inside two good rinses with acetone to remove any residual moisture or petroleum residue. That also went well. This was followed by two days of aerating with warm air from a hair dryer. So far so good.

Yesterday we sealed up the tank and introduced 1-1/2 quarts of Red-Kote liner, thoroughly sloshed it around and confirmed that we had good coverage on all the surfaces including both sides of the baffles.

We then set the tank up on two plastic Coke cases and leaning back against a sawhorse at about the same angle as if it were in the car, opened the bottom drain and fuel line adapter holes and drained out most of the Red-Kote. Still so far so good so I'll pick up on the next post.


J K Chapin

At the end of the last post we were congratulating ourselves on how well everything had gone so far. Sadly, I rarely know when to leave well enough alone.

The Red-Kote instructions sad to not start blowing air through the tank for at least an hour after draining the residue. I waited about 3 hours and then went back (about 9pm) and cranked up the hair dryer (no heat, just air) with its output going into the big hole for the sending unit. All looked good so I shut of the building and went to bed.

This morning I couldn't wait to go over and see the fine results of our labors. I opened the door and was greeted with a very unpleasant smell - sort of the smell of an electrical fire burning plastic.

It seemed that the hair dryer had given up the ghost, burned itself up completely and then donated its fire through the air hose to the hungry residual fumes from the Red-Kote in the tank.

I hope we can strip and salvage the tank. Right now I'm just chewing on nails and kicking myself for stupidity. The only saving grace is the nothing else in the building caught fire and both the TD and the MGA are OK except for a bit of burnt plastic smell.

In a word - D@mn!!!


J K Chapin

Wow. So glad this did not extend into the building.

If you hot tank the fuel tank would that remove the Red-Kote residual? Can you still hot tank things?
Christopher Couper

Darned!! Sorry to hear about that, Jud. Hope you'll be able to resurrect the tank. Bud
Bud Krueger

Oh wow, sorry to see that happen but it could have been SO much worse. Very happy nothing else burned.
Steve Simmons

On the bright side I'm sure all will be sorted we MG owners are a resilient lot- use to setbacks. A couple of years ago I took my tank from TF1250 to a radiator rebuild/repair company. They cut a large hole in the rear of the tank even exposing the baffles, It was totally cleaned out a minor leak around one of the base supports. The plate removed was then welded back ground down and repainted with a aerosol. You couldn't see unless really with a close inspection where the work had been completed. Especially as it was on the back of the tank when insitu. We chose not to coat the inside having read some unsettling reports on the success of such treatment and their longevity. I decided that having survived over 50 years from original it was going to survive my days on the planet.
JK Mazgaj

Thanks for your sentiments. Yes, as bad as it was, I was lucky. Not 2 feet from the fire was a 1/2 gallon of acetone right next to my car. I caught the beginning of the fire on my security camera and there was quite a good blaze - probably from the open almost empty can of tank sealer - then the wires shorted and the breaker tripped.

I'm going to strip and clean up the tank and then do the coating thing again. If that doesn't work I'll take it to a radiator ship for the surgery described by JK above. If that doesn't work I'll see if a good used tank is available and, if all else fails I'll buy a new repro.

The frustrating thing is that the TD is running great and the best driving weather of the year is upon us.

Ah well, the A and the B need exercise.

Jud
J K Chapin

Jud, I may have another spare tank if you can’t salvage your s or locate one closer to you.
W A Chasser

Thanks. I'll let you know if I end up needing it. It wouldn't happen to be painted dark green would it :-)

Jud

J K Chapin

Nope. But Bruce Cunha has a freshly painted dark green one on his car. Lol
W A Chasser

Just a follow-up to close this out. Last week we started over. We stripped all the paint off the tank and checked it for damage to the steel. There appeared to be none so we thoroughly cleaned the inside again with gravel and soapy water. The interior looked good so we gave it a thorough acetone rinse and let that evaporate naturally for a day. Next we recoated the inside with Red-Kote and let that cure naturally for a day.

We primed the outside I took one of the tank straps to the local auto paint store and got them to mix up a quart of "matching" green epoxy paint. The next day we sprayed it and the next day we put the tank back on the car. We should have gone one shade darker on the paint but the match is pretty good.

We put two gallons of gas in and let it sit for a day to check for leaks. No leaks appeared so the next day I put another 10 gallons of gas in the tank and waited another day to check for leaks. Happily, none appeared.

Today we went to lunch in Flat Rock and came back by way of Pinnacle Mountain - a beautiful 100+ mile round trip. The TD ran great and there appear to still be no leaks.

I'm a pretty happy camper.

Jud
J K Chapin

Wow Jud. Hope you went out and bought a lottery ticket. That is a very lucky minor disaster.

A lesson learned for everyone should be that appliances meant for home use are not built to run for long periods of time.

We were using a shop vac last weekend on one of the locomotives I volunteer for. It was an older vac. In the middle of about an hour's use, it burst into flames. I have never seen a vacuum do that.
Bruce Cunha

Must have been a GE locomotive. I've seen lots of those go up in flames .
L E D LaVerne

This thread was discussed between 13/03/2022 and 02/04/2022

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