What is the best way to clean the inside of a fuel tank?

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Janet
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Re: What is the best way to clean the inside of a fuel tank?

Post by Janet »

Merlin wrote:DO NOT USE BLEACH PLEASE after HCL,you will generate chlorine which is not a good idea.I would not use HCL but phosphoric acid then baking soda if you must but better to just rinse well.
Blooming chemist coming here and giving expert opinion on what not to do.................
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SPRIDDLER
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Re: What is the best way to clean the inside of a fuel tank?

Post by SPRIDDLER »

Good website here for info on ethanol-proof materials for cleaning and loning a tonk......(scroll to bottom for DIY info)

http://www.tankcareproducts.co.uk/

Rather than fit the tank to a board you could wrap it in an old sleeping bag and/or duvet to hold it steady and protect it in the mixer.

I've heard that cheap Cola is a good de-rust and cleaning agent but never tried it.
Last edited by SPRIDDLER on Sat Jun 24, 2017 6:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Rob Harknett
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Re: What is the best way to clean the inside of a fuel tank?

Post by Rob Harknett »

I have always thought, tank sealant is used to stop a tank leaking. We read a lot about tank sealant getting attacked, more so with todays fuel. So you risk future problems using tank sealant. So if your tank is sound why seal it ? I am wondering what was used by AMC years ago on the inside of the tank. None of my bikes have tank sealant or a rust problem, so what ever was used when new, must still be OK.
Mick D
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Re: What is the best way to clean the inside of a fuel tank?

Post by Mick D »

Hi Bruce

I haven't sealed my tank, there was no significant corrosion inside and in the light of reports of ethanol laced fuel attacking sealants I decided to carry on without sealant.

I have one of these to fit if fuel quality becomes an issue
Fuel Filt.png
Regards Mick
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thornebt
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Re: What is the best way to clean the inside of a fuel tank?

Post by thornebt »

Thanks Rob and Mick. I don't want to line it. I guess as long as there's petrol slopping about in it then rust should never be a problem. It's only a small tank for a Trojan Mini Motor cyclemotor I recently bought. Cheers. Bruce.
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Rob Harknett
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Re: What is the best way to clean the inside of a fuel tank?

Post by Rob Harknett »

A Minimotor tank, I did not realise that or missed the point. I think I would just try and clean up a bit. You may not get rid of all the rust. If sealed you will have that plus rust to clean out next time. Much easier to clean a filter & carb if rust continues to be a problem. There will also be some oil with the petrol in a 2 stroke.
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Merlin
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Re: What is the best way to clean the inside of a fuel tank?

Post by Merlin »

Janet wrote:
Merlin wrote:DO NOT USE BLEACH PLEASE after HCL,you will generate chlorine which is not a good idea.I would not use HCL but phosphoric acid then baking soda if you must but better to just rinse well.
Blooming chemist coming here and giving expert opinion on what not to do.................
Lots more where that came from. :oops: :D
Chemists do it with test tubes
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GOLDSTAR
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Re: What is the best way to clean the inside of a fuel tank?

Post by GOLDSTAR »

Hello Thornbt, you the chap with the corks? anyway, I have used POR15 a number of times now and it seems to work O.K. but you must do the process by the book, that is using all the constituants in the corret order., It has been suggested to me that to clean the tank acetone, quite a quantity but available on t'bay, would be a good solution include a few bolts etc, use steel bolts so yoiu can fish them out with a magnet, ask me how I know! kind regards
oh dear looks like I missed page 2 doh! :headbang:
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thornebt
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Re: What is the best way to clean the inside of a fuel tank?

Post by thornebt »

GOLDSTAR wrote:Hello Thornbt, you the chap with the corks? anyway, I have used POR15 a number of times now and it seems to work O.K. but you must do the process by the book, that is using all the constituants in the corret order., It has been suggested to me that to clean the tank acetone, quite a quantity but available on t'bay, would be a good solution include a few bolts etc, use steel bolts so yoiu can fish them out with a magnet, ask me how I know! kind regards
oh dear looks like I missed page 2 doh! :headbang:
Hi Goldstar. Yes, I sell Ewarts corks on Ebay. I used POR15 on my G80 frame and tinware - it's good stuff. For the cyclemotor tank I'm going to use Neville's tip about wrapping it up well in a sleeping bag and sticking it in my cement mixer to have a good tumble around. I think any bolts should fall out of the filler hole easily enough. The inside of the tank only has slight rust so I'm sure that will do the job. Cheers. Bruce.

Edit: It's just occurred to me that the POR15 product you're talking about is probably a tank cleaning product rather than enamel paint for the outside!
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Re: What is the best way to clean the inside of a fuel tank?

Post by g5wqian »

i used 1 gallon of malt vinegar in a smaller tank that only takes just over 1 gallon capacity, filled tank with the vinegar and left for a week but each day turning and shaking tank a little to make sure it covered everywhere.
if you need more vinegar to fill the tank then buy more or water it down a little if you are near enough filled and need a slight bit more to reach top of tank .

you can also try less vinegar and swish it around often for a period of days and see how it does .

with the vinegar it was amazing just how much of the surface rust that came out .

i did my tank a 3 times by emptying the vinegar out into a container and using a gauze filter to remove the rust particles and then washed tank with water , and then filled again with vinegar .

i have got rid of the larger rust particles but am getting very fine powder which passes the gauze petcock filter and so its either a plastic paper type fuel filter will need to go in line for a while or i will need to line the tank with one of the liner kits as mentioned about although i have used the carswell kits before with good results but they need a real warm day to allow the epoxy to run around inside the tank and line every nook and cranny .

if you use a tank liner kit also buy some kids modelling clay or some plasticene so you can plug up most of the fuel tap hole and the epoxy wont go down into them , then after the 2 weeks needed to let the liner set hard you can use a drill to clear the remaining epoxy out of the top of the fuel tap hole and then possibly run a bsp tap through it to clean the threads that may have some epoxy on them , otherwise the threads of the fuel tap may go tight as the tap is screwed in full depth .

another idea for getting the vinegar around the tank insides is to stick the tank in a large coolbox lined with bubblewrap or suitable supporting material and then stick it in boot of your car or van and let inertia help on your day to day travels to and from work etc , better still if you or one of your family drives a delivery van or something similar all day , stick it in there and it will get well shaken and stirred .
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