S13 gas tank removal/cleaning
 

Hey guys, i bought a s13 recently and its been sitting for about 8 months. I havent gotten around to dropping the gas tank and cleaning it out yet due to school, but i'm off next week so its time to do so.

I've never had to drop the gas tank in any car before, so i was just curious as to how simple it is, and what precautions to take. I've read a few forums concerning what to do, but i just need some verification. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks guys

it's pretty straight forward man. You'll see two straps holding it in place and you have to undo the bolts that's holding the straps in. The driver side strap is best undone with the rear bolt while the passenger side strap can only be undone at the front bolt. The differential is in the way of the driver side strap bolt so just do the back one. After that just wiggle it out as much as you can cause the filler nozzle is gonna hold it in place after the two straps are undone. Yank it around for a bit and it should pop right off. It's not very heavy so don't worry about it falling onto you. It also helps if you have a friend help you. Oh and you have to unbolt and remove the fuel sending unit(holds the fuel pump) and get that out before you drop it so you don't accidentally mess up the floater. Trust me that sending unit is hard to find.

Probably eazy to remove gas tank but becareful of gasoline flammable.. Drain the gas tank remove all hoses put 2 jackstand on it and use hydraulic jack to hold the tank while unbolting..

I cleaned mine out with muriatic acid then coated it with a product called redcoat. The acid ate most of the rust off and anything else left over the redcoat seals up.

Word. Thanks for the simple pointers guys. I'm going to drop it one day this week after class/work. I'm just hoping it's not completely covered with rust lol

I didn't even bother cleaning mine lol Super tarnish inside i dont wanna run the risk of contaminating my motor. I'm just gonna look for another tank besides mine is all banged up.

Yeah man i understand you on that one haha. You can never be too safe. And i saw a few on craigslist, but thats depending on where you live of course lol

Can anyone get into detail on how to remove or what tools were used for the passenger side back bolt covered by the strap and the driver side front bolt above the diff? My tools suck and can reach in there.

You shouldn't have any trouble flanagling a socket onto the pass side rear bolt. As far as the driver's side front, you either need to remove the rear member, or just leave that one in with the strap flopping around... Don't forget the little 10mm bolt on the filler neck bracket aft of the rt side wheel well.

Also, be careful on the rear strap bolts- if there is rust you may want to hit them up with PB or something- that metal is very thin and will break if it's too corroded.

I was able to get to the driver side bolt simply by using a rachet with a really long extention(12 inch I think). Oh btw I found out that if you use paint thinner to clean out the tarnish it work like a charm. Just make sure you rinse the tank with some gas after wards to clean the thinner out.

i used a ratcheting wrench on the drivers side front bolt...took some time, but it worked for me, and i was able to get sufficent torque on it without stripping! good luck bro.

Alright guys.

I checked my gas tank and it was pretty clean suprisingly. And i also installed a z32 fuel filter and a OEM fuel pump last week. Both brand new of course. But for some reason i'm still having problems with my acceleration and fuel delivery. All of my lines are connected properly, and i have replaced fuel injectors in the past. But damn.... i just cant figure out why my car won't accelerate properly even with a whole new fuel system basically.

Any suggestions? Any would be much appreciated.

It happens in the low rpms, and it acts like the engine isn't getting all of the gas that it needs.

Details!
 

What happens, does it sputter and stall? How is your idle, no vacuum leaks? Have you replaced your injectors, or pull them out and if you did you make sure you didn't damage those PITA o-rings? What about your TPS sensor? And timing set correctly? Is the maf working correctly, voltage ok? Is your EGR valve stuck open (loss of vacuum)? Distrubutor cap and rotor not damaged? Lots of questions for ya. :eek2:

Let us know...

Marc

Much appreciated for the input Marc. Well now i've ran some sea foam through the gas tank, and i'm going through clear fuel filters every few days to try and clean up the fuel system. One so far turned out to be jet black after a week's use.

But i have replaced three of the injectors with three other used injectors but were good. and i know i should've went brand new but couldn't at the time. I need to re-check the o-rings because one or two were slightly ripped at one time but i changed them out. My tps sensor is wired perfectly, actually had to be soldered recently. Not sure about the EGR valve, but my vacuums are good. and i'm almost 100% positive it's fuel related. either that or my ecu for some reason is retarded. I need to replace the distributor cap and rotor to be safe honestly, but they seem to be okay.

It drives good after the start up, and it run's for a few minutes. The cold doesn't exactly help now either.. but you know how that works. Hope that helps!

Have you checked your oxygen sensor at all? That'll cause you to run lean if it's bad and you'll have poor acceleration.

Via voltmeter you mean?

That'll only tell you whether it's functioning but what you need to know is whether it's functioning properly or not. I'd go borrow a friend's o2 sensor and plug it into your car if you can find someone who'll let you and check if the problems persists. If not I'd go buy one from the auto store (assuming this is a ka24) plug it in run on it and see if it fixes your power issue. If not just make up some BS tell em it isn't fitting or something or that it isn't working and you want your money back cause you just got one from your friend. Or before you buy it get the persons name who's helping you and ask him whether it's okay to return it if it doesn't fix your problem.

yeah.. the 02 sensor on the car seems stable but it is twisted in a awkward way to where the wire might slightly be coming out of the sensor itself.

It doesn't do it as bad now that it's starting to warm up outside.. but it still seems to lack power and acceleration during the first initial start up of the day.

I am using clear fuel filter's from Autozone to try and clean up my fuel system a bit, and so far in the last month or two i've been through two already. When i changed the fuel pump i checked the gas tank and it looked clean.. but i guess i should just drop it and clean it. -.-

thanks for reminding me to check mine when i swap out the fuel pump.

Yeah man you definitely should, learn from my mistake lol. oh and btw guys, i picked up a legit set of rota grids last week xD

Hey do you wanna sell your 1995 Nissan 240 S13 gas tank????