FJ40 I call Shipwreck

[DanStokes]

Yes, I was thinking RedKote. I'm welding two tanks together so there will be a weld all the way around it. I'm doing belt and suspenders to make sure to avoid leaks and the coating is the final step. The tank halves are new and I'll clean them well following the weld so I think the coating should have maximum chance of adhering. I hope.....

Dan

[STINEY]

I am suspicious that all of the traditional tank coatings are like the old fiberglass boat tanks - perfect products in their day, but now with gasoline being something different than what it used to be.........

Ethanol is just one of the modern components that don't play well with older style materials. Who knows what else is in todays "gasoline" that causes things like that coating failure in the FJ.

Gas sure don't smell ANYTHING like it used to when I was a kid in the 80's. Now its just butt nasty......it was almost sweet back then.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I don't know why it failed, but it was supposed to be happy with the new fuel.... coming off in sheets does not suggest that it was happy

[SuperBuickGuy]

onward

cut the fill off the old tank and weld onto the new

welding

and the side

hmmm, and another


more welding

so a puzzler.... I had this reflective stuff on the old tank, and it looked like it got warm.... but I've gone back to pictures when I pulled the tank out once before and there wasn't an issue

I may have dodged a bullet....
plumbing - part of the issue with the old was it had a fuel smell - that I attributed to the non-vapor-proof braided return line


runs again, fuel sender is correct (which will be nice), and no fuel smell - that said, expect pictures of the old fuel tank and the time when I had pulled it out....

[SuperBuickGuy]

and then it started leaking

take apart

reassemble with tape rather then paste


leak free again - and it runs fine now. I'll take it for a spin tomorrow, but I think I'm going to build a heat shield for the tank.... that plus the air gap it has now ... I dunno, maybe the sheets of fail were plugging the sock....

[SuperBuickGuy]

Promised pictures of tank

yeah, it looks like it literally combusted....

so I got that issue resolved with the pump and new tank, but I still had a stutter at 2000+ rpm.... the mystery deepened when the computer showed everything working happily.... spark, and it's not the first time I've had a coil say FU when it got warm.... didn't really care about getting a performance one but I did care about getting one today - so I did.... and it works great now

[65RHDEER]

It does look like heat has caused that, I'll try at a guess... Looks like it was finding an earth through that drain bolt that wasn't a good one causing it to heat up. Another out of left field, the electricity flowing through the tank caused the sealer to come off in sheets as a voltaic reaction was happening

[74NovaMan]

Promised pictures of tank

yeah, it looks like it literally combusted....

Could current running through the tank have contributed to the coating failure?

[SuperBuickGuy]

the tank has a ground wire.... otherwise the fuel gauge wouldn't work

[1946Austin]

That's not pretty at all! Looks like it came out of a vehicle that caught fire!

[65RHDEER]

the tank has a ground wire.... otherwise the fuel gauge wouldn't work

Went back and had a look at that earth on the sender, around the base of the sender looks a bit funky, maybe a stray current.

Put an ohm meter between the sender earth and the tank, if you still have it, and set my mind at ease...

[SuperBuickGuy]

Went back and had a look at that earth on the sender, around the base of the sender looks a bit funky, maybe a stray current.

Put an ohm meter between the sender earth and the tank, if you still have it, and set my mind at ease...

it's too far apart now to do that

[SuperBuickGuy]

so I puttered around in this a day or two ago, it seems to be running fine; but I get the occasional fuel smell so I pulled the seat, again
and it it all with some air pressure and soapy water.... nothing


I tightened a return line but I dunno, if I pressure enough I get a slight smell but no bubbles... but not after tightening the line... success? dunno. If it burns to the ground at least I can say I tried....

[SuperBuickGuy]

So I had all these plans today... started some of it

moving dirt around and "compacting" it with my FJ40 (which looked a lot like me playing in the dirt


unfortunately
this became necessary



truly this is what I get for using used parts....

it should look like this

problem is I have no idea what it looks like together.... maybe it has a pin driven in? it's not threaded....
so I considered

call the current config 28

4L65e
is 27 1/2 (and bolts right in)


non-computer
700r4 is 24 1/2

I'm leaning away from swapping right now mostly because I don't want to put new clutches in the 4l65e or buy a computer for it.... I think just a button head came off and hopefully is now attached to the magnet on the drain.... I will drain and pray.... that said, if I do maintain the manual, I need to swap synchros because the current ones are not happy.

[silver_bullet]

Wow...Best of luck Buddy!