Had a bad day at the track today, never got the car running right - kept going lean on me. I pulled the carb in the pits and took it apart to find brown slime in the bottom of the float bowls and sticking in the metering block passages. the best way to describe it is that it looks like the algea that grows on rocks in the bottom of a lake . . .

Its funny because I always get gas at the same station and they just changed from a BP to a Citgo. Wonder if I picked up sludge from tyhe bottom of their tanks or something.

Wo that's NASTY.
Never heard of anything like that :(

I knew algae grew in diesel but not gasoline but I suppose anything is possible, what with the Superfund site clean-ups the EPA does using heavi-duty, VOC eating bacteria and such!!

Kinda like salting the contaminated dirt with the bugs and letting them eat the stuff and convert it to CO2 and water sorta thing but I am sure it is way more complicated then this.

pdq67

Bummer, Eric. I don't have a clue what would cause that. Were you running at Martin? Nice track, but the cops get mad if you try watching from the freeway. (He-he) Good luck in 04.

Thanks Toby - no, I was up at MidMichigan for the GM M-8 event. I kind of sucked truth be known, the track was a little wet in the shut down area from all the rain Friday night so they were only letting us run the 1/8th mile :rolleyes:

I used to get that crud all the time in my Corvette. Pretty sure it is from water in the gas. The way a Vette gas tank is with the filler on the top, whenever it rained, I would get 1/2 gallon of water in the tank due to a bad filler gasket. The water would sit at the bottom of the tank for a week and rust it. Then the rusty water would mix with the gas and form this crud. Try pumping a pint or so of gas into a glass container to see if there is any water in it.

I agree with John (Kyvox), water in the gas. Time for the station to drain(pump) the tanks. I would suggest you do the same to your tank, I'm sure its contaminated. Bummer !!

Can't you just throw some drygas in the tank? Maybe that's not thorough enough.

Eric, I believe what you describe is a result of the seasonal change in the oxygenation of gasolines. Over the summer months a normal amount of deposits form in fuel systems. When the supplies do their seasonal chance over to the oxygenated gas( more alchohol) It washes some (or most) of the deposits away the end result is what you found in your carb. It is the notorious cause of seasonal driveability problems especially with fuel injected cars because of th micron rateings of their fuel filters. The older techs here will remember the old Dodge Omni/Holley Weber carbs with their seasonal Idle problems that were a pain in the @$$. Any way I say It will go away with a couple of tanks of fuel.

Milan

would a good dose of good quality fuel injector cleaner help to clean the goop out without affecting anything but the plugs?
that'd be easy and cheap
E

In all honesty, that crap should work its way out of there on its own, BUT, you may wish to speed up the prceedure by first draining your fuel tank, and then give the carb an overhaul. I find that sticky "dog lips" stuff in a lot of the small engines I work on, and it is mostly due to fuel oxidization (bad gas syndrome). Some stations that get poor business end up having a large surplus of old gas comes tanker-time, and therefore their fuel is not fresh; even after a tanker fillup. You will find this especially true where fuel prices have recently been heightened (most places these days), or where climate has changed suddenly (ex: snow storm)

When I was a kid, I worked with a friend on and off who serviced Exxon stations.

Never, ever get gas when you see a tanker delivering. The junk at the botton of the tank gets lifted up and delivered directly to your car.

Rick.

That crude is very common in marine fuels for all the obvious reasons.
It can cause major problems in the newer injected motors.
I run Water Seperators on our power boats to keep that $hit out of the injectors and carbs. You wouldn't believe the stuff I drain out of them every season.
I agree with the 'tank drain' being the only way to really remove it - otherwise you're just going to be trying to run it through the system and no telling where it may lurk in the future.
Let us know how it works out!

Well, I pulled the motor yesterday and took it down to the short block for a winter go-thru. Not that there is anything wrong with the rest of the engine, just that I have nothing better to do during the winter. So as a result I can't really run the rest of the gas out (I have 1/4 tank left), but I may try to run the tank dry and fill up with fresh gas and some strong injector cleaner either later this winter or in the spring.

The tank and all my fuel lines are brand new - only two years old. I'm hoping that I really don't have to drop the tank to clean it out, I hate playing with gas.

The one thing that I will do though is to add a quality fuel filter. In the past I had never had any problems at all and I depended on the sock in the tank and the sintered bronze filters in the Holley inlets to catch any crud. I realize now that Demon carbs (which I am running now) do not use a bronze filter like the Holleys they just have a screen, and it has pretty big holes in it so pretty much anything can get through.

Oh well, I'll follow up and let you guys know if I figure out exactly what it was.