Not planning to use heat… mechanical force or nothing probably…
Going to give extractors a try next… if no luck there I’ll just seal it up, and start saving for a new tank, or professional restoration…
I recently purchased a XK120 project car and got a new aluminum tank with it. The problem is that the tank has no drain in the bottom. it’s just a flat piece of aluminum. Does anyone know where I can buy just the drain piece? I have an excellent aluminum welder who could weld it in place for me. Thanks.
Charlie Schott
Panama City Beach, FL
And where do you get those red fibre gaskets?
The usual suspects just have the rubber ones
Fiber gaskets are offered by XKs Unlimited.
Brandon, I will hazard a guess that the plug is really sticking hard where the flange of the plug meets the face of the threaded tank outlet. As we both have the same problem, I plan on taking a hack saw and carefully cutting away the flange about 1/4"-3/8" back from its outer edge around the circumference. The caveat here will be to make my cuts so that they stop short of going all the way through as I don’t want to ruin the face of the plug seat with cut marks and thus, introducing the potential for leaks later on. Then I will take a small screwdriver and bend each section up/down until it falls away continuing on with the next section. When done, I’ll take my electric impact wrench and see if that’s now enough to loosen it. A six point socket here will be a must as the radiator shop I previously took this to to have boiled out tried removing the plug with a 12-pointer and of course, rounded off the nut flats. If I can get this loose, I will replace the fiber washer with one made of teflon or delrin.
I used a 6 pointer, but as I understand it these are not standard SAE size, so unless you track down the correct size you have high risk of rounding off.
My next step is bolt extractor. If that doesn’t work I’ll probably just seal it up with epoxy and save up for a new tank someday…
The size is 1/2 BSF, but 13/16" and 21mm will fit.
My feeling is its not the gasket; you both probably have corrosion in the threads.
If the tank is empty, you could try pouring in a quart of penetrating oil and let it sit a week.
If that doesn’t work, taking the tank out, drying it out, and turning the propane torch around the outside while putting torque on it with a wrench is the only way. Once it moves, even just a little bit, stop and let it cool off, then the penetrating oil will work.
Okay, with the benefit of a long weekend here, I made this one of my to-do projects. I’ve been leaning towards Mr. Reilly’s suggestion of using a torch, which probably would have been much quicker, but chickened out and used a drill and hack saw instead. Even with the idea of a shop vac hose exhaust fed into the tank to help exhaust any fumes, I still was wary of using an open flame. Supposedly my tank had been “boiled” out but I suspect the radiator shop I took this to last fall simply stuck in the nozzle of a pressure washer and waved it around a bit. It still stinks a little of very old fuel.
Anyway, what I did was to first roughly cut away the flange back about 1/4" around the plug circumference. I made sure to not cut all the way through so as to not mar the face the plug seats against. Then I cut off my rounded off hex plug. Then I drilled a series of holes, close together, using a 1/8" bit around the inner top circumference, followed by an old wood chisel to connect the holes and then prying off the top with a screwdriver. So now one is left with the threaded portion still in the tank. I then took my hack saw blade and placed it in the handle of one of those keyhole-type saws and cut a slot making sure to stop where the threads start. You’ll know when the shavings change color. I then made an adjoining slot about 1/4" away from the first, knocked the section out with a punch or drift, then grabbed what was left of the protruding plug that still stood proud of the tank with a pair of channelocks, squeezed a little and it then twisted right out. My total time in to this was about two hours.
I’ll finish by adding that the culprit to plug removal seemed to be old fuel that had become very glue-like and had penetrated all of the threads. Some teflon tape here might be a good idea.
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Hi Chris:
Congratulations! How did you clean out what I imagine must have been a fair bit of ‘swarf’ in the tank following the procedure?
Chris.
Chris, yes I’m sure there was a little bit of swarf that made its way in to the tank and I made a token attempt to suck some of it out with the shop vac, but I’m not worried about getting it all. Any shavings will mostly sit inert on the bottom and any that make their way into the line will be checked for in the initial weeks/ months after engine startup again.
Well after a few months of fruitless (very occasional) labor trying to remove the plug I finally got a better look and realized there’s actually a hole in the tank, not a leak at the plug, Furthermore apparently there was a substantial problem as a large area around it has sealant putty. So apparently I need a new tank.
In the mean time I’ve patched with JB-Weld.
But to further my confusion, it seems I don’t have an XK-140 tank. Mine has no cutout for the spare tire, it’s just a basic rectangle. I’m trying to figure out what the tank is from, as it has the filler neck in an appropriate position, and sending unit on left side as original.
So step 1) figure out what tank I have
step 2) save up for replacement unit…
Always something… joys of old, heavily modified cars…
Buy a new tank and call it a safe! day…With modern gas hey make them plated against the ethanol, IT WORKS!.
GOOD LUCK!
GTJOEY1314
Yep, that’s the plan, just have to figure out what tank will fit. PO used a non-XK tank for some reason, not sure if a standard will retrofit or not.
Post a picture, maybe we’ll recognize it.
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Best I can get easily, from the right side.
The feature at the bottom, rear is the output.
You can also see where the spare wheel tub was cut back.
I see no mention of the fact that your XK is fitted with a independent rear suspension setup Brandon,
explaining the none standard tank. Try a standard tank, it will restore spare wheel stowage.
Exhaust may need repositioning.
Peter B
Yes, I have an IRS, as you can see in the pictures. As I’ve been around jag-lovers for ~18 years (since I was the ripe old age of 14!) I just sort of assume people know about my Frankenstein.
Can anyone get me approximate dimensions of a standard tank, so I can compare?
Brandon:
Not sure if the tanks are different between a 120 and a 140, but on my '53 DHC I just took some approximate measurements: height at front=12", height at rear=9 1/2", length front to rear at outside edge=16", distance from front of tank to deepest part of spare tire cutout=8", side to side span of spare tire cutout=26", overall width of tank at bottom=30" These are taken with the tank in situ, thus are, as stated, approximate.
Chris.
Thank you,
The 120DHC is a bit different but I’d imagine within the same ballpark based on XKS.com images.
The 140 OTS appears taller and less deep.
