1970s 1977 Eldorado- replacement fuel tank?

[Jschneider910]

Hello all- first post here.  Glad to see all of the knowledge here.

I'm trying to track down a fuel tank for my '77 Eldorado.  There are no direct replacements available.  Wondering if anybody has had luck installing one from a similar car/ platform?  Like a '77 Toronado for example, since there are new tanks available.

I suppose the other option is removing and sending out for re-sealing, but I'd rather just replace.

[TJ Hopland]

I would think the Toro tank should be pretty close.   Looking at the picture my guess is the filler neck is maybe what is different?  Based on just memory and a bad picture with no scale that toro one looks longer.     Modifying the neck is pretty easy you go to someone like Tanks Inc that has some universal hoses and elbows that make it easy to shorten it or change the angle a bit if needed.

I have a tank from something like a 67 Chev in my 73.  It wasn't a direct fit but it was not hard at all to modify things.  I did that because I went to EFI and wanted a tank with the proper baffles for an in tank pump setup. 

[Jschneider910]

Thanks TJ- that was my thought as well.  The body of the tank will likely be fine, it's the question of modifying the neck possibly.

If I go this route, I'd probably want the Toronado sending unit also, right?

Glad my car doesn't have FI (as nice as something like a Holley or FiTech would be) as it seems to complicate the fuel tank... on the other hand those cold starts and throttle response may be worth it

[TJ Hopland]

Ya if they make a sending unit for that tank that would likely be the safe move just in case its a different depth.    Your trunk has a slight hump in it right?

Here is the tanks inc page with the hose bits.   They have hoses with slight bends if needed.

https://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=results/category_id=200/mode=cat/cat200.htm

[Jschneider910]

Thanks... I"m going to pull the trigger and order the Toronado tank and sending unit.  Appreciate the link for the filler neck pieces.  Yep, my trunk has a slight hump in it.

I'll report back with photos after I piece this all together.

[Big Fins]

Not sure if the '77 tank is the same as the '76, but the sending unit is available from partsgeek.com

I'm quite happy to have a gauge that reads properly now.

[tcom2027]

You didn't say how bad the tank is. Also why try and modify a might fit tank Give tank Renu near you a call and see what they would charge to rebuild it.  THey have facilities all over the country and  rebuild tanks, pretty much any model, any year.

I was working on a '37 65 Series that had a badly, rusted, and dented tank.The baffles were loose, the inlet pipe bent at the tank, the bottom dented and generally looked unsalvageable. I sent it to the franchisee in Fresno CA, IIRC on a lark. I figured the worst it would cost me was the freight to Fresno and I wouldn't be stumbling over it until I scraped it. A few days later they called with an estimate that I thought was reasonable as an original in any shape was unabtainium, even in the late nineties.

It came back in a couple weeks and for all intents, looked brand new. The straps aligned, the fuel line aligned perfectly and the filler neck slid in without a fight. The grommet practically jumped on. I was amazed.

Worth the time to call ands speak with them to see if they still do extensive repairs.

tony

[Phil Weber]

The parts book lists 76-78 as the same tank .

[_Cap_]

I have a 76 Eldorado convertible, right now its a parts car for my 75 Eldorado. When I got it, it was running off of fuel in the tank so I presume it holds fuel good.
However unless you live near central Florida, i can imagine shipping would be a nightmare

Might be best to see if you can find a similar year Eldorado for sale or at a junk yard, if you can find one cheap enough its definitely worth it to get a parts car, especially if it runs
Im proud to say i found my 76' for only 800 bucks running and driving, but that's about all that it did

[TJ Hopland]

The parts book lists 76-78 as the same tank .

Looks like that book maybe only goes back to 76?   I'm thinking it could be the same back to 73.  73 seems to be when they kinda settled on the venting style and was the impact bumpers so the last slight changes to the frames and such which you would think could have effected things like the tank.

[Jschneider910]

Thanks all... for the record, I live in a rural area of Pennsylvania and we don't have local tank repairs readily available.  I understand I can ship easily to tank renu, but between the shipping cost there and back and potential loss of the tank by the shipper, I decided to stick with the replacement idea.  My car is not a show car (it's nice, but not a perfect speciman) so if I have some slight filler neck adjustments, I'm not going to lose sleep.

My tank leaks at 3/4 tank +, the rest is coated in undercoating which turns to goo when it leaks and pools on my garage floor.  I'll know the full damage when I pull it, could just be a sending unit but I'm not hopeful.  Parts that were ordered are fully returnable.

Agree, a parts car would be awesome.  Everything I see on marketplace that's parts quality is still $4k+ though

Really appreciate all the feedback.

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

GT radiators refurbished the tank of a 1976 Eldorado for me a few years ago. Their work was excellent.

If Ambler PA isn't too difficult to travel, this would be my first choice.

https://www.gtradiators.com/

[TJ Hopland]

When I did a quick search for those Toro tanks it looked like they could be had for $200 shipped so that isn't that big of an investment and it sounds like where he got it has easy returns if for some reason its not even close to fitting he isn't out much or possibly anything.

I'm betting its going to be darn close and very easily modified.

[Jschneider910]

GT radiators refurbished the tank of a 1976 Eldorado for me a few years ago. Their work was excellent.

If Ambler PA isn't too difficult to travel, this would be my first choice.

https://www.gtradiators.com/

Thanks Eric... I'm outside the valley but am also in NEPA.  Ambler is about the same for me as you if it comes to that.

When I did a quick search for those Toro tanks it looked like they could be had for $200 shipped so that isn't that big of an investment and it sounds like where he got it has easy returns if for some reason its not even close to fitting he isn't out much or possibly anything.

I'm betting its going to be darn close and very easily modified.

Exactly my logic... also willing to experiment with this for the sake of the forum/ community so there's another option besides repair or used.

[Jschneider910]

Update... finally got a chance to dig into this last weekend.

Pulled the old tank out.  The top is super clean and still has the OEM writing on it.  Hoses connecting the tank were OEM GM and the bottom of the trunk floor is mint- which maybe backs up the claim on my car of 25k miles haha.  The tanks is indeed very rusty on the front with multiple pinholes.  Still a good core in my opinion though.

The Toro tank is dimensionally identical to the Eldo tank with two exceptions- the hump on top of the Toro tank is shorter (less than an inch diff) and the filler neck is different.  The hump on the top doesn't matter since it's shorter but it means I have to use the Toro sending unit- the Eldo unit would not be able to fully seat since it hits the bottom of the tank.  The sending unit tops are identical and all lines are in the same arrangement.  The tabs make the Eldo unit "clocked" differently too, so it wouldn't align if I tried to use it.

The filler neck modification will be the bulk of the work, but I had anticipated this.  I have some pieces coming- from what I can tell the Toro filler neck is too close to the bumper.  Looks like about 1.5" too long, but will take exact measurements.

[TJ Hopland]

I figured it would have to be darn close based on my experience fitting something from a very different car. 

[_Cap_]

I does suck buying something they say is for your car, then turns out to be a universal thing that just CAN work. Dealing with that on my radiator, which the new one works but barley fit, I also think its too small core wise. And now with my speedo cable, bought 2 saying for the Eldo, was a few inches too long and ended up wrapping around themselves both times. Second one caught fire in the engine bay because it wrapped on itself and leaned on the exhaust.

Getting to the point where its better to just send the original stuff out and pay the restoration bill for it sadly.

[TJ Hopland]

Ya radiators were another thing at least in the era we were talking about here GM only had like 4 radiators that covered like 90% of the cars.  The core thing isn't really a good way to identity radiators anymore.  It worked when they were new and all the same design but as the designs and materials changed that became almost meaningless. 

I melted a speedo cable one time too,  It may actually be the one I am still using.  How I finally got one that worked (many years ago now) was the parts store actually had a book.  The first few pages of the book showed the different ends so I knew I needed like a type C and F then went to the C section and went down till I saw the F and then looked at the length options.  Those were not the real letters, just made those up but that's how it worked.  You would think today with computers that would still be possible but maybe not.

[_Cap_]

For my speedo cable i ended up contacting a shop in Canada who does them. It probably wasn't my best choice, paid $100 by the time shipping was done. For that price it would've been better to do it myself. But it is what it is, I need my speedo working, I've been driving without it for a few weeks now

[tcom2027]

Remember the days when you could go into a speedo shop and have your speedo tested
by placing the rears on rollers and comparing your reading with a big black faced mechanical unit on the tester reading in .5 mph increments?.

And if you needed a cable, one could be made to length and if necessary the armored cable swaged on the ends. And dozens of boxes of speedo gears indexed along the walls, No waiting for a container ship from China to unload in San Pedro to get the gear you needed.

A time it was, a time it was.

Time to go out and get the pistons out of our LaSalle, gauge the bores and journals then order rings and bearings for it. 

tony