Hi!
I haven't been writing for a while. So here's what happened in the past half a year:
- I had my fuel tank cleaned and painted from the inside and the outside. My aim was to properly clean an treat the inside of the tank, but during the work, it became clear that the outside needs some care too. As I had a very limited time frame for the work, I could do the inside, but on the outside, I couldn't have a "permanent" solution, but it will be ok for 2-3 years I guess. So, after detaching the tank, I first evaluated the damage. Some areas (mainly the sides) were quite rusty, but I think it was not a big problem. However, I found some tinkering unfortunately. The place where the fuel level sensor is attached (I dont know the proper word) was removed before, but when they put it back together, they drilled the holes to make them bigger (or I dont know), and they drilled also into the tank. Ad to get it sealed, they used some siloplast
- The way I found it
- 2014-03-15 09.43.51.jpg (1.45 MiB) Viewed 3712 times
. I also found a broken bit in the tank... Then, I roughly cleaned the outside with brush and sandpaper to remove the most of it . Afterwards I thoroughly cleaned, surface treated and painted the inside using POR-15 fuel tank repair kit. When it was finished, I applied some chemical rust removal on the outside, and then painted it to black. I bought some fuel resistant sealing material and applied it around the flange of the fuel level sensor (had no better idea). I attached some pictures to get a hint about the before&after situation. This work might seem tinkering too, but I'm just a beginner
- As I mentioned in earlier posts, my exhaust system had some problems too. My main dilemma was if I would stick with my thermal reactor system, or if I would replace it with something better. You all suggested me the second way, but I was not sure, so first I decided to get the back end of the system replaced some pipes, rear muffler). As it turned out, the old system was 95 % rust. When I saw it (before that, the heat shields covered all, so I couldnt have a look at it), I couldnt imagine how it could stay in one piece... With the replacement, the mechanic had done some welding to the holes on the front end system, but after a very few kilometers, I smelled the exhaust gas again indicating further holes. At the end, I decided to take your advice replacing the thermal reactor with a catalytic converter system. And here comes my new dilemma
I found three possible manifold solutions:
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/1980-80-Mazda-R ... 9d&vxp=mtr This is authentic and cheap, but used
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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 1565900987 This is the most tempting one, but the shipping cost from Australia to Hungary are frightening.
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/PACESETTER-1979 ... a0&vxp=mtr - good old Pacesetter
What do you think?
George
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