Post by mjb59 on Jul 7, 2010 6:50:58 GMT
This is a copy of my post in the thread 'New Facet pump, same problem - losing power'. It was suggested I add it as a named thread in case others were interested.
Michael.
OK, I've resealed the fuel tank. I found it tiring, hard work and anxiety making, but I'm new to all this. I used the POR-15 American kit, with caustic cleaner, followed by acid etch followed by sealant.
How difficult and time consuming it is I suspect depends on your personality type. I'm a bit obsessional, particularly if the result of a process could be irremediable failure and ruining of the fuel tank.
So when the product instructions use terms in CAPITAL LETTERS like 'THOROUGHLY wash with the cleaner'. 'THOROUGHLY rinse the cleaner'. 'DON'T LET THE ACID WASH DRY IN THE TANK'. 'Make sure the tank is BONE DRY before sealing'. 'DRAIN ALL EXCESS SEALER FROM TANK', I probably repeated all the stages many more times than was necessary just to make sure.
It took me over a day. Some of that time was spent finding pipe cleaners to clean out any sealant from the vent pipes etc!
A few suggestions for anyone contemplating this:
There's a very similar Australian product called 'KBS Coating', which has excellent You Tube instructional videos, better than the POR videos.
The products components are described as 'non toxic', but they suggest wearing gloves and eye protection. As mentioned prior, I have a nasty caustic burn on my thigh from the cleaner, so it is definitely toxic. Rubber fishing waders were a good answer. I got the cleaner on me because I had trouble sealing all the tank holes to allow swishing the cleaner around inside. I took the advice of using duct tape for sealing the access holes, which wasn't ideal, particularly for the sender hole, which is where the toxic splash came out .
What worked well was sealing the vent and overflow pipes with those little ziplock snack/sandwich plastic bags held on with elastic bands, covering the fuel uptake hole with duct tape, and sealing the sender hole with the top of the old sender unit. I was able to do this as I have to replace the sender anyway as it is broken.
Be aware you will be washing caustic and acid stuff out, so where you do it will need to be thought out.
Swishing the products around in the tank many times is very tiring. It's better to be able to work at bench height rather than on the ground. I perched the tank on an open wheelie/rubbish bin.
It took longer than expected to get the tank 'BONE DRY' after the acid etch. I used a hair dryer, and it still took about an hour and a half.
The product's final advice is to completely drain any excess sealant from the tank, or else doom is predicted. The baffle system and small drain hole make this almost impossible, and therefore I was very anxious when I could see sealant pooling in the bottom of the tank. The baffles are a brilliantly effective design that prevents exactly the manouevre you're trying to achieve. The product starts to set/'go off' after about half an hour, so start draining it as soon as you feel you have adequate coverage in the tank or the excess will be too thick to drain. I rotated the tank regularly over the next 4 hours, ensuring no big puddles of product sat in the bottom and it seemed to work.
Looking into the tank today it looks OK to me, but it now needs about a week to cure, so time will tell.
Michael.
OK, I've resealed the fuel tank. I found it tiring, hard work and anxiety making, but I'm new to all this. I used the POR-15 American kit, with caustic cleaner, followed by acid etch followed by sealant.
How difficult and time consuming it is I suspect depends on your personality type. I'm a bit obsessional, particularly if the result of a process could be irremediable failure and ruining of the fuel tank.
So when the product instructions use terms in CAPITAL LETTERS like 'THOROUGHLY wash with the cleaner'. 'THOROUGHLY rinse the cleaner'. 'DON'T LET THE ACID WASH DRY IN THE TANK'. 'Make sure the tank is BONE DRY before sealing'. 'DRAIN ALL EXCESS SEALER FROM TANK', I probably repeated all the stages many more times than was necessary just to make sure.
It took me over a day. Some of that time was spent finding pipe cleaners to clean out any sealant from the vent pipes etc!
A few suggestions for anyone contemplating this:
There's a very similar Australian product called 'KBS Coating', which has excellent You Tube instructional videos, better than the POR videos.
The products components are described as 'non toxic', but they suggest wearing gloves and eye protection. As mentioned prior, I have a nasty caustic burn on my thigh from the cleaner, so it is definitely toxic. Rubber fishing waders were a good answer. I got the cleaner on me because I had trouble sealing all the tank holes to allow swishing the cleaner around inside. I took the advice of using duct tape for sealing the access holes, which wasn't ideal, particularly for the sender hole, which is where the toxic splash came out .
What worked well was sealing the vent and overflow pipes with those little ziplock snack/sandwich plastic bags held on with elastic bands, covering the fuel uptake hole with duct tape, and sealing the sender hole with the top of the old sender unit. I was able to do this as I have to replace the sender anyway as it is broken.
Be aware you will be washing caustic and acid stuff out, so where you do it will need to be thought out.
Swishing the products around in the tank many times is very tiring. It's better to be able to work at bench height rather than on the ground. I perched the tank on an open wheelie/rubbish bin.
It took longer than expected to get the tank 'BONE DRY' after the acid etch. I used a hair dryer, and it still took about an hour and a half.
The product's final advice is to completely drain any excess sealant from the tank, or else doom is predicted. The baffle system and small drain hole make this almost impossible, and therefore I was very anxious when I could see sealant pooling in the bottom of the tank. The baffles are a brilliantly effective design that prevents exactly the manouevre you're trying to achieve. The product starts to set/'go off' after about half an hour, so start draining it as soon as you feel you have adequate coverage in the tank or the excess will be too thick to drain. I rotated the tank regularly over the next 4 hours, ensuring no big puddles of product sat in the bottom and it seemed to work.
Looking into the tank today it looks OK to me, but it now needs about a week to cure, so time will tell.