Rusty fuel tank

Car: 1978 245 N/A with Penta Solex carbs.

My fuel tank is trashed, I'm running two small filters before the fuel pump, and one after the fuel pump. They work, but I think the restriction is killing my pumps. I would like to find a new tank, but they're seemingly NLA for this year. It has the gravity feed out of the bottom left corner of the tank, no pre-pump. I took it out and went to have it boiled, but he said there's so little metal left, he's worried there would be tons of pinholes. Are these tanks actually NLA? Are all of them that I find going to be just this rusty? There is the option of a fuel cell, but I'd have to retro it to work in place of the old tank, since this isn't a racecar or anything. Thanks in advance for the advice.

The "side spout" no lift / vapor lock prevention tank pump is NLA.

Volvo gave you a later tank for your early car when you could last get anything.

Side spout tanks were 1974-1976, so not exactly going to be rust free by now most likely

Sigh, so I'm SOL. Is my only option just to run a lift pump now, with a later tank?

No recall tanks for the 74's left in the system?

Hello,

About a year ago we had to replace the gas tank for a 1978 264.

Since all of the parts to properly update the gas tank aren't available new anymore, we decided to modify one of the cheap pieces of crap repro gas tanks. The repro tanks don't have a fuel isolation bowl, nor the expansion tank inside.

The local ReNu shop swapped the filler neck and installed a fuel isolation bowl from a completely different gas tank into the repro tank. The expansion tank cannot be transferred. It is made of plastic and would melt when the ReNu coating is being cured in an oven.

If you don't want to add the lift pump, you don't have to install the bowl.

Hotdoggin said:

Sigh, so I'm SOL. Is my only option just to run a lift pump now, with a later tank?

Click to expand...

Hotdoggin said:

Sigh, so I'm SOL. Is my only option just to run a lift pump now, with a later tank?

Click to expand...

Or post in wanted and pay your shipping like a big boy.

Using a later tank with the pre-pump in it doesn't seem like all that big of a deal. It's a small price to pay in order to have rust-free reliable fueling.

It's really not a big deal, I just like being able to hot swap fuel pumps if needed. One 10mm, two clamps and done. That said, I will probably go that direction, and keep an in line low pressure pump as well.

Am I going to have fuel gauge problems moving up to a sender with a pump in it? Is the resistance difference on the newer senders?

No. The return hose changed from hard plastic to rubber, but that's it.

Here's the TSB for the conversion to intake pump.

http://hiperformanceautoservice.com/images/SB_Grp.24_No.17%20Fuel%20Tank%20'74-'78.pdf

My diesel has no lift pump but does have a later tank, FWIW.
Just no pump, different sender, and no evap system IIRC.