Fuel tank and lines - safety first

From day one of van ownership, I'd known that there was an issue of some sort with the fuel tank - if you've read this blog from day one you will have heard about my petrol station issues after collection.

Much research had led me to conclude one thing above everything else - if you don't know the history of your van in detail, replace the fuel lines as soon as you can. Over time the fuel lines can develop holes, leading to leaking fuel. This can cause nasty engine bay fires that at best burn out your beloved van.. at worst could kill you. I decided that heeding this advice was wise and that the best time to replace the pipes was whilst sorting out the fuel tank issues.

Once again, I started to prepare for this by reading the Haynes Manual which details the fuel system and tank layout pretty well.

I decided to draw a simple layout of the system in my van for future reference:

The T3 van has a slightly odd set up for fuel storage. The tank itself has a U-shaped profile, so has a valley up the middle, but a single 'chamber'. As you fill the tank, the void space fills with fuel - but the air has to come out somewhere. For this reason there are breather pipes at the top of each void, connected to each other and to two expansion tanks that live in the wheel arches.

On my van, the drivers side breather pipe had detached from the tank (but was still attached to the expansion tank). This meant that when filling with fuel there was an open hole in the top of the offside raised part of the tank - which is lower than the filler neck - so fuel poured out of there.

These tanks do rust in the 'valley' as it is a water trap, so I felt it was a good idea to remove the tank, replace all of the rubber grommets and fuel lines, paint the tank and reinstall.