Drain the Sediment Bulb ... Regularly!

[A Whiteman]

Yep, I never bothered with an annual drain (or more often).

But, Albert would not start.

I traced this back to no fuel in the carb bowl, then no fuel coming out the fuel line, then no fuel coming out the sediment bulb ….

The tank is easy to pull so I took it out and stripped down the sediment bowl, to find it full of water and thick green algae like scum!

The scum had blocked the valve to the tank and the drain cock and the sediment screen completely - that was why there was no fuel.

I was amazed by how algae grows in the dark, oxygen less environment like that.

Moral of the story - drain your sediment bowls when parking up for a while

[Kaiser]

The green stuff is not algae, its bacteria that grow in the water ethanol mix in that crappy modern gas of today

[rosenkranswa]

For years Dad's '26 T would regularly sputter to a halt. He would get out, disconnect the fuel line and use his handy-Dandy fuel line cleaner (a broom straw) to break up a rust clog, put it all back together, and motor on. At some point, a previous owner had cobbled together a Model A type clear glass sediment bowl and several elbows in the line. The sediment bowl was always clean, but fine rust particles would collect in the elbows. One weekend when I was visiting (he lived in Denver, I live in Philadelphia), I pulled the whole contraption out of there and replaced it with a proper Model T sediment bowl and proper fuel line, then pulled and cleaned the carburetor.

I showed him how to clean the sediment bowl which I suggested he might want to check and clean-out before he drove anywhere since the tank was evidently rusting. Shortly after that we agreed to bring the Model T to PA since he was getting to where he couldn't enjoy it anymore, he passed a couple months later.

For about a year, a would check the sediment bowl and clean the filter every couple of drives, and it was pretty full of fine rust particles. I found and bought a gas tank assuming I was going to have to replace it at some point soon, but over the next several months the amount of rust caught by the filer slowed down to the point now that there's virtually none. Not sure what changed, and I still have the tank on the shelf ready to go.

[A Whiteman]

The green stuff is not algae, its bacteria that grow in the water ethanol mix in that crappy modern gas of today

Hi Leo, we do not use alcohol/ ethanol in our fuel in New Zealand yet (- thanks goodness), but I am not a biologist so what looked like algae, could be bacteria.

Cheers