Any suggestions on a better way to fix a cracked plastic gas tank?

A few weeks ago, the gas tank in my Ranger cracked. I mentioned it in one of the Saturday threads, so some may remember my post about it.

It cracked where they stamped numbers into during the manufacturing process. See the pictures below where the cracks spread from the number ten.

I attempted to use a quick repair kit from the auto parts store which consisted of epoxy and a fiber cloth. I sanded down the tank and roughed it up so that the epoxy would stick before I used the kit. It held for a few weeks, but it now seeping out around the patch just enough to wet the tank, but not enough to drip.

Finding another tank is proving to be a bit difficult. I can find the metal tanks for the 1st gen Rangers (which don't fit mine), but not the 93-97. And, to make the search a little more difficult, they used two different tanks. A 17 gallon tank and a 22 gallon tank. The single cab, short bed Rangers (mine) got the 17 gallon tank, and the supercab or 4WD got the 22 gallon tanks. One tank does not swap in place of the other due to lack of room.

So, for the time being, I am looking for a better temporary fix until I can find another tank.

Do you think laying fiberglass over the crack would hold better than the epoxy repair kit? Anything I need to worry about when it comes to fiberglass and gasoline mixing together, after the fiberglass has had time to cure?

Thanks.

 

Geez, you would think a rockstar could afford a new tank...Anyways, not many options left, search out a tank on cl, keep calling the local yards, etc. IMHO once a plastic tank is breached, it is junk.

 

The problem is not affording one. The problem is actually finding a new one, and the lack of time to do so.

 

There's a product I have used on my boat called "MarineTex", a 2 part epoxy mix. Their package recommends it for repairs on fuel tanks and states it is impervious to fuels.
John
:beer

 

My soldering gun has a tip that looks like a mini spatula for "welding plastic". You might be able to slide that tip in (!) and melt it back together. Prolly not a great chance, but ya never know.

 

Is this it?
http://www.marinetex.com/marinetexrapidset.html

Where can you find it at?

It could be worth a shot, but knowing me, I would just make an even larger hole, lol.

 

First off, from what I see the change was made 8/94. The tanks before that go down to '90 while the tanks after that go up to '97.

Secondly, I'm pretty sure I've passed this onto you at least once before

car-part.com

Houston area
ten acres inc - from 95 Mazda for $75
maz max - from 96 ranger for $100
apache auto - from 91 ranger call for price

 

If you passed car-part.com onto me before, I failed to save it. Thanks again!

 

The tank is probably made of polypropylene plastic. This will have to be plastic welded together since there seem to be a lot of oils in the plastic. I have not found an adhesive thet will stick to PP. You might be able to weld the crack shut and then rough up the repair area with a 60 grit sandind disc and then reinforce with an epoxy and fiberglass screen. The gasoline is a big problem to seal with most epoxies.

 

I would use a soldering iron and weld the crack together. I learned to use a soldering iron to weld broken plastics on my first bike. That will prolly be your best bet. I would drop the tank, flush it out with a hose, and use the heat from the soldering iron to reform the plastic where it cracked....

KFD

 

http://www.stealth316.com/2-dp8005.htm

glue for polypropylene. leave it to 3M

 

I would expect the crack to break whatever you put on that tank and with pressure from the inside of the tank pushing on the bond I don't think it will hold. Good luck, but I think you have everything going against you on this repair. If you can "weld" the seem 100% and then put something like fiberglass on it, maybe.......

 

You have a material/structural failure...no matter what you do....you can not repair it......get another tank.

 

Thanks to the help from bammax, I was able to find another tank 28 miles away at a junkyard. Got it for 79.00, and it looks to be in much better condition then mine. The truck it came from had half as many miles as mine too. The people at the junkyard were great. They pulled the tank for me. All I had to do was watch, wait, and pay.

Took me about an hour and a half to swap the tanks out from start to fill up. I had about 4 gallons in my tank before I started, and used a syphon pump to transfer 1 gallon into the junkyard tank to flush it out. Then pumped 2 more gallons into it after that, using the pump to suck off the top, (that way I didn't carry over any trash that could have accumulated in my cracked tank over time).

Then, drove it to the gas station and filled it up. So far, no leaks.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, and thanks again to bammax. :TU:

----
While at the junkyard, another guy came in looking for a guage cluster for his '99 Expedition. He said that he had 330,000 miles on it, and this was the first time something ever broke on it.

 

I found this stuff at Napa called "Q-Bond"... it's insane superglue. You tap a powder around it, drip the glue on it, and in like 10 seconds the stuff is as hard as a rock... it's insane. Just might work.

 

Thanks, but see the post above yours. :TU: