Wankelguy

Well, after leaving me stranded twice last week, one time requiring my wife to tow me home with a rope, I decided my worthless gas tank had to go. My '80 had sat in the desert for ten years with a few gallons of old varnishy gas in it and was rusting inside, causing flakes and crud to plug up the pickup tube in the tank. I had already removed the tank twice in the last 3-4 months and given it a good clean-out, but it was too far gone to save. So I called my friend who is trying to give away this '79 LE he has and asked if he would sell the tank, providing it was in better shape than mine. He said I was welcome to pull it and check it out, so last Saturday I drove the 30 miles to his house to check it out. The car had run as recently as a couple of years ago, and the tank was almost full of good gas, so my hopes were high. After I got the gas siphoned out of it and got the tank pulled, I took it home to check it out. I removed the sending unit and the rubber filler assembly, took the tank in the garage and turned all the lights out, and looked inside with a flashlight. The inside of the tank just lights up when you're in a darkened environment! Anyway, the tank looked excellent inside, so I'm pretty stoked at my luck! I installed the new tank Monday and have had no further problems. Oh yeah, the cost of the tank: ten bucks!

Maguire

iTrader: (1)

what a steal! I had to swap my tank out too, because at some point a previous owner tried to seal it and then it sat for several years. All the sealant rusted and flaked off inside. The replacement i got from a local junkyard cost me $50. Good find!

jeremy

iTrader: (1)

you suck. i paid 130 all said and done because of the rareness of the sa gas tanks.

Wankelguy

I've also heard of problems with the sealant, so I really wanted to find a GOOD tank. The tank on my first RX4 was pretty bad too, just try to find one of those!
And yeah, I'm pretty lucky to have quite a few good rotorhead friends, we all help each other out.
I'm also real lucky about getting rotary cars extremely cheap or for free. I bought an RX2 4-door for I think $50, a '71 coupe that ended up running great for $150, a '74 RX3 coupe with a factory-rebuilt 12A with 17K on it for $40, A '76 RX4 coupe with a '74 motor that ran strong for $650, a very nice '74 RX4 coupe body for $300, and I was given a rust-free, seamwelded '72 RX3 coupe body for free, as well as the one-owner, rust-free '80 that is my current daily driver. I've been very fortunate.

inittab

I hope that sealant stuff is okay cause I just sealed my tank. I used the POR-15 stuff. I came out really nice. I guess time will tell.