Yeah I’ve got some rubber sheet I’ll put in when I’m finished with the tank. I’ve got it mocked up for now just to get the last crossmember in for the actual metal straps. This is not going to be the final way it sits when I drive it.
No I took these pictures today. It’s still a rust bucket. I’ll probably just wire brush the Cheeto rust off and spray oil when I’m done with the bed. We’ve got so many dusty roads it’ll make a protective layer with some oil underneath.
Officially this will be my 2nd woodgas truck, I don’t count the test drive I did in the 2011 Sierra because that gasifier melted down in just a couple miles.
THAT looks like might be about 15 gallon tank,or that is the minimum size I plan on getting on my Dakota final, no wood gas to my Dakota yet. I might have got 50 miles out of 4 gallons at best, I may need to put on a adjustable fuel regulator.
Sounds good, I heard of restorations, heating up heavy grease and use that for under coating, spray it on hot and when it cools it last longer than lighter oil, I plan on shooting oil up inside my Toyota frame since it is so thin metal. THOSE Chevy truck frame looks good and thick steel. THANKS for reply, I didn’t realize your other truck gasifier cooked up so fast. YOU should have much better skill experience on this truck, Good luck with your new build, much better frame to work with, them Dakota frames aren’t too thick either 1997 too 1999 anyway. Too much salt on the roads up here in my neck of the woods.
I think I spent 3 or 4 days long, with my little 4-1/4" grinder with cut off wheels, scrubbing all rust off my Toyota frame and a bunch of nice angle and thick wall 1-3/4 -2" pipe that was all sitting around about 20 years, Too build a light weight as possible flat bed. I may just drive this truck on gasoline, and leave place in flat bed to drop a gasifier in later.I like my battery milwaki for slow mone most of the time,I buy the 6 " cut off wheels and they last quite a while at about a buck a peice when I bought 50 packs.SEEM like a hot hot summer this year once it got here, cooled down a little today, its still 84 f in my trailer house, no AC used last 5 years or so though.
Ordered some hard line for the return and to bridge the gap for my vapor and feed lines. I’m gonna try out a clicky clacky low pressure pump to see how it performs. Have two so if they end up dying I’ll at least have a spare. I’m going to block off the mechanical pump but not going to throw it away. Might even leave it in the truck as my backup to the backup.
My experience with those external electric fuel pumps. The have to be mounted below the tank or they will run dry and burn up. May be different now but the they tend to over pressure the carb without a pressure regulator. Could be an issue with the small carb you are using. At any rate I would leave the mechanical pump in place.
I have a pressure regulator in place already to knock it down to below 2 PSI from the 7 the mechanical one makes at idle.
My only issue is one I had with the Mazda as well, every fuel cutoff solenoid I’ve tried fails within just a few months. They either quit working or start leaking real bad.
I know the mechanical one would be better simply because the fuel would already be at the engine, so I’d be back on guzzoline real quick. I’m just not satisfied with the ways to cut them off. Maybe I should just let the truck idle on gasoline the whole time and see what my consumption is like. With the return line put in place either way at least I won’t have to worry about vapor lock. Thunderhead289 had a way to do a return with a deadhead regulator using a barbed Tee. I’ll mount my fuel pressure gauge after the Tee so I can adjust the regulator accordingly to account for the tee bleeding off pressure.
He was doing this with an electric set to deadhead so I don’t know how my mechanical will react to it.
What TOM said,I might try lowering my external fuel pump, because ever time I restart after sitting a while, I have to turn key off and back on about 3 times , before the fuel pump pressure is high enough to restart, On my dodge the fuel pump is timed to run few seconds when key is turned on, and then shuts of regardless of fuel pressure, Lowering fuel pump might fix the reprime the line pressure ever time it sets a while.I see no leaks otherwise.
Planning to do some boring TLC stuff to the truck. Adding/repairing ground wires and straps. There’s only one or two little bitty straps grounding the body to the frame. With how rusted the frame is I don’t trust the single ground strap coming out the back of the cab to the frame. That ground I think is a bit dubious anyways since it’s from the Engine to Body, then Body to Frame.
Going to run a ground strap to each channel of the frame from the battery directly. All the old straps I’ll pull off, sand, then dielectric grease them before tightening back down.
After adding and fixing grounds I’ll test my tail light wires again, and if they’re still misbehaving I’ll rewire with the trailer hookup kit. I got the ugly square trailer light kit because it has everything plus side markers and it was the cheapest full kit. As long as it doesn’t rapid blink due to being LEDs and people can see me stop and turn I don’t care if it’s ugly.
Okay going to try this out before going to an electric pump. Local parts store has a 3 line mechanical pump in stock, this could simplify my guzzoline plumbing significantly by just having the deadhead regulator close to the carb and the cutoff solenoid as well. Also means my return line will be the stock length, glad about that.
I should probably get some brass pipe and just hard connect my pressure gauge, regulator, and cutoff solenoid into one rail. I want to eliminate as much rubber line as possible.
I have heard that copper, including maybe brass, messes with gasoline, causing the gas to break down, and the copper to corrode. I have also seen very old systems that seem to have worked for decades. No doubt the truth is online, if only you can identify it .
I’ll keep that in mind, luckily the hard line I ordered is aluminum and I don’t think that reacts with pump gas. Not too sure. This truck will always have MMO mixed gasoline mostly to keep the lines and pump clean. Helps I’m starting over with a fresh clean tank. As long as I don’t let water get in the gas tank I should be fine. Another reason to keep my vapor canister in place.
I might spring for stainless pipe nipples though for those bits.
If it gets water in it, it will react. Ethanol will also react with Aluminum and other soft metals like copper, brass, zinc and lead. It is actually easier just to use stainless and call it a day especially since most gas has some in it already.
Yeah I looked into it before I ordered it. Stainless is hard to flare for a hose connection with my cheapo tools but most stock fuel hoses nowadays come with aluminum lines. Since I have a sealed gas tank and a charcoal canister I should be fine as long as I don’t accidentally add from a gas can I left outside and got rained on. Gas cap for the fuel neck is also sealed.
If the old steel lines that I’m connecting the aluminum lines to rot I’ll probably change it all out for AN6 and AN4 lines and never worry about it again. I used AN6 for my transmission cooler lines running from the transmission to the radiator and I highly recommend them over rubber lines.
They make all sorts of ends for AN line so you can make them go on flared fittings, compression fittings, barbed ends, etc and they’re very flexible within reason.
Alrighty! Got the tank in there, final crossmember added was some real hard to drill through bed frame angle iron. Burned up a step bit trying to drill it out. Added rubber sheet under the straps and any other point of contact. This is some kind of tire rubber feeling material that looks like it’s made out of shredded recycled rubber. They lay it down in shipping containers so the pallets don’t slide around. I’ve got yards and yards of it.
Hooked up a clicky clacky pump to the old tank to fill up the new tank. Now I have a mostly empty tank to remove.
Made up my own fuel lines, and using a double flaring tool I made bubble flares on the ends. To do that you just start like you’re making a flare but stop 1/3rd of the way to when the end starts curling inside a bit. Lots of YouTube videos on how to do that. If I had a hydraulic flaring tool I could have done Stainless lines but whatever. If I was going to do stainless I’d have replaced the whole line, and if I have to do this again I’m using AN6 and AN4 lines.
On any spots where the aluminum line could rub I put some old fuel hose over it.
I like them double flare for brake line, its cheaper to make our own lines, less adaptors needed too. I can’t remember making a bubble flare, though I know they are different. I got my fuel tank back near the back of the rear end and back bumper area too.That keeps it a little more distance from the burn tube. Could bolt a aluminum sheet over the top and down on end nearest the fuel hopper, just in case hopper flash back while door lid to hopper is open. I use braided fuel lines, on top of fuel tank.so its more heat or burn proof.
This walker muffler I got is actually a little too quiet, and I think it’s too restrictive for the tiny carburetor I have on the 350. I’ve got what looks like an old Cherry Bomb glasspack that’s wore out and I could cut the inner pipe out and convert it to a tractor muffler.
I already have a short resonator hooked up but all that does is get rid of the drone. I’m doing a single side pipe right after the cab so it’ll be too loud to tolerate on longer drives.
Took off the muffler and added in my elbow and downturn tailpipe. It ends about a foot behind the cab. Honestly it’s not that loud with just that few more feet of exhaust in place. I’ll leave it as is for now.
Cleaned up some of my body and frame grounds and tested out the factory tail light harness. It finally gives good voltages to my test light! Added dielectric grease to all the grounds. Quickly tested my blinkers and it doesn’t have the fast blink, so I guess my front signal lights are in series to the tail lights and those bulbs add enough resistance.
Also got the old tank removed, and added a Wix metal fuel filter. One thing I’ll be glad about this flat bed is I’ll be able to work on the plumbing without dropping this big tank. I might look for some sturdy plastic to protect the top and maybe the bottom as a kind of skid plate.
Had to remove the whole mounting system to drop the old tank, glad I siphoned all the gas out. I’d hate to find out what 15 gallons of gas feels like hitting my pelvis.
Tank is in decent shape inside and out, giving it to a friend.
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