Reply To: Two Line Gas Tank Seal and Gasket Replacement

[David Stanton]

Ethanol in the gas seems to be the main culprit that takes the coating off the cork. I’ve recoated with clear hot fuel proof model airplane “Dope” successfully, but some have had trouble making this stay on long term. Some have coated with superglue with good results.

I replaced a cork float once with one from a wine bottle, and that went on fairly easy, but someone told me I didn’t need to coat it so I didn’t and after a while it sunk. We had a discussion here a while back and found not all wine corks are created equal – some are open-cell cork and some are closed cell cork, which is preferred, but how do you know which you have?….and some that look a lot like cork are actually a manmade polymer, and I would not trust that to hold up in gasoline.

There may be an opportunity here for someone to start manufacturing sealed cylindrical brass floats like were used for gas gauges in cars back in the 1950’s. Maybe someone can 3D print a sealed float with a material that holds up in gas. Maybe an ABS plastic? I know Polycarbonate plastic will breakdown in gas. My son got a 3D printer recently – I’ll have to take a tank apart when the weather warms up and see if he can make a float that works. Would have to figure out how to attach it to the wire – maybe some detail could be molded onto the float for the wire to snap into.
Dave