tea kettle gas tank

[BUDDY]

SOooooo, I am driving my blazer from las vegas to ft worth. I had just gotten my DIY4X shock relocator installed & because of that, the exhaust pipe had to be cut off so the shock would fit where the exhaust pipe was.

The muffler exits out pointing directly to the rear. I am driving along, everything is going just fine, decide to stop in Williams, AZ to stretch my legs & top off the gas tank.

Go to open the gas cap, twist it off & it literally is STEAMING gasoline vapor & WHISTLING like a tea kettle!!!! HOLY #?*/!

I figured that the exhaust would be dissipated through the turbulence underneath & around the undercarriage of the blazer, but I was WRONG!! It would just build up right in front of the gas tank & it was boiling the gas inside the tank!

I sat around for a good 30 minutes to let this all cool down, left the gas cap off & drove 5 minutes to the only mechanic in town. Who luckily happened to have an exhaust bender, & he made me a little exhaust extension to dump out behind the driver's rear tire.

It's totally fine now, but man!

Moral of the story, exhaust needs to point anywhere but at the gas tank. Duh!!

whew!

Just thought I'd share.

Later,

Buddy

 

[4X4HIGH]

Glad you caught that mistake BEFORE it became an issue.

 

[bp71k5]

I had the exact same issue in Moab, but mine was not exhaust related. My vent was somehow clogged. Its scary seeing those fumes shooting up back there huh!

 

[Fordum]

As I have told here before, when I bought my F250 new, it went straight to a shop where they pulled off the rear bed, cut the frame, shortened it to SWB specs and put on a SWB body.
I picked it up after it had been painted and was ready to go.

Drove it up to the farm.
About 10 miles from there, I stopped in for gas. I filled up both tanks. Since I had been running off the front tank, I hit the switch to see if the rear tank worked ok. Everything switched smoothly, and I continued on down the road.

When I got to the farm gate, I was sitting in front waiting for the opener to open it, when this HUGE cloud of white smoke came drifting by me.

I looked, and it was coming from under the truck. The only thing I could figure was that some kind of radiator line had let go.

Temp looked ok, so I pulled into the driveway and got out with it running. As soon as I opened the door, I smelled gas....Strong.

Meanwhile big clouds of white smoke were billowing out.
I switched the truck off and ran.

After the gas smoke cleared out, I crawled under. Like a lot of trucks, mine used thickwall plastic tubing for gas lines.
When they were welding the frame back together, a tiny bead of weld popped out and melted its way into the back tank fuel line.

When I turned on the rear tank driving down the road, it started pumping a thin stream of gas directly onto the catalytic converter.
I patched the line.

Later, I worked out that I had used 8 gallons of gas to go 10 miles. Which meant that at least 7 of them had sprayed onto the converter.

I still do not know why it did not catch on fire or blow up.......

 

[Chaddy]

Thats crazy!

 

[79rustyk10]

kinda scary what can happen sometimes.

 

[Fordum]

Don't forget, I had less than 100 miles on a brand new truck.
My father and I had had long knockdown dragout discussions about me cutting a brand new truck in half.

He told me to either buy a SWB half ton, or live with the LWB in the woods. I told him I was determined to have the durability and strength of a 3/4 ton with the maneuverability of a Short Wheel Base.

I know that despite movies, gas tanks do not normally blow up, but I was ripe for some kind of explosion.
If it had blown up, I sure would have wished I went with it, because otherwise I never would have heard the end of it.

Later, he went around bragging on the truck as soon as he saw it worked.