[Healeys] 100 gas tank

Michael Salter msalter at precisionsportscar.com
Mon Apr 28 07:06:46 MDT 2008


Hi Gary,
Steel fuel tanks, to prevent this problem, are made from specially coated
steel called "terne steel". 
I this material, in Healey times, had a coating which was 80% lead making it
very dangerous to work with. 
Modern "terne" steel is coated with a zinc/tin combination to avoid this
problem. I have no idea if the newer coating performs as well in petrol
tanks but I do know that if a tank is made from unplated steel this fine
powder rust is a constant problem.

Michael Salter
100 (1953)
AHX12 (1953)
Bugeye (1961)
http://www.netbug.net/blogmichael/

-----Original Message-----
From: healeys-bounces+msalter=precisionsportscar.com at autox.team.net
[mailto:healeys-bounces+msalter=precisionsportscar.com at autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Warthodson at aol.com
Sent: April 28, 2008 8:43 AM
To: mayorrichard at hotmail.com; healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Healeys] 100 gas tank

The tank was new. Unfortunately, he has so far been unable to determine  
where he bought it. The very fine red powder appears to be rust, although it
is  
hard to be sure. It is extremely fine, like talcum powder & slightly
magnetic, 
so we think it is rust. I would expect any coating inside the tank to  come 
off in larger flakes, but I don't really know for sure.
Gary Hodson
 
 
In a message dated 4/27/2008 9:01:15 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
mayorrichard at hotmail.com writes:

Gary,  Was your gas tank brand new, or a good original tank?  Because, this

sounds like a similar situation that I had some years back. I resurrected a

1954 Jaguar MK 7 and began driving it. It had sat for many many years. The  
gasoline that we were then getting at the pump was "oxygenated", which meant

that it had about 10% ethanal. This was all very new to we car guys (with
old  
cars) and odd things started happening. In my case it turned out the the  
ethanol in the gas broke down the glaze, or whatever you call it, that was
coating 
the inside of my tanks (MK 7s have a tank on each side). It looked  like a 
very fine rust and it kept plugging my fuel filters on a regular  basis. 
Eventually it all dissolved off of the inside of my tanks and  everything
then worked 
fine.   Richard Mayor



> From:  Warthodson at aol.com
> Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:18:22 -0400
> To:  healeys at autox.team.net
> Subject: [Healeys] 100 gas tank
>  
> This weekend we discovered the float bowls on a friend's BN1 filled  with 
> approx. 1/2" of very fine rust, high enough to be blocking the  passage 
into the 
> carbs. The car was restored 7 years ago & the  gas tank was replaced at 
that 
> time. Upon examination, the inside  surface of the tank was covered with 
rust. 
> He is considering an  aluminum replacement tank & is interested in knowing

> which  suppliers have tanks the fit well, have the correct fuel line 
fitting & if  
> there are any other issues he should know about. 
>  Thanks,
> Gary Hodson


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