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MG TD TF 1500 - Leaking gas tank

while under the TD, to my dismay, I found the gas tank weeping fuel. I have emptied but not removed the tank.

Does anyone have experience with repair facilities or new SS tanks?

Thanks, Tom
Thomas McNamara

Have you isolated to find where it is it weeping?
Regards, Tom
tm peterson

I hope this car is not garaged. Just 2 days ago a car exploded in the attached garage of a home less than 5 miles from my house.

The gas tank had a leak. The owner activated the overhead garage opener when an electrical spark from the motor drive ignited the fumes and blew the garage door completely out into the driveway and set fire to the house and car.

Cheers

Gary
79 MGB
Gary Hansen

That seems odd as normally gasoline fumes stay down near the floor and the door opener motor is high on the ceiling. Maybe it was the electric eye safety system that is near the floor? Building codes usually require natural gas hot water heaters, if in a garage, to be on a 18" platform to keep the pilot light high enough to prevent explosions. But I guess if the volumn of gasoline leakage is large enough anything can happen.
John Quilter (TD8986)

I have no idea exactly what set it off, but it was a 2-car garage and it blew the door completely off and sent a great ball of fire out of the garage as well as the house itself.

Cheers

Gary
79 MGB
Gary Hansen

I see that the discussion has gone off on a bit of a tangent, and nobody has tried to address your problem.

Opinions will differ, based on experience. Here is mine: as Tom Peterson noted, locate the source of the leak. There are gaskets on the filter, and sometimes the supply lines leak.

But it's usually more - in my case, water settling in the tank had rusted through the bottom of the tank, resulting in pinhole leaks. I had to drain and remove the tank, remove the end plates and take the tank to a body shop where the entire curved bottom of the tank was cut out. The tank was internally cleaned (there are baffles), and new metal was welded in, the tank was internally coated, the outside was re-painted to match the car, and the tank was re-assembled and re-installed.

Unfortunately, the only short-cut is buying a new SS tank (from Abingdon Spares), having it painted to match, etc. Any fuel tank you buy is a gamble, of course, and might come with a 50/50 guarantee - 50 feet or 50 seconds, whichever comes first..

Hope this helps. Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

I ordered new tank gaskets and they came with a note saying to use a fuel-proof thread sealer on the fuel level sender screws. Something to check out.

I recently took my tank to a radiator shop ti have it checked for leaks and cleaned out. It looks much better for that. Incidentally, it has a large dollop of lead on one side from a long-ago repair but it seems to be holding fine so we left it alone.
T Capehart

Tom
When you find the leak the best product to use is an aircraft fuel tank sealant. It is not cheep to buy. It is PR-1422 with A or B formula. The last numbers on the listing, will be 1/2 or 1 or 2.. that is the working times. The product has been in use for at least 30 years in aviation. It can also be used on the sending unit on the tank. It will stick to the outside of the tank after you have cleaned and removed the paint around the leak. Hope this helps.

Gary
gl krukoski

This thread was discussed between 02/12/2021 and 06/12/2021

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