Hi Art,

I have an 84 245 that's been in my barn for 12 years now waiting some repairs. I take it for a 5 mile run on a back road here every summer just because, and about the same number of years ago I thought it might be a good idea to change out the gas with some non-ethanol. I looked under and found a plug, and although I can't remember what it looked like, I do remember that it came out surprisingly easily. I'll have to take a look.

As for a brass plug in an iron tank, my understanding is that if galvanic corrosion takes place it will protect the brass and the iron will corrode at an increased rate. The brass is the cathode and the iron is the anode, which is opposite to the case of say iron and zinc in which iron is the cathode and the zinc is sacrificed.

However the practical effects of a relatively small amount of brass in a much larger mass of iron is negligible because the effect is so spread out.

On the other hand, an iron plug in a brass or copper tank is a very bad idea. The large mass of the tank will eat up that little bit of iron in short order. I have a 60 gallon copper boiler in my boneyard with one of the three plugs in it being iron where this is plainly evident.

It's not uncommon to find brass nuts on manifold studs or on the manifold connection to the header pipe. I always assumed that this was so the would loosen more easily, although maybe there's another reason for that.

Anyway, I as a little surprized to read that you would not attempt to remove a brass plug from a gas tank. I'm no expert on this, but I think you should give it a go if the need arises. It may be easier than you think.

regards,
Peter