I've had some questions about the inside of the original fuel tank that I pulled from the car not long after I got it so took some pictures of the baffles and inside the tank from several positions holding the camera and rotating it.

Once I did that I wondered how it compared to 2 other new tanks that I have as well so did the same with each and found some interesting differences.

With that in mind I searched here and found quite a few fuel tank threads and some had pictures while others they no longer show so figured I would start a fresh thread about the tanks internal structures so feel free to add your own in tank pictures to this thread. Be sure and include the build date if you have it, if not the year and which engine your car came with.

I'm going to do a new post for each of the 3 tanks that I took pictures of today to start the thread off.

 

I'll start with the original tank from my Morrison Cook #98 Camaro. This car was built Feb of 88 and this tank was in the car April of 88 when the car won its first race at Sears Point and went through post race inspection based on the writing that I found on top when pulling it. You will notice it has the tall wall baffle in it.


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Sears Point 98 car.


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Tall wall baffle.


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Left of baffle.


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Tank has a baffle wall just a few inches from the end of the fill tube.


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More internal walls.


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The next tank is a brand new Spectre tank that I have.


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Spectre fuel tank.


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Part number.


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You'll see this one has a much larger fuel pump tray but lacks nearly all the internal walls that the factory tanks have and is mostly just a tank with a tray.


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Back of tray, no extra wall to the left and right.


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Picture rotated to the right, again no walling.


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Rotated opposite of the pump tray.


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Last is the JC Whitney tank. It is powder coated and looks much closer internally in regards to the extra slosh walls the factory tanks have plus a metal copy of the high wall pump baffle tray.


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JC Whitney tank.


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Gray powder coated out of the box.


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Part number on tank.


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Internal metal walls similar to the factory tank.


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Tall pump tray.


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Left of the pump tray.


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Secondary wall just a few inches past the end of the fill outlet.


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Right of the baffle.


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Opposite the pump tray.


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Rotated to the other side.


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Better pic of the pump tray.


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Metal baffling/slosh wall.


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I had posted this in another thread but this was the "sock" that had been used. Nothing close to the factory one and it had attachment that would have allowed it to have some movement.


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Interesting. Sorry if I missed it above....I assume that JCW tank is an item you have had for some time? The JCW name went away and became part of another online parts business, but now is back as Jeep accessories and a magazine? It's a twisted history.

 

I bought 2 of the JCW ones in 2022 off ebay and put one of them back in the car as the original tank I pulled was leaking between the 2 halves when I went to clean it. I just looked and the seller that had them still has them listed and shows they sold a couple hundred with more than 10 still available so not sure if its the same group with a new name or ? Item number is 372918301030 if you want to pull it up but they are showing them as JCW branded tanks. The other tank, the Spectre tank came with a GTA I picked up last year so guessing it is what their current one looks like as well.

 

Yeah I saw the JCW name and didn't know those were out there. Looks like you can still buy them. First thing I thought was catalogs when I saw that name.

 

The JC Whitney one is made in Taiwan so go with that one.

Everything Spectre I ever bought was Chinese garbage.

 

Used to be you couldnt wait to thumb through the latest JCW catalog and see all the neat stuff it had in it. Times sure have changed.

 

Agreed. I know some of the sheet metal I've used that was stamped in Taiwan was way better than its China counterparts.

 

I have the same gray tank. Same part number. Came as part of my aeromotive fuel pump/tank kit. The tank fit in my 82 well. The filler was an inch more forward than it should have been at the point of the fuel door. It took 30 seconds to bend it into the proper position. And it's been fine since. No issues otherwise. No fuel starvation issues at low levels of fuel.

 

Does the factory filler cap fit the filler neck on the JCW tank?

 

It does not fit and I haven't bought one but found this thread on caps.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...termarket.html

 

I had to use a different cap but my 82 used a different cap as it was metal like the older cars.

 

Based on this thread then the baffled tank was already in the cars prior to the 1LE options. Or was the 1LE baffled tank done different?
I'm sure someone on this site has had to replace their 1LE tank that could post some pictures.

 

There is a thread on here somplace showing some differences in early baffling and post 87-88. If i find it, I'll link to it.

 

A shame "reproduction" parts are rarely reproduced accurately.

As insignificant as a gas cap might seem, there will come a day when we're gone, and somebody else owns our cars. TGO may or may not exist, or the new owners aren't members or aren't familiar with the website. A tank has been replaced at some point in a car's past. A new owner loses a gas cap, buys one for his car's year, make and model, gets it home, it doesn't fit, and now he's screwed and has to go on a blind fishing expedition for a cap that will fit.

End of the world? No. PITA? Yes.

It shouldn't be difficult for manufacturers to just do it right. But somehow they can't or won't. And for something so simple.

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

That's a shame. I still have my factory cap, and it's a waste of nice surviving part to have to put it on the shelf because the repro tanks / necks were not formed as need.

Agreed. Seems like a nice tank otherwise.

 

Agree and I fight it almost daily on pretty much every reproduction part where there are some with just a slight difference and others with major differences. We had to do major panel surgery on my 69 Pace Car just to get the panels to fit, have good gaps and look correct.

 

It is my understanding that the pre 1LE coded cars had a short wall pump baffle and that the 1LE cars have the tall wall baffle like mine which at some point [91/92?] it became the standard tank. My car had it because it was a mule car having left the factory with the 1LE components but not a coded car in Feb 88 . I know other non LE cars that were raced in the Firestone Firehawk series got retrofitted with the tall wall tanks. GM offered us a tank for our Firehawk Series car in early 88 so there may be other cars that were raced that had replacement tanks. In talking with Mark on the Canadian Players cars he did pull the tank in his 88 Players and it had the short wall in it and then his 89 1LE has the tall wall one.

It would be interesting for others that have pulled their tanks to post their findings in this thread since it is current.

 

The pictures of the Chatim tank in this thread are from a Firestone Firehawk series car. Charley ran a 4 car team.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/hist...nk-baffle.html

 

Made a little progress this past weekend. I was able to install the new fuel pump on the new sending unit and install that into the new tank. Now here is where things took a turn. When it came time to install the new tank, I just couldn't get it in the car. The fuel neck just wouldn't go into the void that it was designed to be in. I jacked the car up more, lowered the axel a little more and still couldn't get it. I took closer look at the old tank and it looks like the filler neck is manufactured a little differently on the new tank. There is a bit more of bend in the old neck. Just to see if I was going crazy, I tried to install the old tank and it slipped right in there. The new tank neck is just every so slightly different.

Anyone have any tips of what I can do to get this thing installed? I have searched around and think I found some posts where folks where bending the new tank necks. But I wasn't sure how exactly they were doing that. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

"Spectra Premium fuel tanks are manufactured in Canada, with a significant portion of undercar parts, including fuel tanks, designed and manufactured in Boucherville, Quebec."
That's the latest search result when looking them up.

I can't comment on if there's a model other than their premium offering.
They also sell (or did sell) and baffled and unbaffled version. The extent of the baffling is also something I can't comment on.

EDIT: It may be that Spectra Premium and Spectra are two separate entities.

 

Interesting. I was just given a like-new gray tank from a buddy. I'll have to see if it might be a JCW tank.

As far as the Spectra tanks, they are good quality, but they seem to do their own cheesy design for baffling in GM tanks. It's not just the F-body tanks. Their baffling is often referred to as a "cake pan".

As a side note, I too, miss the old JC Whitney catalogs.