I am looking for an 87 or 88 fuel tank,prefer little internal rust.
Supposedley I'll need the tank straps,but I dont think those come off (???) so,the straps arn't a priority.

The straps do come off very easily and they are different.

The straps come off. The rear strap will work, the front strap will need to be extended. Adapting a newer tank to an older car...?

quote Originally posted by L67: The straps come off. The rear strap will work, the front strap will need to be extended. Adapting a newer tank to an older car...?

Thanks for the info...A+++ to both.California gas,absorbs moisture, so I have major internal tank rust (I was shocked,to see so much rust,considering 3 years ago it was squeekey clean),screwed up my new fuel pump too.So I might as well go for the tank upgrade.My mechanic says,Autozone carries a product that stabilizes the fuel when a car is in storage,its called Stay Built (Fuel Stabilizer).
For pics read here:
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/109910.html

quote Originally posted by L67: The straps come off. The rear strap will work, the front strap will need to be extended. Adapting a newer tank to an older car...?

Strange, I tried to put an 87 into n 86 once. Fought it for hours and gave up (my 86 wasn't bad I just had the 87 so I was going to add a couple of gallons capacity). My experience was the opposite. I used the straps from the 87 and was able to install the front strap but could not get the rear installed for the life of me (it was too short),

Someone once told me that the anchor points for the straps are not consistent from Fiero to Fiero so there are varying results when people try the swap. I just didn't want it that bad. If I try it again I will weld an extension on the rear strap.

I installed an '88 tank into an '86. I used rivets to extend the strap. Extend whichever strap needs to be extended, front or rear.

Wow,and I thought my tank was rusty,now thats beyond rusty...

I installed 88 tank into an 85GT. I did a short write up in my build thread when I did it.

quote Originally posted by Fieroseverywhere Main tank install - Main tank fit with no modifications needed. As for the tank swaps, they were not tough. I re-used the stock 84-86 rear tank strap. It was a perfect fit and needed no modification at all. The front strap was a different story. I had both the 84-86 and 87-88 front straps and both were too short to work. Since I also had an 87-88 rear strap I decided to shorten it to complete the install. I cut it right past the folded part at the end, folded it over again, and re-drilled a new hole. Thats it for the install of the larger tank in an earlier car. If you decide to do this I would recommed starting with another 84-86 rear strap to modify. They are a bit different and much easier to work with and find. Some experiances may differ. There is a bit of adjustment to the position of the main tank. I could slide it 2-3 inches front and back. This changes the exact size straps you will need to make this work. I found that the further back I moved it, the further up inside the tunnel it fit. This allowed the use of the 84-86 rear strap. Next I needed to install the expansion tank and lines. It is not a direct swap in this case either since the 84-86 cars did not have or need the expansion tank. The tank mounts on the passenger side under the rear inner fender well. On the 87 and 88 cars there are holes drilled for the tank mounting bolts. 84-86 do not have these so you have to put them in. Without removing the rear clip you can,t get all 3 bolt holes drilled. 2 holes work just fine. I will add the third when I do the fastback conversion. Other then the mounting holes it fits without any other trouble. There is one other difference you have to take into consideration when doing the tank swap. On the passenger side near (under) the battery tray is a hole cut in the sheetmetal on the 87-88 cars. This hole is there for the lines that run to and from the expansion tank. On 84-86 cars you have to drill or cut out a hole there for the lines to go through. There is no other way that I found. I chose to drill a hole and used a rubber gromit to seal it and protect steel lines. The good news is this hole can be drilled from the fender area so you don't have to worry about the battery tray being in the way. There are 2 lines that run to and from the tank. One line goes from the main tank sending unit and connects to the expansion tank. This is the line the expanding fuel travels through to get to the expansion tank. It is the larger and lowermost of the two lines coming out of the expansion tank. The second line runs to the Vapor (purge) canister. I'll be adding this later. I'll be using the ECM controled caddy one. Anyways for this second line you can run it in the stock position without a problem. Course I couldn't. I am relocating the vapor canister to where the stock fiero cruise usually is. This meant that I had to do some major bending to the line to run it around the opposite side of the engine bay. It runs right up to the trunk wall and connects to other line pictured above that runs with the coolant line for the heater core. Thats it for the 84-86 to 87-88 tank swap. Sounds like alot but its really not a big deal. I'll summarize... -Main tank: Use 84-86 rear tank strap for rear. I used a modified 87-88 rear strap for the front. Any rear strap can be modified to work in the front. I cut off, fold and redrill strap to fit front. Main tank done. -Expansion tank: Drill mounting holes. Drill hole for lines to pass through under battery tray. Attach tanks and lines, add vapor canister. Done. Hope this helps some out there who have wondered how hard it would be.

If you plan this swap make sure you get the expansion tank that goes along with the new 87-88 tank. This later fuel tank does not have room for internal expansion like the early tank does. Its important to use one to avoid the possibility of tank rupture if/when the tank is overfilled. Its nothing to worry about though. Quite easy to take care of.

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 07-08-2010).]

quote Originally posted by Fieroseverywhere: I re-used the stock 84-86 rear tank strap. It was a perfect fit and needed no modification at all. The front strap was a different story. I had both the 84-86 and 87-88 front straps and both were too short to work. Since I also had an 87-88 rear strap I decided to shorten it to complete the install. I cut it right past the folded part at the end, folded it over again, and re-drilled a new hole.

Or lengthen the old strap. Good to go.

Good info and thanks for the pics,a few more A+++...

Bump,I'll have the old one cleaned,if I have to.
Stll looking.....

quote Originally posted by L67: Or lengthen the old strap. Good to go.

Haha, damn near spit the coffee on the laptop. Great pic.

--Allen

Ohh no! My 87 GT sat for 6 years with a 1/4 tank. I just installed a new engine. Before I hooked up the fuel lines I ran the pump and drained out about 10 letters about 2.5 gallons of gas out of it. The gas looked clean, no rust in the gas...but doses this mean that I have rust to?

I really don't want to pull the tank unless i absolutely need to. Can I just change the fuel filter, then check it for rust in a few weeks after driving?

quote Originally posted by Seanpaul: Ohh no! My 87 GT sat for 6 years with a 1/4 tank. I just installed a new engine. Before I hooked up the fuel lines I ran the pump and drained out about 10 letters about 2.5 gallons of gas out of it. The gas looked clean, no rust in the gas...but doses this mean that I have rust to? I really don't want to pull the tank unless i absolutely need to. Can I just change the fuel filter, then check it for rust in a few weeks after driving?

When I parked my GT and started to do my engine swap,I thought I had at least 3 gallions of gas,so when I drained the tank,I was surprized to see that I only had 1&1/4 gallons of gas.Alot less than I thought.So I was surprised to see so much rust.I was talking to someone on the phone, who said all fuel tanks do that, because the moisture in the air,so Im not sure if its actualley the fuel that causes the rust.My car sat for 3 years.I would say that there is a very good chance you have rust on the tank walls,but may have very little in the fuel,because of the plastic tank insert.There is a procedure to clean the rust off but you have to do so with extreme caution.Fuel and chemicals can ignight,so the tank,must sit in the sun for 2 days,otherwise its safe,when done right.........

[This message has been edited by James Bond 007 (edited 07-10-2010).]

Still Looking......

I think I have one, I will check, but the shipping might be expensive, what kind of price were you looking for?

If you cut the tank in half several times, I've found that you can set the pieces inside of each other... Maybe get it small enough to ship USPS flat rate?