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MG MGA - Aluminum Foil in Fuel Tank

I was pouring in some fuel conditioner and a piece of the foil seal from the bottle pulled away and fell into the tank. I'm concerned that this piece of foil may somehow get pulled into the fuel pickup line when I'm driving and lead to fuel starvation. Am I overly concerned here? Any thoughts on the potential for this to occur? Should I leave it alone or pull and clean out the tank?
N Kopernik

The tank is divided into 3 sections by baffles. Your foil probably fell into the outside compartment while I think the pickup is from the middle? Maybe someone knows.
Art Pearse

I have had problems with stuff that will go to neutral buoyancy, floats around until it gets sucked against the pickup, kills engine.
Them it floats away once the vacuum drops off. I suspect that the foil will just sink to the bottom, or if there is a screen on the pickup, not block it.

FRM
FR Millmore

Not foil, but a very small glob of silicone rubber plugged my friend's fuel line. Had a heck of a time finding this when the car quit running(on trip no less). The restoration shop used silicone to seal the sending unit to the tank, instead of a gasket. We surmise that a piece got dislodged when they put the screws in. It took a while, but it got sucked up. Any foreign objects in your tank is a cause for concern. I think I'd drain the tank and flush it.
Cheers,
GTF
G T Foster

I'm inclined to agree with GTF. If you leave it then whatever problem you have with the car in the future you will blame that piece of aluminium foil. For this reason and if you do decide to remove the tank you should make every effort to retrieve the foil so you know for sure it's gone.

I know it's a great temptation to leave it and avoid the pain of dropping the tank, especially as the foil could get no further than the pump inlet filter.

Just thinking aloud you could leave the tank in position, drain the fuel and put a gallon or two of warm caustic soda solution in to dissolve the aluminium (but you wouldn't then know for sure it had gone). If you tried this you would first have to remove the alloy sender unit as well otherwise that would disappear too!..........Mike

m.j. moore

No need to remove tank. Just remove the sending unit and peak inside with a flashlight. The foil is probably in view.If not, rock the rearend of the car to agitate the gas in the tank until it does come into view. Grab it with grabber device (like a 3-clawed tweezer on an articulated arm- buy it at a hardware store). And grab any other cr*p you might see while you're at it. Tyler
C.T. Irwin

Make sure you have a safety flashlight! Or turn it on away from the petrol.
Art Pearse

Thanks to all those who provided input; it does make sense to get that item out of the tank. I'll first try to extract the foil thru the sending unit hole and worst case, pull the tank and slosh some fluid around and see if that will flush it out. Thanks again.
N Kopernik

This thread was discussed between 05/03/2013 and 10/03/2013

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