Strange material found in bottom of fuel tank - any ideas

[julesandtash]

I had to pull out the electric lift pump from the RangeRover's fuel tank yesterday as it had pretty much failed. The motor was just about running but shuddering, slowing down, speeding up and the like.
When I pullled it out, I found the intake strainer, and bottom of the swirl pot covered with this stuff.....



It is quite fibrous rather than a bacterial jelly and doesn't melt between the fingers.

I am waiting for a new fuel pump to turn up (should be tomorrow) but, as it is a suck through pump, the IP is happily pulling fuel through it now and everything is running better.

So, does anybody have any idea what it could be and how it got there.

My only guess is that whilst all my fuel is 1 micron cold filtered to the nozzle, when I go on long trips I take some fuel with me in plastic drums. Maybe some contamination has come from one of those which I did not notice.

To be honest though, the last time it was refuelled from cans was around august last year.

[Rotary-Motion]

is the tank metal?

[julesandtash]

Nope - tis plastic

[Rotary-Motion]

just i seen this sort of mush form on metal surfaces in my fuel tank, mine too was plastic but the sender unit had metal on it, which this stuff formed on

i wonder if its part winter ie: cold spells and minus temps aided this too?

to add i also seen this in other vehicles pics via the vod site

[Tony]

Seen fibrous mush like that trapped in the IP overflow restriction (on my pump it has a gauze in).  I think it might be polymerised oils, from being bashed about with oxygen in the tank.

[julesandtash]

It actually looks like it was a small piece of fibreglass / rockwall insulation!!!

Here it is after being washed in IPA and allowed to dry a bit



I wonder how long that has been floating around in there

[Julian]

Could it be exactly that, glass.

Has the bio been in contact with any glass filled plastic where it mat have dissolved the plastic leaving the fibres behind?

[Tony]

Nice!  You trying to keep your bio warm in winter by insulating it?

Couldn't be part of a filter element could it?

[Rotary-Motion]

could be where previous owner used p40 to fill a hole in the fuel tank and the bio has eaten into it?

[nathanrobo]

Could it be part of a sediment filter element?

[Jamesrl]

I reckon it's down to  Orange Vimto's grandson, nasty man taking Granddads car, I'll show 'im, poke poke and in goes the Rockwool.

[julesandtash]

I can picture that now - shoving little fluffy balls down the filler neck.

Today I completely drained and swabbed out the fuel tank, blew through the fuel lines with compressed air, changed the filter and fitted a brand new in-tank pump. Bit of a full fuel system service really (except the IP of course)

There was all sorts of stuff in the bottom of the tank. A few blades of grass (I think), a little bit more rock wool, a small ball bearing and a small fragment of un-identified solid white plastic.

The tank is now perfectly clean and refilled with cold 1um filtered bio. New electric pump has new olives and nuts on it and is certainly running properly as it filled an empty filter and cleared all the air in less than 20 seconds

On a test drive afterwards it went like stink - much better all round.

[Jamesrl]

There was all sorts of stuff in the bottom of the tank. A few blades of grass (I think), a little bit more rock wool, a small ball bearing and a small fragment of un-identified solid white plastic.

Maybe some one was engaged in a hate campaign against a previous owner.

[Rotary-Motion]

maybe just a family man, kids ah gotta luv um ah...

 

[BlueRose]

Did any of you, Whit this problems in tank, mix BioDiesel with Diesel inside car tank?