Fuel leaking from short vent at tank

[Jeff Barschel]

Filled the car for the winter and got an oil change, when parked at home (pretty flat, just the rake to the front from suspension) noticed a gas smell, a large puddle forming from the short (J) vent near the tank. I have seen numerous threads on this issue. It was a warm day, but not hot.

My question is, would a vented non-surge gas cap solve this problem? A few posted this as a potential solution, but would going to a vented cap cause any other problems? The gist I get is the potential for leaking from the cap (which the non-surge valve should prevent). Would be a pretty inexpensive thing to try.

Any advice?

Thanks!

 

[Dennis H]

What changed. New problem? Vent tube routing should go high to near shelf level.

 

[moparnation74]

Check your vent line......Make sure it is in the correct position.

 

[Jeff Barschel]

The only thing that has changed was adding the short vent tube (at the front of the tank).

Initially no vents were connected, they replaced the tank and left them capped. This caused a pretty bad vacuum any time you drove it. Last year only had the long vent (one that goes up into the trunk). This year installed the short vent (j tube - that I got from the guy I bought the car from) that goes up by the frame rail. It hadn't leaked after I connected the long vent. It just started leaking now out of the short vent. I had hooked them up according to the shop manual, but I had read in other posts that some repop tanks have the vent lines reversed so will try that too.

 

[bm02tj]

How full did you fill it
How far from station are you
Is this parked in heated garage
Full short distance and hot garage normal expansion of a liquid
or ????

 

[kiwigtx]

Sounds like one of those vent lines or tubes are blocked.

 

[moparnation74]

The only thing that has changed was adding the short vent tube (at the front of the tank).

Initially no vents were connected, they replaced the tank and left them capped. This caused a pretty bad vacuum any time you drove it. Last year only had the long vent (one that goes up into the trunk). This year installed the short vent (j tube - that I got from the guy I bought the car from) that goes up by the frame rail. It hadn't leaked after I connected the long vent. It just started leaking now out of the short vent. I had hooked them up according to the shop manual, but I had read in other posts that some repop tanks have the vent lines reversed so will try that too.

It is either reversed or a line is blocked......

 

[69hemibeep]

With a full tank you probably have gas in the long vent. Or they are reversed. I would run it low on gas and add Stabil for storage myself.

 

[WileE]

I'd blow out the lines and check if they're correctly hooked up first.

 

[Bill Monk]

It is either reversed or a line is blocked......

Agreed, a lot of the repop tanks had the internal lines reversed. The short tube outside should attach to the long tube inside and the line going into the trunk should attach to the short internal tube. Trouble is that you can't tell without taking either the filler tube or the sending unit out. I guess you could reverse the connections you have (blow them out while you are at it to rule out blockage) and if it doesn't leak.....there you go

 

[Jeff Barschel]

Thanks guys for the information. It's supposed to warm up next week so I will try reversing the lines and see if it leaks when it's warm outside. I think I may also try an anti-surge vented gas cap ( i posed the question to the Stant website and their response was that it should solve the problem and not cause any other problems). It would be a cheap thing to try.