Hi All,
Having removed the petrol tank from my motor today to try and repair a leak in it which i did rolling it off the trailer i found this frightening scaley limescale stuff coated inside the tank and on the sender Suffice to say the whole lot is scrap it looks like the tank has come from the bottom of the ocean or summot my SD1 has not run for about 7yrs and i can only assume that this is what having no fuel or stale fuel in your tank does after many years The only reason i took the sender out is to see if the mesh filter was still in place lucky i did really i have replaced the fuel pump which was siezed solid and the sender now i can see why So there you go if your fuel pump has packed up or you are buying an SD1 or any other car for that matter that has been standing for a few years this is probably how your insides look

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That exactly what mine looked like

The sender resumed operation after being brushed, WD40'ed and submerged in a full tank for a while.

My car had stood for a similar time and the pump was also siezed solid. Stripped it and cleaned it, but it didn't work properly afterwards (very low output pressure).

After a lot of cleaning the tank has been put back into service, but with an EFI filter before the fuel pump as the last of the rust is still coming through. £200 for a new tank was convincing enough to "mend and make do".

Did you also find lots of thick black, tar like stuff in your pipework? My pump was full of it and when draining the tank of the old petrol and a great big sausage of it oozed out of the pipe from the tank...

Didnt find any black tar stuff just a sandy coloured liquid a bit like plaster came from bottom of tank how did you clean the inside of your tank? I am a bit worried that any crud when dissloged inside tank will find its way into the pump somehow no matter how thorough the tank is cleaned I am going to fit an inline filter just before the pump say off a Range Rover so when i do fit another tank any crud will be caught before it kills the pump

No sandy coloured stuff here. The petrol that came out smelt just like thinners.

Removing the rust just took a little time - add a handful of large gravel and some petrol, shake furiously for a minute, pour into a bowl and repeat until the petrol coming out is clean.

The replacement pump I fitted has a fine mesh strainer fitted inside the inlet pipe and this did become blocked after the cleaning. So I extended the pipe and fitted a fuel filter, It's very similar to the one in the engine bay, but only about 2" in diameter. It's cable tied to the handbrake cable and tucked up nicely in the transmission tunnel.

I recently replaced it after a few months of occasional use as it became blocked. I think that this is likely to be the last of the crud though.

The pipework inside the tank also became blocked (once the tank was removed and completely drained/dried) with the black tar stuff. 150psi of air wouldn't shift it, but we eventually cleared it with a length of steel wire rope, thinners and vacuum.

Another option might be a coating product that I believe you can get to seal tanks with small leaks. This would hopefully bind up any rust.

HTH

Hi Punx0r,
The old fuel that came out of mine smelt of old paint or turps terrible stink i have just managed to pick a good EFI tank off my mate for a few beer tokens very lucky So i'm going to look after this one if someone wants to have a go at cleaning and repairing me old tank they can have it free gratis

That sounds like a good solution I was looking for good used tanks on ebay at the time but there weren't any for sale. I think these things are ok as long as they're used regularly

To add insult to injury the other fuel pump i got off my mate has decided to die a death god will i ever get this blooding car running I am now working on the idea of an in tank fuel pump can't handle more f.pump failures wonder if ill make to a rally this year in me SD1

Just bite the bullet and get another pump I too wondered about a submersible pump since I had a pefectly capable one to hand, but it looked like a pain.

Whilst changing the fuel filter on my uncles mercedes (W123 I think, bosch jetronic mechanical injection), the fuel pumps (It had two) looked remarkably similar to the SD1 pumps.

Nah am going in-tank mate i have nearly finished modifying the SD1 sender unit and grafted a Range Rover efi pump to it So if or when it decides to die a death hopefully never i just purchase another pump and attach and i have the benefit of NO crawling underneath to change the damn thing

What have you done about the pipe work?

God blimey give us a chance i haven't finished the pump mod yet and unfortunatly i am on hol tomorrow for a week So i cant mess wid me toy for a whole seven days i do intend to block off the original feed and return on bottom of tank. And then have the both routed to the sender/pump unit it so happens i have a a few old petrol tank unions and pipes all mix and match at the moment. But is do-able and when fabricated the pump will be easy to remove from fabricated unit that is if it ever dies so watch this space

No worries, I was just curious because I'd considered converting to an in-tank pump myself.

Well i gave up on trying to convert to intank pump to much hassle as you say mate I am sticking with original set up but am going to fit a filter before the pump and hopefully that should help it live a bit longer

I had to replace the pre-pump filter on mine a few weeks ago. You know when its due as the fuel starts becoming noisey so that you can hear it when driving.

Did you fit an EFI as in the BIG metal one if so whereabouts did you fit it under your motor its a bit low under there