Took a shower with diesel :)

[Zulfiqar]

My car was starting to run funny, as in like a lethargic drugged aging turtle, which I all blame on one gas station I stopped over to fill some fuel. That fuel smelled like a sewer mixed with diesel

I removed the strainer (btw a northern tool 46mm is a perfect fit and has a nearly flat face so no issues of radius being too shallow) - after draining the tank - horrendously slowly for 40 minutes, all of 4 gallons.

The strainer was plugged up from the bottom up leaving only an inch or two of usable area - the debris literally felt like bits of oily melted plastic, and the tank was coated with about 2 inches of this stuff too, removed the tank and used about 3 gallons of gasoline to clean it, cut my hands in 5 different places trying to manhandle (shake) the 90 litre tank of my car - poured out some nice black plasticky tacky junk - about 2 pounds worth - left it alone to ensure its fully dry - then installed it back

cleaned up the breather valve (which was stuck open I think - i could breathe without effort through it - I cleaned the dirt out and used water and WD40 to make sure its neat n clean - I then could blow through it if I applied a little lung pressure) - installed new filters upfront - cut the old secondary filter to find it about 1/4 full of fine debris

The car flies down the highway. BUT there is an anomaly now.

Everytime I open the fuel cap after any amount of driving I hear a very short soft hiss. It did not happen previously, is this car supposed to do that? The owners manual also tells to slowly open the cap and let any pressure escape ?? pressure in a diesel tank?

btw - its a very good idea to cover the diff and axles with aluminum foil so the fuel does not attack the boots or seals.

[charmalu]

I can relate to the Diesel shower/bath, went through that with a 240D. 1/2 to 3/4 of the tank screen was plugged, it was a new car and I was going through everything from one end to the other. plug I was installing a 21 gal tank from a 85 300d to replace the 17 gal 240D tank. quite a surprise when I got the bath and the fuel comes out quite fast.

I had to wash out the replacement tank, had some stuff about 1/4 the way up the sides like a plastic coating. thin k it had had WVO or???? that had sat it it for a long time. used laquer thinner to wash it out. cut the stuff real good.

The pressure you are getting is probably from the tank vent being plugged. 126 and 123 have the opening to the vent pipe under the body, behind the L/R wheel. It will have a little Bell shaped piece on the end,

Roy (Whunter) posted some threads on the warnings of bad fuel people were getting. maybe yours is an isolated case or mabey not.
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/309367-warning-all-diesel-owners.html#post2841158

bad smelling fuel, Gag, gasp, choke


Charlie

[Zulfiqar]

when I removed the tank sender unit - I used a flashlight to inspect inside and found what can only be some sort of hard clay looking material stuck to the insides of the tank - some sort of coating maybe.

anyway - I did not used to get that hiss prior to cleaning the tank, but I did find water drops on the cap everytime I opened it up, now the cap is coated with fuel only.

The bell shaped vent on my car is at the left side of the tank, it was a bit dirty, I cleaned it out anyway - it was literally easy to blow through it one way - easy as completely open easy, after cleanup it became a little restrictive - meaning i had to apply slight pressure to make it work - Should the valve be free flowing?

The car pulls like a train now, a train that loves to rev, lol

[funola]

I always look inside the tank through the fuel gauge sender to make sure it's empty before pulling the strainer.

[Zulfiqar]

the dirty item

[Squiggle Dog]

Wow, that is dirty! The fuel tank in my 200D used to start collapsing on itself and when I opened the cap, it would WHOOSH and the tank would expand again. It turns out I had mud plugging my tank vent rubber (the bell-shaped piece, as previously mentioned). I cleaned the rubber at the end of the vent tube and had no more problem.

[chasinthesun]

Did you wash behind your ears? Ive never gotten that saying but it was something the grandparents seemed to be very worried about as a kid.The tank might just need a good swish swash wash also ,do you feel any grime in the tank ?

[Zulfiqar]

Originally Posted by chasinthesun

Did you wash behind your ears? Ive never gotten that saying but it was something the grandparents seemed to be very worried about as a kid.The tank might just need a good swish swash wash also ,do you feel any grime in the tank ?

I had to bathe with lava soap and ajax - the most hardest bit was to get the diesel out of my hair - and my hair being silky, thick and dense makes it worse.. I did dance around with the huge 90L tank after I put some gasoline in it - a lot of soft plastic type gunk came out. Getting stuff out of the tank is a bit hard but possible.

I think a tank cleanup every 3 or 4 years is a good idea. The amount of lost engine power and mpg is very surprising.

I also got rid of the rpm adjustment anomaly when the engine returned to idle speed. I saw a user on bworld trying to figure that out.

[charmalu]

I mentioned in post #2 that I used Laqure Thinner to cut through the gunk. I used 1 qt, (with tank removed) and sloshed the thinner back and forth, held the tank side ways etc... then drained it out the filler tube. then did a second laqure slosh, and the a couple gasoline washes. came out squeeky clean.

Be sure to remove the fuel sender first, so it doesn`t get damaged and so you have a hole to look inside the tank.
I left the screen in the tank and plugged the hole so I didn`t get laqure and gunk on me.

You will also notice using a flashlight, that the fuel return tube only comes up inside the tank 3 or 4 inches from the bottom.

Charlie

[sassparilla_kid]

I'm pretty certain there is some sort of check valve as part of the tank breather system, so when the level goes down air comes in and then can't escape. That hiss is just from having a little higher air pressure in the tank, which is cause by air contracting at night and then expanding during the day, or by being heated by the fuel being returned to the tank

[Zulfiqar]

Originally Posted by sassparilla_kid

I'm pretty certain there is some sort of check valve as part of the tank breather system, so when the level goes down air comes in and then can't escape. That hiss is just from having a little higher air pressure in the tank, which is cause by air contracting at night and then expanding during the day, or by being heated by the fuel being returned to the tank

yes sir, you are da man,,

the check valve regulates a certain air pressure in the tank for a variety of reasons one of them is temperature anomaly.

btw - the my cars tank has ceased to do that hiss now, its only a sort of small "hup" when you lift the cap off - I actually have to get my ear near it to hear it - which after miles of driving around (about 520 to be exact) has shown no problem - no tank cave in, no startup issues etc - strong pulling power.