How to Clean Out T25 Petrol tank flakes of rust

[joyful]

Please see the recent Pierburg 2E3 thread for more info: my T25 has been, on and off, cutting out on tickover and also has problem on not picking up on throttle and stalling.

I think it might be flakes of rust in the petrol tank ( it is the oringinal tank, is rusty on the outside, the car has often been standing with a near empty for over a year at various times)

I have added some magnets to the bottom of the tank and have not had a problem since, so maybe this is the problem.

The rectangular tank has a sort of indented circular sump in the centre, ony say 20mm, where maybe crud can acumulate, but once you fill up or drive around presumably this all gets swilled around.

The exit is a narrow tube on an indented part at the back to get the lowest position, then there is an inline filter about 200mm down the fuel line.

Some questions:

1) Is there a prefilter inside the tank exit to stop large flakes, could this get blocked?

3) By taking off the fuel pipe at the tank exit is there anyway of cleaning the tank from the outside?

4) How can you clean the tank without removal? Can you put a sump pump down the filler tube and make a reasonable job of cleaning out any crud?

Any thoughts and tips much appreciated as always from the kind a nd helpful people on here.

[gtavalanche]

If its rusted inside then potentially it could be a small step away from leaking. Lifes to short. New tank is £100. A hard days labour and plenty of brews. For peace of mind I reckon its worth it.

[Smosh]

I'd be inclined to change the tank also.

[rob1927]

Hello, i had my tank off last year to give it a good clean and a paint up, on removal i peeked inside to find a load of tar like black sludge, i ended up replacing the tank for peace of mind, it was well rusty too so thought it the best way to go. It might be worth you doing the same.