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Spectre tank lives up to it's bad reputation

Old 07-17-2011, 09:54 PM
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Default Spectre tank lives up to it's bad reputation

Just got my 6.0l going in my 71 chevelle last week, got it to the tuner,glass place,and then to the front end shop. Was heading over to my buddies shop to replace a leaking PS hose, went around a residential right hand corner rather briskly and guess what???? IT DIED... According to my new Dakota Dash I had 40% of fuel still in it...Sooooo, It is true they are pieces of CRAP. I was thinking back to Feburary 24th when I talked to John at spectre and he told me " It"ll be OK, just use it" Im SO PISSED off at this tank, What a piece of ill designed crap....Course mine is well out of any warranty time. Thanks, just wanted to VENT!!!!!

Rick
Old 07-17-2011, 10:55 PM
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Dude that sucks!!!!I almost bought one and last minute said Fu$k it and bought the ricks hot rod gas tank!
Old 07-17-2011, 10:57 PM
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That sucks I've been thinking about ordering one. Sorry to hear this about your tank.
Old 07-17-2011, 11:10 PM
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Do they just not have baffles in them? What sort of sender is used in it, tube or lever type?
Old 07-17-2011, 11:19 PM
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Originally Posted by flywheel
Just got my 6.0l going in my 71 chevelle last week, got it to the tuner,glass place,and then to the front end shop. Was heading over to my buddies shop to replace a leaking PS hose, went around a residential right hand corner rather briskly and guess what???? IT DIED... According to my new Dakota Dash I had 40% of fuel still in it...Sooooo, It is true they are pieces of CRAP. I was thinking back to Feburary 24th when I talked to John at spectre and he told me " It"ll be OK, just use it" Im SO PISSED off at this tank, What a piece of ill designed crap....Course mine is well out of any warranty time. Thanks, just wanted to VENT!!!!!

Rick
Dakota? Spectra? This is the same experience I had. Good news after 14 or so passes at the strip, starting with a full tank at the beginning of the night and no issues.
Old 07-18-2011, 12:42 AM
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I heard the tanks are fine, but the fuel pumps in them are garbage by ALOT of people.
Spectre should just sell the tanks by themselves, and they'd get more business.

I avoided their tanks just because I'm not wasting money on a junk pump.
I'm doing the B-body plastic gas tank ($50) with Racetronix setup ($200)
and redoing my trunk for the hump.

Most take the pump out and get a Bosch 420 or Walbro 255
Seems to be what the majority of people do I've seen.
Old 07-18-2011, 02:47 AM
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Glad I went with the 96 caprice tank/Racetronix pump. I've been down to 2 gallons, no stalling problems.
Old 07-18-2011, 07:10 PM
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Spectra tanks........ I baffled mine yesterday. The thickest material I could get on such a short notice was 20G. It was thicker (or seemed thicker) than the Spectra tank. Talk about burn through. LOL. I sooo regret buying that tank. I just hope I didn't make it any worse. LOL. I wish I would of bit the bullet and bought the DSE narrowed tank.
Old 07-18-2011, 10:33 PM
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Has anyone changed the pump and had better luck?? Or is it the little tub it sits in? I haven't heard of anyone say one way or another.;
Rick
Old 07-18-2011, 10:38 PM
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Man, that sucks about the tank. Is it running good other than that? The MAF work alright for you?
Old 07-19-2011, 07:11 AM
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We had one in a car, and the pump quit too.
Swapped the pump with an AC Delco pump, and it has never had another problem.
Old 07-19-2011, 07:30 AM
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Sorry to hear that. Hope it's just the fuel pump and nothing with the tank itself.
Old 07-19-2011, 07:54 PM
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Too bad they don't sell the tank minus the pump for a cheaper price...
Old 07-19-2011, 10:52 PM
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That sucks to hear. But that is exactly why I am modifying my original tank to accept a late model fuel bucket/sender/pump unit on my monte carlo swap. I used an aftermarket EFI el camino tank (which I believe was a spectra reproduction) and I have always had fuel slosh issues with under a half tank.....not to mention all of the aftermarket el camino tanks have problems with the gas pump kicking off if you have it at anything above the slowest setting. It seems like no matter where you buy the tank from for the el camino`s they are all made by the same mfg (probably spectra) and none of them will fill unless you add in a vent tube between the filler neck and tank. So at least you are ahead of the el camino guys.

One thing I noticed with my el camino tank is that it is very picky which way you have the sock facing on the pump. If I put it in one way it will suck air on gentle turns at a half tank. If I re-orient the sock so it lays flatter it doesn`t suck air till 1/4 tank and a more aggressive turn. So make sure the sock is turned so it lays as flat as possible.
Old 07-20-2011, 08:57 AM
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Dumb question but...Are you sure you had 40% fuel in the tank?
I'm running DD VHX series gauges and had to do the custom setting for the sending unit because it was 0 ohms empty and 113.6 ohms full. where the GM setting was 0 - 90 ohms.
I have ran my tank down to 6% fuel in my '67 Firebird with that tank and ran it hard.

Thankfully no issues yet.
Old 07-20-2011, 11:04 PM
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Originally Posted by Jones'n
We had one in a car, and the pump quit too.
Swapped the pump with an AC Delco pump, and it has never had another problem.
What pump did you use? Was this an A body? So maybe its just the pump not the tub design????

Eric, so far the MAF has worked, it dyno'd 375hp.... did miss Chillicothe tho, had PS hose issues.....

Magntik, Im pretty sure on the 40%, I'd filled it up not to long b4 that, surely it wasn't that low. but I'll check it out...
Old 07-20-2011, 11:36 PM
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Originally Posted by magntik
Dumb question but...Are you sure you had 40% fuel in the tank?
I'm running DD VHX series gauges and had to do the custom setting for the sending unit because it was 0 ohms empty and 113.6 ohms full. where the GM setting was 0 - 90 ohms.
I have ran my tank down to 6% fuel in my '67 Firebird with that tank and ran it hard.

Thankfully no issues yet.
Thanks for the info. I haven't calibrated mine yet and still using the default custom setting.
Old 07-21-2011, 01:19 AM
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Originally Posted by flywheel
so far the MAF has worked, it dyno'd 375hp.... did miss Chillicothe tho, had PS hose issues.....
That's pretty good HP numbers. I looked for you on friday night at the cruise in Chilicothe and was wondering if you were going to make it. Belton cruise night is this Saturday, do you ever get to that show?
Old 07-21-2011, 07:07 AM
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I've been running the same tank in my 72 chevelle for over a year and its the same problem, if you are near a quarter tank empty and make a right turn,she's gonna die!!! I just make it a habbit to keep a half tank or more in it. I think its the tank design not the pump.
Old 07-21-2011, 08:43 AM
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I just bought my tank in Nov - Dec of 2010. And when I took the sending unit out to calibrate it, I had what looks like one of the wife's cake pans in the bottom of the tank. Maybe it's a different design?

There are some threads on Pro-touring.com about the Spectre sending unit not having the same ohm range as the GM unit, that's why I checked and then follow DD instructions for setting their gauge to work with it.

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