I have two 330 gallon tanks in my basement. One tank shows close to empty and the other tank shows 1/2 full. (The tanks have separate filters and connect to a single line approaching the oil burner. I've been told this can lead to the tanks not emptying evenly.) I thought my oil burner was running extraordinarily efficiently but just realized the oil tank gauge has been stuck at 1/2. By banging on the tanks, both sound identical and it seems certain both tanks are dangerously close to empty.

I'm getting heat properly and I'm getting a delivery Wednesday but want to understand the degree of my problem. The tanks each have two caps so my thought is to remove a cap and measure the oil in the tank. However, I've been unable to turn any of the 4 caps.

The caps have white-ish stuff which seems to have been applied when the tanks were installed that looks like anti-seize. Can someone confirm for me whether anti-sieve is typically applied to oil tank caps or if some permanent locking product would normally be applied.

Beyond that I applied some penetrating oil and would appreciate suggestions on how to loosen the cap.

 

Sounds like you just need a couple of cheater pipes over your pipe wrench handles. Anti-seize is silver or copper in color, and typically you would be able to wipe it off with your finger and it would still be pliable enough to smear it on your nose, glasses, pants, or wherever. Sounds to me like you have pipe dope on there and that it is set up a bit. Should be able to get the caps off though.