David:
Actually, you were lucky you caught it in time. I wasn't so fortunate w/a'74
Spitfire, which I parked in my garage on a near-empty tank one hot summer day.
When the temperature dropped that night significantly, the plugged vent tubing
caused the gas tank to implode, and it crunched up like a milk carton, with the
fuel intake tube punching a hole in the bottom of the tank. The excessive fumes
in the tank condensing w/the temperature drop, as it were. I not only had to
find a new tank, but it took me days of head-scratching and the full collective
wisdom of this list to determine that the well-sealed tank had sucked itself to
death during the night!
--
Martin Secrest
GT6, TR6
David Massey wrote:
>
> Jay,
>
> When I bought my 71 TR6 I found I had a similar problem. Mine manifested
> itself by drawing a partial vacuum on the tank while running. The first
> time I ran the engine I heard a pop like sheet metal "oilcanning: after a
> while. Soon there after the engine stopped. Checked for gas and found
> none. When I opened the filler cap there was a great equalization of
> pressure and the tank "popped" back.
>
> Further investigation revealed that the plastic vent line had come to rest
> on the exhaust system and had melted to the point of blocking off the ID
> altogether and drawing fuel from the tank resulted in a vacuum situation.
>
>
>
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