[hammerrob]

Started the first step in the Cougar-recovery process yesterday. Drained the 10 year-old gas out of tank (luckily, only 5 gallons). Just nasty smelling stuff. Left the garage door open to air out the stink! Next step fuel lines ...

Rob Hamill
'68 XR7 (in rehab)

 

[Bad69cat]

Started the first step in the Cougar-recovery process yesterday. Drained the 10 year-old gas out of tank (luckily, only 5 gallons). Just nasty smelling stuff. Left the garage door open to air out the stink! Next step fuel lines ...

Rob Hamill
'68 XR7 (in rehab)

uke:

Not pretty 4 sure....gonna need some major cleaning/replacing. Any rust show up too?

 

[hammerrob]

I was expecting a lot of rust, but it was pretty clean. I considered trying to keep the tank but I'd rather know that the fuel delivery system is in order if I run into problems getting things going. In the big scheme of things, replacing the fuel delivery system is relatively inexpensive.

Rob Hamill
68 XR7

 

[benchseat67]

I love the smell of old fuel in the morning...It smells like......the beginning of a restoration. (With apologies to Robert Duvall)

 

[xr7g428]

Your best bet is to replace the fuel tank and fuel lines. I have tried to skip this step with disastrous results twice. Old gas turns to shellac. New gas dissolves the shellac and it goes through the carb and paints the valve stems which causes the valve to stick. This results in bent push rods at the very least. I have had to rebuild two motors. The tank and line is cheap compared to the cost of engine work.

 

[CougarCJ]

Yeah, old gas has a unique smell and color.

Only thing that may be worse is 40+ year old rear end oil, woof.

 

[hammerrob]

Your best bet is to replace the fuel tank and fuel lines. I have tried to skip this step with disastrous results twice. Old gas turns to shellac. New gas dissolves the shellac and it goes through the carb and paints the valve stems which causes the valve to stick. This results in bent push rods at the very least. I have had to rebuild two motors. The tank and line is cheap compared to the cost of engine work.

The tank and lines really are cheap ... makes this a no-brainer from my point of view. Thanks to previous posts on this I'm going to switch to the larger '70 tank.

Rob Hamill
68 XR7

 

[Rat Rod]

Funny, that smell reminds me of my Cougar. The gas in my Cougar was probably 17 years old when I drained it. I had put the car in storage in 1991 and when I moved it to my garage about 4 years ago, the entire car smelled like old gas. The car no longer has "that smell" but my shop vac still does and I sort of miss it.

Here is a picture of what the tank looked like on the inside (date is wrong).

 

[Bad69cat]

Yeah, old gas has a unique smell and color.

Only thing that may be worse is 40+ year old rear end oil, woof.

LOL You ain't just whistlin' dixie there! That truly does smell like a$$.....my all time least favorite job is changing that fluid! Can't get that smell outta your nostrils for hours either!! phhheewie I'd rather swap out a stool in a gas station......

 

[RUNnWYLD]

this thread scares me. how can i find out what my gas tank looks like inside? i dont know how long the car sat or if gas went bad in it. ive driven the car about 100 miles with no problems so far.

 

[Bad69cat]

I suppose you could run one of those wall scopes in there and look around, but you can also take your filter off and dump/blow out backwards into a rag and see if ant particles fall out. If it's never been replaced the odds are it's pretty rusty....

 

[70Houndstooth]

Does the 71 have the rubber connector hose from the filler neck to the tank? If it does, just pull the neck and hose off and look in with a flashlight.