PetChemMan

I've seen several posts about replacing or cleaning gas tanks, and I thought I would pass on my experience with the gas tank on my 1979 Olds 88 .
I inherited the car from my dad , and the car had been sitting in the carport for a few years, without being run. It had a carburetor problem, and would spit and backfire when I tried to accelerate. I cleaned out the carburetor three times, and each time the car would run well for a few miles, and then start the spitting and bogging again. The problem turned out to be fine, white particles in the gas tank that were going right through the factory fuel inlet filter and accumulating in the float bowl, and clogging up the jets. I tried some small inline aftermarket filters, but they also let the fine particles go through. Finally, I bought a remote mounted filter assembly designed for diesels, with spin-on filters the size of oil filters, and with a fine, 5 micron rating. That put an end to the carburetor clogging problem, and I've run the car for over 100,000 miles without another problem ( although I do change the filter element every couple of years.) Standard fuel filters are usually designed to stop only larger particles in the 15 to 50 micron or larger range , so they didn't work for me. The larger spin-on filter elements have the surface area to trap the fine particles without clogging the filter element itself.
Filter elements sold for gasoline, diesel, heating oil, or tractor hydraulic systems will all work nicely with gasoline, but get one with a 5 or 10 micron rating.

Oldsguy

That is an excellent idea! Thanks for the heads up.