Clearing swarf from fuel tank

[xb-60]

Need advice....I'm about to drill a clearance hole plus add 5 tapped holes for the attachment of a fuel level sender in the tank of my PACE 289FIA.
Tank material is around 3mm thick, so a sizeable amount of swarf will drop into the tank (which isn't fitted yet).

What's the best and most effective way to clear the swarf from the inside of the tank?

Cheers,
Glen

[dave295]

hi
put grease around your drill bit.

The residue will stick to the grease.

KISS principle.


Dave

[BJ's Snake]

I attached a vacuum cleaner to the fill tube and sealed with tape, turned on while drilling, seemed to work.
Rock catcher filter will get the rest.

[deano59]

grease on the hole saw and drill bits then poked the vacuum cleaner hose in and then stuck the boroscope camera in for a look and it was as clean as a whistle..

[Treeve]

Regardless of how much you trust your grease to catch all the bits, and how much you trust your filter to trap any leftovers, how about giving it a bloody good flush with some thinners. It’ll only be good for cleaning paint brushes after that, but it’s better than stuffing a fuel pump / injector.

[Gaz64]

If the tank has had any fuel in it, DO NOT use a vacuum cleaner.

[xb-60]

Thanks for the advice so far.
New tank, so it's OK Gary, no residual fuel/vapors.
I'll use grease as suggested. The main hole dia. only needs to be around 32mm min. so will be hard to use a vacuum cleaner.
I'll rinse it out with thinners.
I'm assuming that I should use a thread locker on the attaching screws, as the flange of the unit will be about 40mm lower (in a recessed 'cup') than the top of the tank.
Is loctite threadlocker fuel proof? If not, what is?

Cheers,
Glen

[BJ's Snake]

Attach the vacuum to the filler tube, seal the inlet and outlet ports and drill away.
Use STAG paste to seal bolts and gaskets.

[Gaz64]

Loctite makes a fuel proof sealant, a bit of that on the threads will be leakproof.
It does not go off in the tube like other sealants.
I would also smear the sender gasket.
I have used this many times for successful leakproof vertical flanges on early Commodore etc.

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by BJ's Snake

Attach the vacuum to the filler tube, seal the inlet and outlet ports and drill away.
Use STAG paste to seal bolts and gaskets.

I can try that

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by Gaz64

Loctite makes a fuel proof sealant, a bit of that on the threads will be leakproof.
It does not go off in the tube like other sealants.
I would also smear the sender gasket.
I have used this many times for successful leakproof vertical flanges on early Commodore etc.

Is that Loctite 542, or is there a better one?

[Gaz64]

Originally Posted by xb-60

Is that Loctite 542, or is there a better one?

Glen,

I'll get the number of the product when I have a look for it in the shed tomorrow.

[David Hodgson]

How about using Metho to rinse - a lot cheaper than thinners so you can rinse 'till the cows come home. Also try tipping the tank to drill on the vertical or even somewhat inverted. Make gravity your friend.

[1795]

Glen,

If the tank is not in the car yet, would it be possible to place it on some saw horses upside down and drill from underneath using the above referenced suggestions? Seem like gravity might help with moving some of the debris downward rather then onto the bottom of the fuel tank.

Jim

[Rob. Smith]

Another method ... grease , lots on the saw. Also put a high flow air / blower into the tank to force the chips out whilst drilling.

[Treeve]

Yeah metho is fine instead of thinners. As long as it’s not water / anything else that will seriously mess with your fuel system (e.g. acetone in large quantities, washing up liquid, use your imagination for bad ideas). Hydrocarbons should be fine - especially if give time afterwards to evaporate off, so it doesn’t change your fuel quality much when you fill it.

[Gaz64]

Originally Posted by Gaz64

Glen,

I'll get the number of the product when I have a look for it in the shed tomorrow.

Hi Glen,

The product is Threebond 1104 NEO, resistant to heat, oil, gasoline, LPG.

Semi-drying elastomer.

Gary

[Beejay]

I ran a vacuum cleaner while drilling and then flushed about 6 times with petrol.

Worth the effort to save on problems later. I went through two 044 pumps on my ski boat due to swarf in my tank.

Ben

[Paintwerks]

Originally Posted by BJ's Snake

I attached a vacuum cleaner to the fill tube and sealed with tape, turned on while drilling, seemed to work.
Rock catcher filter will get the rest.

This is exactly what I did. Also, I oriented the tank vertically when drilling so the swarf would drop down toward the filler neck (and vacuum tube).

[xb-60]

Here's what I did:
Tilted the tank so that the swarf would drop into the corner of the tank.
Used a 25mm hole saw and a 32mm stepped drill bit to take it out to 32mm dia. (float OD is 32mm)
Marked out the positions of the five holes for the sender flange.
Drilled and tapped the holes.
Did not use grease as I thought it better not to have grease and swarf adhering to the inside of the tank.
Deburred the hole and opened it out slightly so that the float fitted through easily.
So, some swarf and filings inside the tank as well as the blank created by the hole saw, and also the pilot twist drill from the hole saw was loose and had dropped in as well
Attached a 300mm long stiff plastic tube to the nozzle on the vacuum cleaner and was quite easily able to retrieve the drill, the blank and all of the swarf. The compartment where the sender is fitted is reasonally small, so happy enough that I could see all corners/edges/lower surfaces of the tank and could vacuum all of the swarf out of the tank.

Fitted the sender and gasket, coating the surfaces and the screw threads with STAG jointing compound.

After the STAG goo had cured, used petrol to clean out the tank. Poured it out and filtered it to check for swarf. Repeated this procedure several times, and no swarf in the funnel filter. All good.

Now moving on to fitting the tank.

Thanks for all of the advice. Much appreciated.


Cheers,
Glen