I Wikipedia it and my model year is a B body, correct? I am looking for a good used fuel tank on kijiji and I want to be sure I am looking for the correct part. Can you give me a couple other common options that are " parts- swap-able " between models so I can widen my search? Thanks
You need to double check with Hollanders, but I believe all the wagons from 77 through 90, from Chevrolet (Biscayne, Bel Air, Impala, Caprice), Pontiac (Catalina, Bonneville, Laurentian, Parisienne), Buick Estate Wagon (LeSabre, Electra) and Oldsmobile (Custom Cruiser). Some of those are Canadian Market only models, but the tanks are the same.
Make sure that the used tank is original equipment and not a used, aftermarket tank. When I put a replacement tank in my '81 Parisienne, my gas gauge stopped working. After two replacement fuel senders, the mechanic called the tank manufacturer. It turned out that GM had placed baffles inside the tank to stop the fuel from sloshing around quite so much so that the gauge doesn't float up and down. Because the original manufacturer of the tanks patented the baffles, the aftermarket tank manufacturers don't put them in there. I was pretty much hosed and just had to live both with the gauge being slightly out of whack as well as having it bounce up and down with the motion of the car.
i would think the EFI cars had a different tank than the manual fuel pump cars. i know the B body sedans did. i use an 89 caprice tank in my 88 silverado TBI'ed 74 lesabre convertible. non-EFI tanks dont have the sump for the fuel pump and when you turn a corner or brake too hard with less than 3/8's of a tank of fuel the car will starve and die.
Cyber wizard, you reply was most informative. When the fuel drops below the most full point, it starts to bounce around so I suspect that the tank has already been replaced with an aftermarket one. For the price difference between an OEM one and aftermarket, I can live with a bouncing fuel gage.
Yuk raises a good point about the difference between an EFI car and a carbureted car. My experience with my '81 Pontiac may not apply to your car at all.
What's wrong with the fuel tank?? If you go to the Rockauto interactive catalog and look up a part then click on the part number it will show a list of the other cars that the part will also fit. http://www.rockauto.com/
Fuel tank is leaking, wet at the seams and leaving a puddle on the driveway. It MAY leak tho only when it is at a certain fill level, but it has never been below 3/4 tank since I have been driving it. Could be a bad fill neck.......
I don't understand why people always jump to conclusions and start replacing stuff before getting an accurate diagnosis. There are fuel lines on top of the tank that can leak. Some fill necks aren't part of the tank, but rather slide into a rubber gasket that can leak. Most leaks in the tank itself can be repaired by any radiator shop worth its salt. And if you take it somewhere, make sure the tank is almost empty so it doesn't take 6 men to drop it and slosh gas all over the shop floor.
There are also shops around that do tank repair and guaranty the repair for as long as you own the car. Friends had to do this to the tank on a 78 Newport, and the repaired tank went into another car when theirs finally died.
