Big ol' gastank leakage...

Hit up some trails tonight and smelled a noxious amount of gasoline and i put $10 in the tank it it was gone after only a few miles, and its notsitting out front of a conveinence store. Its a 96' XJ with the 2.5L 4cyl.....

I was wondering if i could swap in a whole new fuel pump setup with new O-rings and seals from an 89' XJ with a 4.0L 6 cyl.? (a frienmd of mine just got hers totalled and I was going to borrow some parts)


ANd

WHat are some common leakage problems? I searched threads but most were for older trucks than mine, none for the '96 model, or the 98+ models...

Nernballs said:

I was wondering if i could swap in a whole new fuel pump setup with new O-rings and seals from an 89' XJ with a 4.0L 6 cyl.? (a frienmd of mine just got hers totalled and I was going to borrow some parts)

ANd

WHat are some common leakage problems?

Click to expand...

Are you talking about just swapping gas tanks? OR doing a partial swap of the fuel injection system?

If you suffered a gas leak after driving on a trail, and partially filling the tank and it leaked again quickly, I'd suspect that you hit the tank and tore the metal tank open or poked a hole in it. All the connections to the tank, that could be pulled off and cause a leak, are at the top of the tank, and thus would only leak when the tank is full.

Inspect the tank and confirm that the tank is ruined by being torn open or a hole poked in it, and its not a filler tube that was pulled off the side of the tank.

You just need a gas tank replacement, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the gas tank from a '89 should be compatible with a '96, just swap the tanks from your friends wrecked XJ.

Swapping fuel pumps? Why? Once you have the tank out, its 5 minutes to swap the fuel pumps, keep your own fuel pump. The connectors are most likely not compatible between the years, so you'll have to improvise a lot of splices to get the older fuel pump to match up to your system.

You do know that a fuel pump upgrade will NOT get you any extra performance, right? The PCM measures the A/F ratio and adjusts the injectors to get the right amount of fuel, adding fuel pressure or volume will do nothing, the PCM will adjust for the changes with the injectors to put it back to normal. Only if you've modded the motor so much, that you run out of fuel volume, then a bigger fuel pump will help, a bigger fuel pump in itself will not give you anything.

If its a case of you thinking the '89 Fuel Pump may be more reliable or have longer life left in it; you'll most likely have to improvise splices in the wiring and fuel lines, which would offset any gain in reliability or lifespan, IMHO.

Just a little info to pass on... a friend hit a speed bump with his S-10 and the tank sprung a leak under the plastic gaurd. rust ate through and the impact cause a B-B sized hole. Cleaned the area after draining the fuel to a non-leaking level and used a product called SEAL-ALL. It's waterproof as well as oil and gas proof. The tank began to leak in another area that was cleaned and not noticed untill the fuel level reached it. Not wanting to drain more fuel I attempted to do a WET patch on the new hole and what do yuo know, no leak. That was over 8 months ago and still holdind up. I keep a tube with me all the time.