The Datsun 240Z gas tank is often overlooked, and the hoses can be in sad shape. It is a good idea to drop the tank and inspect the hoses – especially if you are smelling gas in the car. Also, like I had, taking off the gas cap would be followed with a pretty powerful blast of gas fumes- something was not venting properly. Here is my experience restoring my Datsun 240Z fuel tank and associated hoses. I had the gas tank hot-tanked and epoxy coated and I replace all hoses with OEM-Like cloth braided tubing.
The gas tank was the only item I did not remove from the car during the restoration. In retrospect, it was a foolish oversight. Especially when one of the old vent hoses finally gave out, and I was a rolling BP oil spill. I decided to do it right, pull the tank, have it sealed on the inside, replace all the hoses.
The tank comes out easily it’s a lot of work, but not technically difficult. Remove the clamp from the gas filler neck to the tank, and remove all the vent and fuel lines you can reach. Use wooden blocks to support the tank as you remove the straps. Remove some of the wooden blocks, one at a time, to carefully lower the tank. Once it’s down 4-6 inches you should be able to reach the last two difficult to reach hoses. You will repeat this process in reverse to re-install the tank. It can be done solo, but an assistant would be nice.
The tank was in very good condition. A local radiator shop ‘hot tanked’ it and applied an epoxy-type sealer. Below is an image of the inside of the tank, before (left) and after (right) the protective coating. Since the tank was in great shape, the coating was not required, but I am operating from the position of “I never want to mess with this again. Ever.” I tried to get a photo from the same angle, but taking photos through the filler hole isn’t easy! In both photos, one of the baffles can be seen.
The tank itself was in sound shape. It had a good layer of undercoating on the bottom of the tank which had to be chiseled-off a bit at a time. Took a few hours. Wire wheel, flapper disk, and a lot of elbow grease and the outcome was very nice. I primed with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator (two coats) and finished with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black Satin (two coats).
The tank support straps were bead blasted to bare metal, primed with a two part epoxy primer and finished with the Extreme Chassis Black. The rubber isolation strips were in great shape, so they were carefully removed, washed, cleaned and re-used.
Plating Bare Metal
I was referred to a local plating house that will do small side-jobs of gold-colored-zinc-plating. The results were amazing and the parts look brand new. It is not exactly like old-fashioned (and poisonous) CAD plating. For what it’s worth, I also shot these with a clear coating.
The Hoses
Finding proper, OEM-Looking braided hoses was a bit of a chore. I found a VW place – California Pacific/JBugs Inc. – that had all the sizes, the black cloth braid on the outside and reasonable prices. Here’s what I ordered (the quantity is in feet):
| Code | Product | Quantity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| N203701 | HOSE, BREATHER 17X2 | 4 | $15.80 |
| N203741 | HOSE, FUEL 12X3.3 | 7 | $31.50 |
| N203551 | BRAIDED FUEL HOSE, 5X2.5 MM, PER FOOT, STANDARD | 2 | $4.50 |
| N203571 | FUEL HOSE, 7mm | 2 | $5.00 |
| N203761 | FUEL HOSE, 9mm | 5 | $10.00 |
This covered all the vent hoses (except one), and the fuel and fuel return lines. The one line that I purchased specifically was a braided vent line that had an important “horseshoe bend” already in it. This hose can be purchased from MSA
Pro Tip
See if you can score short pieces of different sized tubing and mark them for easy identification. This is the best way to see what size fits best on each fitting. I found it to be well worth the effort. Sort of like a set of ‘feeler gauges’, but for tubing.
If you have access to one, a transmission jack makes this task even easier, especially re-installation!
