Posted by casebro on Friday, July 09, 2004 at 3:25PM : In Reply to: Gas Tank Renewal posted by Hal on Friday, July 09, 2004
Do you even know if you have a dirty tank? Lots of cars get crap in the gas when they fill up- wishful thinking with a 50 year old tank though. First drain the tank into an open topped bucket, you can pour the old gas into you daily driver, it will burn. 10% old gas will smell at shutdown, but what else you gonna do with it? Just don't transfer the sludge into the other tank.
Remove sender for access as well as to look inside. I washed mine with detergent and water, rinsed out with a garden hose, dried with shop vac on blow,then slushed it with a coumpound. Look for Tank 'slushing' or 'sloshing' conpound, pour it in, roll it around to coat all sides, leave it on each side for a few minutes, pour the excess out the filler.
Let it dry several days- I ran my shop vac on blow into the filler (duct tape it) , with tank upside down so heavy fumes blow out the sender hole on the bottom. The slushing goo will glue down any loose stuff as well as seal. A very rusted tank probably needs some abrasive action inside- use a piece of chain, clean gravel, nuts and bolts, whatever, and shake tank w/ detergent for a few hours, then proceed with rinsing, drying, slushing.
Nothing you can't do in you own backyard.
Posted by Vaughn on Friday, July 09, 2004 at 9:01PM :
When you hot tank a gas tank the chemical will eat some of the OEM coating off which is ok as long as you recoat the tank to prevent it from rusting. Remove your tank and look inside with a flashlight. If the sides look nice and shinny, then you probably had junk inside. If they look brown and rusty, time to clean and recoat. You can have it cleaned (hot tanked) by a radiator shop and that will etch the tank which is what you need to do before you recoat. There are several products available to use but you have to be careful in your selection. Some of these products will separate from the tank side over time. I used a product that is approved for both vehicles and aircraft. I figured if the FAA has approved it, it has to be good.
The product is only available from Bill Hirsh. His information is in the PIF under gas tank. I did my tank and filler tube. So far no rust has appeared and it been 7 years.