Look....

on the corvetteforum this has been beaten to death (sending unit)

You have a sulphur buildup on the metal contact strip inside your fuel tank.
Techron is a baby's bottle compared to Seafoam found at your local auto parts store...

Yes, Seafoam is the bomb when it comes to cleaning carbon off pistons, but you can also add it to your fuel tank.

(my personal gas guage experience below)
I wasted time with Techron..... I gave up and drove with a f#cked gauge for several tanks knowing I'd have to change the unit... then I dumped in a can of Seafoam.... the gauge started working within half a tank. It was fixed!

 

Thanks Joshua. Nice post.

 

Yeah. Any alcohol you put in your tank is going to brake up deposits and clean your injection system. 15% isn't much and contrary to what a lot of people believe, E15 isn't going to hurt anything on your car except a hardly noticeable drop in mileage. California's been running E10 and E15 for MANY years without a problem. It's nearly impossible to find a pump in Cali that doesn't have E10 or E15 in it. LS1s were built to use E15... ALL cars, in fact, were built to use E15 since 1981.

It always surprises me how many people put up a fight against it. Have you heard any complaints about it from anyone in California over the past 10 years? I'm sure if E15 was bad for your car, there'd be a big uproar about it since it's been over 10 years since they started putting it at all the pumps.

In addition, E15 raises the octane levels. We have a crap load of detergents in our gasoline. So the amount of octane goes down due to gasoline being diluted. But when the E15 or E10 is added, it raises the octane level back up to acceptable levels. The drop in mileage isn't because we have 10 or 15% ethanol in our tank. It's because we have so much soap in our tank to help the environment.

Sorry I went so far off topic.

 

Hey v-series, whats the best route to take on a 01 Z, same problem as the rest and no seafoam or other additive has worked. I'm pretty much dreading this job but if I can get to the sensor through the rear inner fender it might not be that bad.

 

On an 01, read my post about the steps to remove. It's that simple for you and I.


Left wheel, rear, remove,.......Remove left rear inner black fender wheel well cover. It comes out easy, I believe a few 7mm fasteners, and one or two push pin locks. Easy.

Then, you should see the fuel pump hat sitting there. You'll want to first, relieve the fuel pressure from the fuel rail. remove the battery cable(probably first step)....on a COOOOOOOL MOTOR....do not work on fuel stuff when hot. Then you go back, once pressure is relieved, go back to the left rear fender, and you should see the fuel hat....looking right at you.

No wait, actually there is a steel plate, 10mm fasteners hold it on. COmes off easily. Remove that, you'll see the fuel hat(sorry, been on call for 48hours)...remove the fuel lines, carefully. Don't remember the hose lock type right now but, you either squeeze the tabs in, sliding the hose/fuel line out, or your gonna need a small cheap plastic fuel tool to release the hose.

Either style, both easy. Hope it makes sense. Then you simply take not of the location and clocking, remove connector, remove screws, and gently pull out hat and sending unit/module. Gently remove fuel card/sending unit, and there you go. Be careful not to bend or break anything. If you take your time, you'll be just fine.

Might want to look into a fuel pump upgrade. If your making 650rwhp or less I recommend a setup like a racetronix intank or something along the lines of that from one of our vendors here. Get your fuel card from GM.

 

If you look at the walmart brand fuel injector cleaner/fuel line anti freeze the ingredients say alcohol

I thought the drop in mileage was because alcohol burns quicker.....Like when people run E85 with their boosted cars (stangs anyway) they need to upgrade their fuel system even more since it uses more fuel


and guys like Vseries tech is what makes forums so helpful and lets people learn....most of my knowledge about stangs is from forums or my personal hands on diagnosing

 

Thanks man.

 

Thanks V-seriestech, if I can't work off those instructions I don't need wrenches in my hand. Good info, much appreciated.

 

Actually, the alcohol doesn't burn faster. It burns longer. Technically speaking, it burns COOLER, which is only 1 of the reasons that E85 is the perfect fuel for boosted cars. The fact that it burns cooler and has an octane rating of 105 makes it so you can boost higher and make a lot more power.

As for the burn time, with E85, during combustion, the burn happens longer down the travel of the piston than gasoline. So it actually pushes the piston down longer during combustion. If there was a better infrastructure for E85 in Southern California, I'd have my car tuned for E85 and use it instead. I'd probably make another 10-15RWHP because of it. Yes, you do have to burn MORE E85 to go the same distance, but if the car is properly tuned for E85, you only lose about 1-2MPG. The first flex-fuel vehicles weren't tuned for E85 so they lost 7MPG or more. Really, you're looking at a 1-5% loss with proper tuning. If you have a boosted car, you may actually see GAINS in mileage (assuming you're properly tuned for E85).

 

No problem. If you need to go deeper, send me a pm.

Take care man

 

Just thought I would post up a fix for all of you....

I chuckle when I read posts of guys driving around with gas gauges not working waiting for the Techron to kick in. You can reset your codes on you DIC and the gauge will start working immediately.

Don't tell me there aren't any codes on the DIC, it has happened to me all the time and even at a stoplight I can reset my codes and the gauge jumps back and all is well. I'm not saying Techron doesn't help because it does but why wait for the gauge to start working when you can make it work yourself...

BTW I tried each fuel brand and kept using that brand religiously to see if I would get the gauge dropping to empty. In Kansas City: QT, BP and Phillips all sent my gas gauge to empty. I've been using Shell for 4k miles and haven't needed Techron "yet". Shell is rare in KC so it's a slight pita but I work around it...

 

^^^ It's good that you're collecting this data. I know it sounds like a bad idea, but we should have a sticky for collecting this kind of data.

 

FWIW I've read several of these threads on different forums and someone said that Shell had the highest sulphur content of all the top tier fuels. I can't verify that, just passing on what I've heard.

I also know that Techron works. I've used it on three of my own vehicles that had the fuel gauge problem. I toss in a bottle every oil change and use Chevron gas and I haven't had that problem come back for several years now.

 

Texaco also has Techron in it. After my first fill up with Chevron Supreme my gauge started to work and now Chevron is all I use.

 

Chevron and Texaco are the same company hence both Techron and all the other similarities.

 

Chevron is the parent company but buyer beware. From the Texaco web site:

"Be sure the oval "with Techron" logo is on the prominent station sign (above) when you pull into a Texaco station, and look for employees wearing the "Ask Me About Techron" sticker (right). Otherwise, you will be pulling into a station supplied by a competitor, and that means you won't be getting the benefits of the Techron additive." http://www.texaco.com/findatexaco/find_techron.asp

 

I haven't seen a Texaco in years. We used to have lots of them here, but they've all turned in competitors.

 

Nice write up on the removal of the tank!!! Thanks

 

Seafoam will do the same as techron. Also as said you can clear the DIC codes and the guage works immediatly. I've never ran into this issue in the 3+ years i've owned my '98. It may have something to do with MN having 15% Ethanol in the gas but who knows.