71 Duster 318 fuel pump not pulling fuel from new gas tank

AND NOW YET ANOTHER annoying story from the old days. In my days at NAS Miramar, 70-74, I held a part time job at the base auto hobby shop. A then friend had swapped a 396 into a 57 Chev. I had helped him assemble the engine, install the cam, and adjust the lifters. I KNEW that engine would fire. One Sat, I was not working at the shop, but rather on my own stuff. He came over 2-3-4 times through the morning, wanting to borrow a coil, etc etc, and finally says, "I really need your help." So I go out there, and there is the peanut crowd, and the owner, all swilling sodas. He hands me a can and says "We've been using this down the carb, it doesn't have fuel up from the tank yet."I smelled the can and handed it back and said, "go get me some gas in this can!!!"

It had kerosene/ JP- in it and they had been attempting to fire that new engine on that!!