Gas tank collapsed

[Rina120]

Well well.... it happened. Any wayto fix this problem without changing the whole tank? I think I already know the answer...

[Paul in NZ]

were you the one that had the woosh when removing cap?.I guess one could try pressurising the tank....

[Rina120]

well I don't remember hearing "whooosh".
All I noticed was my gas gauge broke and my light was on. I searched the archives, checked the sender unit, and when i crawled underneat the car, the tank was caved in.
Good thing I am trading the car in for a nother 5, but this will take money off the trade in value :(

[Bill R.]

extremely hesitant about blowing compressed air into a gas tank, the potential for disaster is pretty good...At the very least i would take it out of the car and clean it out good first.. and see if I couldn't insert something into the fuel pump opening and try to push the tank back out.. but it may be cheaper and easier at that point just to pick up another gas tank used





Well well.... it happened. Any wayto fix this problem without changing the whole tank? I think I already know the answer...

[George M]

which begs the question Bill...is the collapse of the tank due to a stuck or failed gas tank cap valve versus some blockage in the charcoal cannister recirc. circuit? My understanding is if the cap valve fails as gas is drawn from the tank by the fuel pump without displacement by air, the tank will implode.
Your thoughts?
George

[Bill R.]

term for what happens : ) but on a tank designed to hold liquids when you do the opposite and apply a vacum it usually doesn't take much to collapse or implode it.. the fuel pump just seems like it would take a lot longer to do it but manifold vacum seems like it would do it much quicker.. I personally don't know since I haven't experimented with both to see how long it takes to draw enough fuel out with an electric pump with all openings closed and at what point the pump quits... since they work real well at pumping but usually not so well at sucking... As a side note back in late 80's we built a tank to capture freon from refrigeration oil out of 1/8 steel welded together and it held about 150 gallons of capellla refrigeration oil, we would dump the used refrigeration oil into this and we had an old vacum pump that would pump maybe 22 inches of vacum on a good day.. well we used that vacum pump to pull off the refrigerant thats mixed with the oil and it sat in the sun all day and would heat up and more refrigerant would boil off so every couple of hours we'd run the vacum pump for 20 minutes or so to capture that r12 so it wouldn't escape to the atmosphere... epa was happy we were happy... well one day somebody left that vacum pump running most of the day and after about a half a day it sucked that 1/8 tank right in on itself..
looked pretty comical. Anyway you need to check both the cap and the tank canister vent system to see which caused the problem...






which begs the question Bill...is the collapse of the tank due to a stuck or failed gas tank cap valve versus some blockage in the charcoal cannister recirc. circuit? My understanding is if the cap valve fails as gas is drawn from the tank by the fuel pump without displacement by air, the tank will implode.
Your thoughts?
George

[BigD]

Why not blow it up with Nitrogen?


extremely hesitant about blowing compressed air into a gas tank, the potential for disaster is pretty good...At the very least i would take it out of the car and clean it out good first.. and see if I couldn't insert something into the fuel pump opening and try to push the tank back out.. but it may be cheaper and easier at that point just to pick up another gas tank used

[Bill R.]

Nitrogen would be safer than compressed air but I was concerned about static electricity charges[/QUOTE]

[BigD]

Couldn't you try to flush the tank with Nitrogen first - ie expel as much oxygen as you can, so even if there is a spark, there's no oxidizer? Or is gas just too damn volatile to try?


Nitrogen would be safer than compressed air but I was concerned about static electricity charges[/QUOTE]