I have a very stuck fuel pump in a TA thats been sitting since 97 and I've been told to use lacquer thinner to cut through the gunk, because gas and fuel injector cleaner don't seem to be working. My question now is, how exactly? Should I dilute the thinner? Should I take the (aprox. 4 gallons of) gas out of the tank first? Is the lacquer thinner going to eat through any plastic parts in the tank, lines, pump, etc?
Thanks

 

I just dump a gallon of it in and let it sit... if it can get through the lines at all, run the motor a little, let it get all in the system, and dissolve stuff throughout. It's actually a fairly high-octane fuel.

 

Quite a few years back, I had my Z at the body shop for some repairs.
When they finished with it; they, for some reason, left it idling and forgot abt it.
When I showed up to pick-up my car, it had run out of gas, and batt was dead.
The guy poured 2 gallons of laquer thinner in the tank and we jumped it.
It made it to the gas station, but wasn't running very well.
After a fill-up it was fine.
Didn't have any long term issues with it.

 

so wait.... are you saying that if a fuel pump is running like crap (due to some clogging) all i gota do is pour some laquer thiner in the tank, turn the pump on, and let it clean itself? does it disolve rubber hose particles? (due to some syphoning )

 

come on, it was a valid question wasnt it? i realllllly wana know if i can remove these rubber hose shaveings without removeing the tank

 

I have no idea... never tried it for that purpose. But it won't hurt anything, and might help not only that but the general state of the fuel system, so you might as well try it.

 

what if it hurts the fuel line, or the fuel pump o-rings and gaskets? i have no idea what laquer thiner can do, and what it can and cant disolve

 

Everyone I've taked to has assured me that lacquer thinner will not hurt any part of the fuel system. It's just like washing injectors, etc. with gas.
However...on my car, it didn't help, at least not yet. It probably just can't get through the years of gunk in there, so we've given up and will be replacing the (good but stuck) fuel pump after all.

 

I've looked at quite a few solvents and cleaning products and haven't seen any that will dissolve a "rubber" part completely. The best single solvent I've seen for cleaning injector and other deposits is straight toluene (or xylene). They won't hurt anything in the fuel lines and you can add as much as you like. You can find them in hardware stores or where auto paints are sold. It runs about $8/gallon around here.

 

I've looked at quite a few solvents and cleaning products and haven't seen any that will dissolve a "rubber" part completely. Lacquer thinner is actually not a very strong solvent. The best single solvent I've seen for cleaning injector and other deposits is straight toluene (or xylene). They won't hurt anything in the fuel lines and you can add as much as you like. You can find them in hardware stores or where auto paints are sold. It runs about $8/gallon around here.

 

Read the label. Toluene is the single largest chemical component of most lacquer thinner... along with various ketones, usually methyl ethyl ketone or methyl isobutyl ketone or acetone, and alcohols sometimes, usually either methanol or ethanol. Xylene is a much less active solvent for anything I've ever used it for; it won't eat cured paint at near the rate that ketones and toluene will, for example.

 

I would expect ketones to be harder on paint than toluene, but we're talking about stuff in the gas tank here. For that kind of petroleum crud, toluene and xylene are MUCH better than ketones, alcohols, or mineral spirits. I've done plenty of lab work with these solvents, I'm sure of what I'm saying. Also, I've seen lacquer thinners with absolutely no toluene or xylene in them. Maybe they were environmentally safer or something. In fact I may have a couple old cans around I could get the ingredient list from. They were from Dow Chemicals and were probably more "industrial strength" than the stuff you find at the hardware stores. They were no good at dissolving heavy gasoline residues in my tests.

 

assuming your talking about an electric in tank pump being stuck, i woul say the most likely cause is moisture that corroded the pump. You might as well just replace it, a towing bill will quickly offset the cost of a new pump any how, i'd opt for peace of mind.

 

Most laquer thinner is now mostly methanol, acetone and methel ethel keytones. This will all eat your fuel system.
They will not free up a stuck fuel pump.

Your looking for more trouble than it's worth.

 

I guess you're not old enough to remember trichloroethylene 1,1,1, carbon tetrachloride, or hexane. Depending on the rubber compound, they would last two minutes to maybe a month.

And methanol may not damage soem of the rubber, but it will erode the brass parts in short order.

MEK will eat almost any paint after time.

You have to be careful with some of those "quick and easy" chemical fixes, or you could be in for a lot of repair work.

 

I'm familiar with the solvents you mentioned but not with their use in cars and around gasket materials, or at least around non-compatable gasket materials. I agree there are things that will disssolve rubber and other parts. The solvents and cleaners I've compared were specific to cleaning fuel lines and injectors. I meant that I've seen nothing safe for the fuel system which was strong enough to destroy gaskets. Using a product like that would create more problems than it would fix.

 

To remove the "varnish" from gasoline residue try Zippo lighter fluid (contains naptha). This works very well and has little effect on rubber parts.

 

There are a couple solvents I looked at that say right on the can they'll soften or dissolve rubber and plastic, and I think MEK is one of them. The lacquer thinner I have is mostly touline and xylene, which are both listed as medium strenght solvents, and lacquer thinner is high strength (according to the harware store). I made napthaline in a chemestry lab once, and it was some pretty volitile stuff, and I would hesitate to leave it in contact with anything plastic, but thats purely personal opinion (and I'm not a chemist).

And for everyone who is saying to just replace the pump, I gotta clear this up...I probably will replace the pump, and I'm not looking for a quick or cheap fix (this is my car we're talking about, I'm gonna do it right), I'm looking for a temporary fix. If I canget the car to start and run for a few minutes even, I can look at the water pump, radiator, etc etc which are so much easier to check if you canm watch them work. Also, the car is in my yard, behind the house, on a hill. I can push it into the garage I'm sure, but I'd love it if I could drive it in when it comes down to replacing the fuel pump, which will probably be a royal pain in the ace, even in the garage. And the pump does return a current, so i know it's getting power, and if I can loosen it enough to start with 9$ worth of lacquer thinner, that would be greatly helpful.

 

how about just vibrating the tank with power on the pump. Try a big rubber mallet get a buddy to smack the tank and cycle the key. if it just starts to spin it will probably loosen itself.

 

When in doubt use brute force

 

I guess we may as well try it. If I can't get it started I'll have to bribe some of my stronger friends to come over and help me get it into the garage, might as well get one of them to beat on the tank first.