20 July 2013 - Fuel line plugged/tank back in

As the POR coating was being left to cure for a few days I still needed to do another dump run or two so as the LH tank was running fine with dieso last weekend I thought there wouldn't be any issues. How wrong was I?

Heading out to the refuse tip on Saturday morning I approached a 1 in 3 hill out of the neighbouring village and then started to lose power on the hill. Then the engine cut out. Oh dear. Fuel starvation. My sudden stop did seem to miff the guy who was up my butt up the hill but there was nowt I could do.

I managed to get the engine running again and made it to the dump and home again (7 miles) without any further issues.

Back home I started to strip the system down. First the fuel filter had not been changed for a while so that was swapped. The old one had a foam shroud over it for some additional insulation and once removed I could see that the filter was not tight and had been leaking slightly. So I cleaned everything up and replaced with new O-rings.

Gunge in the filter

Once the engine was fired up it normally takes 5 mins to clear the air out of the system and the fresh filter. Not this time. After 10 mins it was running better but some air continued to appear in the feed lines. Engine was shut down and I pulled the feed tube out of the tank. Trying to blow down it seemed a bit 'restricted'. This is what I found in the right angled section at the outlet.

Well that's blocked then!!

So this was the reason for the Tdi struggling before the drain down then the dieso in throw in there helped to flush even more to the point of the blockage?

The filler cap was also blocked pretty much. In the end I soaked it first in kerosene and then cleaning solvent. Also torched it in betweeen to see if that would burn the gunge out. Eventually after a second soak in solvent the vents cleared.

 

Cap started like this. Varnish and polymerisation

 

That'll clean the gunge out?

From now on I will restrict the the LH tank to 75% WVO. This will limit the polymerisation and also the varnish built up.

RH TANK BACK IN
Once the LH tank feed problems were fixed I could turn my attentions back to the newly lined RH tank.

Originally this wasn't due to be refitted until the following day but I was due to a local car show the next morning and as the weather had been a pretty steady 27-30 Deg.C since the coating was applied it was now rock solid.

Tank raised in position via a car scissor jack and a few lumps of wood and filled with 20 litres of pure dieso. No sign of any leakage after a few hours so....touch wood?

Here's the interior coating before the fuel was chucked it.

17 July 2013 - POR15 in da tank!

Well I arrived home to find the pint of POR15 tank seal from Frosts sitting on the doorstep. So I thought I had better get that poured in. Cure time is around 96 hours so the earlier I get that coated up the better?

The first FUBAR was to pour 500 ml of epoxy coating into the tank through the filler port AND LEAVE THE DAMN DRAIN PLUG OFF! Luckily the funnel spout I placed through the filler port is not over the drain but I still lost around 50-60 ml which ran over the garden table and then onto the patio tiles. Well at least they will never leak?

The remaining coating was mainly left to settle on the dubious rear wall of the tank and the joint around it. I never had to drain any excess off. What with the premature 'draining' at the start the entire tin was used to re-coat the interior of the tank over the existing coating. Now to wait for it to set, which with the thickness I have laid up will be around Sunday I should think!?

After 4 hours the coating seems to have spread out evenly so it appears that my cleaning regime with Tescos budget bio auto washing powder may have worked? After all I have coated it once before so the full POR15 'kit' would have been overkill.