MTFCA Forum

A customer had a fuel problem a few days ago and called for help. Eventually we drained the gas tank and found this fibrous stuff in the tank.
We have no idea what it is.
The tank was new about six months ago made by a local company. it has worked fine until a week ago.
The customer claims he has only used gas straight from commercial gas pumps. No gas tanks from the corner if the garage.
I thought it was wood, discolored by gas but the customer says no way.
Anyone else any ideas or similar experience?

does he own a cat?

I wonder if the tank sat somewhere without a cap on it and a mouse made a nest in it? This would have happened before the tank was installed on the car. Looks like it will have to come off and be flushed out.
Norm

That is either Groucho Marx's mustache or my pet caterpillar that went missing last week!

Looks like that fine shredded black mulch you get at the lawn and garden store. I also vote for a mouse house!
Agree with Norm, remove and flush, you'll probly be okay after that.

I had a closer look at the contamination and it’s finer that I thought from the photo. It’s more like fine black dust. I suspect Norm is correct in that something was in the tank when my customer bought it. He has been using a filter which allowed it to function for the past few weeks.

Or, the stations tank was ruptured or had collapsed, letting in debris.

I'm with mouse house , wonder how big the glob is and cylindrical shape. Likely the ongoing claim that unfiltered fuel can get into your tank while the fuel truck is filling the stations tank, is no longer. Couldn't find a date that fuel filters were added inside the gas pump but here they are.

We found the problem.
My customer wrote:

I dropped the tank off at Kirks Radiator to have it boiled out. Kirk the owner looked down in side and the samples and said that substance is Polishing Compound. That makes sense to me. The tank was polished at the manufacturer and they probably didn’t have the cap on

So the mess has been there since the tank was built and the filter kept it running.
Mystery solved.
Model Ts keep us on our toes.....

Thanks for the up date Tony, I guess I'll keep looking for my caterpillar.

TonyB wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 18, 2021 12:40 pm

We found the problem.
My customer wrote:

I dropped the tank off at Kirks Radiator to have it boiled out. Kirk the owner looked down in side and the samples and said that substance is Polishing Compound. That makes sense to me. The tank was polished at the manufacturer and they probably didn’t have the cap on

So the mess has been there since the tank was built and the filter kept it running.
Mystery solved.
Model Ts keep us on our toes.....

Must be one those fancy, high tone, up-town Model T's that's got a polished gas tank!