Fuel Tank: Level of Rust, How much is too much? Options

[Joseph Mills]

Tank condition:

Smooth rust on walls with mottled or layered rust on bottom. However, there are no visible particles, flakes, etc.

I stirred and scraped with my hand and can feel some grittiness from the walls. The fuel clouded up, but still no visible particles, not even sand grain size, only microscopic sized that clouds up. The small "sock" screen feels "clean".

Since treating a tank is an expensive proposition, what is the determining level of rust acceptance? (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif)

I don't want to spend 150 bucks just to have pretty fuel. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/confused24.gif)

[lapuwali]

When I looked inside the tank on my '71, I expected to see some rust, since I'd been having problems with clogging idle jets. I was surprised at how little there was. The "sock" was orange, and the return had a ring of orange goop on it, but the tank walls themselves were 95% rust free. A few spots near the bottom, but nothing else. I cleaned the sock and flushed the lines, and fit two new fuel filters, and haven't had any more trouble.