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First of all, everyone seems to agree that a cheap clear in line filter is fine. This should be installed before your fuel pump in the engine compartment.
If your tank is reaally cruddy inside, then you probably have a partially plugged screen on the outlet nipple of the tank too. I have had mune out several times and have had it repaired so here's my 2 cents worth.
First, run the car as low on fuel as you can. Now unscrew the bolts on the fuel sender on the top of the tank, unplug it, and carefully slide it out the top. Keep a rag or two handy as some fuel will drip as you remove it.
Take a flashlight and peer around in there. It probably looks like crud in there, with lots of debris. My old tank had no less than 5 QUARTS of loose crud in it when I trashed it. ( I wish I were exaggerating)
If its cruddy, and it probably is, you have a couple options. First, add an external filter between the tank and the solid fuel line where it enters the front tunnel of the car. this, along with the one in the rear, should protect your motor and your solid lines from plugging up.
More agressive would be to drain the tank by removing the plug on the bottom and running the fuel into a bucket. Pull all the plugs and the fuel outlet. The outlet should have a metal screen on it to prevent debris from leaving the tank. If its missing, you should replace it. Now, with the front of the car elevated slightly, try running a bit of clean fuel in the top and see what happens. If it pushes a large amount of debris to the holes in the back that won't flush out, then you should probably clean the tank.
The empty tank comes out with 3 allen head screws and a little prying to get it loose from the seal. Once removed, you could take it to a radiator shop and have it boiled out. Keep in mind that this will clean everything out of the inside and will loosen most of the outer coating on the tank also. If it has any pin hole leaks, they can take care of it at that point.
Now you have two options. Treat the inside of the tank or leave it bare. Treating it with POR 15 is the generally accepted way to do it but be sure to read the directions very carefully and follow them exactly. If you do, then it will be fixed forever. If you don't, you have big problems.
Personally, I chose to do what is generally decribed as the incorrect approach. (This is often the case with me- ask Troy) I had the radiator shop boil it out in the acid tank and fix the pin holes along the front seam. I then took aircraft stripper and cleaned all the goo off the outside of the tank, cleaned, primed, and painted with black Krylon spary paint.
> The Radiator shop assured me that if I did this, that should I ever have future issues with a hole or crud, they could easily clean it and can patch just about any size hole that came around.
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