what do you guys think of the plastic gas tanks, mine is leaking and I can't decide between metal and plastic.

any thoughts??

 

Another thought. I know that some exhaust shops wont run duals if you have a plastic tank. At least around here in IL..

 

dodge pickups had plastic tanks in the mid 80's already. yes dodge was an innovater then, hard to believe. as their 72-93 style well...was behind the times in most other ways. as long as you have a guard to stop the stone wash from wearing through them they'll last a long long time

 

I bought a plastic tank for my 73 F100 and I couldn't get the emmission grommet to seal correctly in the top of the tank. I then bought a metal tank and had no problems with the grommet. The problem with the plastic tank was that the grommet was not made for the thicker plastic material which is almost twice as thick as that area on the metal tank. This kept the grommet from sealing correctly.

 

WOH! I just had duals run, I better go see how much room is in between those pipes and the tank.

How much room minimum would you all recommend I need to keep a plastic tank safe??

 

I had duals run on my '83 a few years ago & they wouldn't run them anywhere close to the plastic gas tank...........most of the way the 2 pipes were down the same side.......

 

My 1978 f250 4x4 has the factory dual tank option. It's got the standard steel tank in the back (which leaks badly and will eventually be replaced). And it's got the midship tank. It's made out of a thick plastic and is encased by a steel cradle. I have not had any problems with it other than the steel cradle rusting away. Here recently it started leaking from around the fuel sending unit so I took it down to replace it. After getting it down I decided to fab up a new steel cradle for it, since the original one was rusting away...

It's all finished and put up now. It's much thicker and stronger than the original cradle. I plan on coating it with something rubbery soon to help rustproof it. No leaks except from around the filler tube when I fill up... I need to replace that anyway.

A couple years back I had dual exhaust installed on my truck. He ran two glass packs side by side through the area where the original muffler went, which has a shield around it to protect it from the driveshaft and the gas tank is on the other side of the driveshaft. I'm not worried at all about the heat making it's way over to the plastic gas tank... However, the pipes do run a little close to the rear standard tank...