Fuel System - 1954 Pontiac
Gas Tank
The gas tank on my car was in very good shape. It had a little bit of surface rust and a few rock dings, especially on the drivers side. Probably because the passenger's side is protected by the spare tire well. The filler neck is soldered on and had a poor solder joint (crack) at the top. The fuel level sender unit wasn't working also.
I removed the 4 nuts that held the gas tank on with straps, they came off easily, thanks to the night before dose of penetrating oil. The straps were in surpisingly good condition. Wirebrushed then painted black, they looked like new (Blanchard's rule - if it comes off, clean and paint it before putting it back on).
Cleaning the tank
First I emptied the gas tank of about a gallon of what looked like gasoline. When I shook the gas tank I could
hear lots of stuff rattling around inside. I figured now was a good time to take off the filler neck and the
fuel level sender unit. This would allow me to see and retrieve whatever it was that was rattling around.
Well, it was the top part of a window cleaner spray bottle, lots of round pieces of cork and misc stuff. I got the feeling that at one time or another, a little kid was having fun putting things into the gastank. I was able to clean everything out. I could see through the filler neck opening that the inside bottom was covered in a sludge. The question now was " How do you clean out the inside of a gas tank?". At this point, the tank smelled pretty strong of gas vapors which is a bad thing, and so I blew it out with my air hose. I also plugged in my shop vac on blow and let it run for 20 minutes. That seemed to work well.
Fortunately, the Nov. 2000 issue of Custom Rodder has an article on how to clean out a gas tank. It suggested using POR 15's Marine Clean and then sealing the tank with their Tank Sealer. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any at the local parts suppliers. You can purchase a fuel tank cleaning kit from their gastank webpage.
So I used what is used for cleaning out carburators - varsol. I poured in a litre of varsol and let it sit for about 3 days, occasionally mixing it around. The Custom Rodder article suggested putting a large chain inside a shaking the gas tank vigorously. In my tank, there is a small pipe about the thickness of a pencil which goes from the fuel outlet to the bottom of the tank. If I did what the Custom Rodder article suggested, I would damage the pipe.
I purchased a long toilet brush to scrub the inside as best as I could. There was a lot of crud that came out with the varsol. It's not perfectly clean so just to be on the safe side, I will put an inline gas filter right at the fuel pump's inlet.
You can purchase replacement gas tanks from Chassis Engineering Inc. They offer 16 gallon polyethylene tanks (AU-5154P) for US $205 or 18.5 gallon stainless steel tanks (AU-5154S) for US $475. Too pricy for me considering I paid only $500 Cdn for the whole car.
Fuel Sender Unit
At this point, I realized that I couldn't fix the fuel sender gauge and ordered a generic replacement from
JC Whitney for US $14.95. I found several sources for stock replacement units but they
were all in the US $50-60 range which is too much for just a sender unit. After all, I'm on a budget and not
building a show car or restoring it. The JC Whitney sender unit took about 2 weeks to arrive and I was very happy
to find out that it is made to an exellent level of quality (as everything else I've purchased from JC Whitney).
It had excellent installation instructions and fit perfectly.
The name is "Adjustable Fuel Level Floats", the catalog number is 634G-01, page 114, Part Number 13HE2950R for GM vehicles with 0-90 ohms. The Chrysler/Ford part number is 12HE8525U for vehicles with 78-10 ohms and if you use Stewart Warner gauges with 240-33 ohm, the part number is 12HE8526B.
Soldering the filler neck
While waiting for the fuel level float to arrive, I wirebrushed the tank and then soldered on the filler neck. I used
a propane torch, flux and 50/50 solder. The 50/50 solder has less lead in it so it is stronger than normal 60/40 solder.
The tank had been sitting for about a month and I couldn't smell any vapors but I again blew out the insides with both
the air hose and shop vac.
First I wirebrushed the filler neck tank openning and put a liberal amount of flux where I wanted to solder. I then tinned the area to make sure that the solder would stick properly. I used a hand wire brush to brush off the excess hot solder. At this point it was easy to see any areas that were dirty where the solder wouldn't stick. More wire brushing and flux, re-tinning until it was perfect. Once the area around the filler neck openning was shiny like chrome, I was ready to solder on the filler neck. I treated the bottom side of the filler neck where it makes contact with the gas tank to the same tinning process.
Just a note: make sure that the part is sitting level when you solder. If it is at an angle, the solder will flow off. I had to jam my gas tank against the garage door and tilt it up against a box to compensate for the angle of the filler neck openning.
The filler neck after it had been soldered and painted a lovely aluminum.
The repaired and painted gas tank! (Note, this is a mirror image so you can compare with the next pix)
Here's the filler neck resoldered in the correct position..... whoops!
Installing the gas line
I ran the gas line from the tank to the front of the frame (pix to follow). One thing I noted when I took off the line adapter at the
tank was that there is a severe restriction in the adapter and size of the opening in the tank itself. I ran
5/16" line because that's what fit the adapter. The adapter steps down the line to fit the gas tank fitting. The
gas tank fitting seems to be 1/4" or less in size. If you are planning on running a high pressure fuel system,
you probably want to look at the fuel outlet fitting on any original tank. Might be a source of fuel starvation!
The first thing that I did was plan the complete path of the fuel line. It was actually pretty easy cause I just went down the passenger's frame rail. I planned on using one 5/16" line, 13 feet long, double flared at the gas tank and bent to follow the frame rail to the front. I have a top hat style rail and the bottom of the top hat will protect the gas line.
I practiced double flaring with a kit I got from the local parts supplier. I shopped around and found kits that were anywhere from $20 to $80 and price had nothing to do with quality! I found a life time guaranteed kit with instructions (quite a few didn't have any!) for $32. I used up about a foot of line practising. I used a proper pipe cutter to cut the line not a saw! A saw will leave filings in the line - just what your engine doesn't want!
Double flare tool
I bought a lever action pipe bender ($10 on sale) and used up another 2 feet practising bends. The first bend, I put in the wrong groove and it promptly kinked the line. After the third bend and the right groove I felt pretty comfortable. I strongly advise that you purchase one of these tools, they are dynamite and you can bend the line to exactly any degree that you want.
Tube Bender
Next, came straightening out the 16' of line that I bought. It was coiled up - I had to stop the parts guy from coiling it into tight coils! That would of meant lots of time uncoiling it. I asked him to coil it up in large circles 3' diameter. You straighten the line by slowly and gently working it by hand.
I followed some advice and bent a coat hanger to the shape of the line from the tank to the rail, leaving a few extra inches at the gas tank so I can fix it in case the double flare leaks. After getting out from under the car and looking at the bent coat hanger, I was shocked! I couldn't believe that this was the correct shape. Under the car, I went and verified that yes it was the right shape! I was totally disoriented to the shape that was required when I was standing up versus when I was under the car and looking up. I highly recommend using the coat hanger trick.
I put on the fitting and double-flared the line end. Bent it to match the coat hanger and went under the car. I slipped the bent end over the axle and then wrestled the engine end over the cross rails, adding a few unwanted bends in the process and finally into place.
I used blind inserts, 1/4" bolts and clamps to mount the fuel line to the frame. The clamps were generic metal clamps I found at the parts store. I bought the blind inserts and installation tool on sale for about $20. It works very similar to a rivet gun. You drill a hole in the frame, screw on the blind insert to the installation tool, push the insert into the hole and squeeze the handles on the installation tool which compresses the insert in place. Unscrew the tool from the insert and voila, you have a threaded insert!
Blind insert tool
The clamps had rubber sleeves to protect whatever they were clamping. After I put on the first clamp, I noticed that the line was loose in the clamp. I took off the rubber sleeve and replaced it with about 1" of 5/16" (inner diameter) fuel line hose that was slit down the side so I could slip it over the fuel line. Now when I clamped the line down it was tight.
Fuel clamp
I slowly bent the line to the frame rail's shape and left it about 1" above the bottom of the rail. At the front of the frame, I ran into a problem where I couldn't fit an electric drill in to drill a hole. I drilled a hole through the frame from the outside a put in a 3" bolt to hold the clamp.
At the motor mounts, there was a problem where the fuel line went over and between several exposed bolt threads. I slipped 5/16" fuel line over the line to protect it. I added a generic inline clear plastic fuel filter on the inlet side of the fuel pump to clean up any crud which is probably still sitting in the 47 year old fuel tank. I got the clear plastic filter so I can see what gets trapped inside. I connected the filter to the fuel pump with fuel hose and left extra in the bend so that when the engine moves, the hose will take up the slack. Since the front of the car is not together, I won't clamp the filter down until everything is back together (just have to remember to do it!).
Fuel filter
Replacement gas caps are a little bit hard to find. You can't go to the local parts store and pick one up. Up until 1957, GM gas caps locked to the outside of the gas tank neck. After that, the gas caps locked to the inside. Fortunately, there are a few aftermarket suppliers of gas caps and they are pretty inexpensive. A standard replacement goes for about US$5 and a locking gas cap for $33 - $40 and comes in several styles: bowtie logo, red stripe and side lock.
Original style gas cap
Locking red stripe gas cap
Danchuk 1955-57 chevrolet has supplies of the original style and locking red stripe gas cap. So do Chevs of the 40s and they have the bowtie logo and side lock style which in my opinion lack in the looks department.