Cleaning dirty fuel tanks

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luthier

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Just pulled this tank out of the 404 and it's quite filthy. I sloshed 10 litres of good fuel in it which turned dark brown.
Fuel is way too expensive now to be used that way.
I'm considering filling it with a solution of water and oxalic acid and leaving it sit for a week or two. I had great success cleaning an old alloy engine on a motorbike I restored a few years ago and a few other bits were dunked in there too.
But if anyone knows anything better I'm all ears.
 
I reckon you cant go past the concrete mixer method. Just remember to add detergent, water and sharp gravel (crushed granite or bluestone etc.)

 
Check into YouTube👌
They put gravel in and shake it all about, I’ve also seen
the tank put into a cement mixer to mix the gravel in the tank.
 
luthier said:
Just pulled this tank out of the 404 and it's quite filthy. I sloshed 10 litres of good fuel in it which turned dark brown.
Fuel is way too expensive now to be used that way.
I'm considering filling it with a solution of water and oxalic acid and leaving it sit for a week or two. I had great success cleaning an old alloy engine on a motorbike I restored a few years ago and a few other bits were dunked in there too.
But if anyone knows anything better I'm all ears.
Click to expand...
Filthy with rust or simply filthy with dirt / rubbish within?
 
59 Floride (sold) said:
I reckon you cant go past the concrete mixer method. Just remember to add detergent, water and sharp gravel (crushed granite or bluestone etc.)

Click to expand...
I think that's a winner. How long do they recommend for this treatment? I have the technology for that.
Assume the sender needs to be there, or an appropriate cover in place. My sender is buggered anyway so maybe just remove the float.
But getting it all out might be a problem?
 

KEEP AUSTRALIA BEAUTIFUL: RESTORE EVERTHING except Holdens​

Haha totally agree. Restoring Peugeots in a sea of shit. Meatheads R US in Oz. It's Holdens and Fords and anything except French cars that appeal to them. But you only have to look at the houses they inhabit and the TV they watch to see the lack of everything in their worlds that they seem to find acceptable. It's actually beyond my brain to really get a handle on it. They appear to be functioning but to me their choices were made by brain dead zombies. The zombie apocalypse is upon us. Repent now or go and watch TV.
 
I've used gravel & concrete mixer if really bad & rusty, on WW2 Jeep fuel tanks.

Be careful if there is a no strainer attached to the pick up tube or sender [should be obvious].

Post cleaning use POR 15 to seal. This stuff is great, but keep in mind it will seal the pick up tube [should be obvious].

Follow directions & after fully coating inside make sure to dry the tank on an angle so the pickup tube will properly drain out & not sit in a puddle of drying solution. Not upside down! JG.
 
In terms of drying a cleaned fuel tank I have seen (on YouTube) people attaching the tank to a running cars exhaust and leaving it there for an hour or so? Is this an effective method?
 
That is supposed to remove petrol fumes before flame, welding, soldering. Never used it.
 
RINGER said:
That is supposed to remove petrol fumes before flame, welding, soldering. Never used it.
Click to expand...
Does it remove the fumes or the 02?
I always thought the carbon monoxide in the exhaust gases replaced the 02 inside the tank, therefore the petrol fumes couldn't ignite?
I haven't done it either, but a mate of mine who's a general engineer does it on the larger tanks he's repairing, smaller ones he fills with water.
Either method you can still smell the raw petrol/diesel in them afterwards.🤷‍♂️
 
I recently dissected a vintage fuel tank that had been soldered at all joints. The tank was badly rusted, full of holes and clearly hadn't been used for many decades, perhaps 4 or 5. As I un-sweated the joints much to my surprise it ignited. There was some fuel trapped in there somewhere..
 
Dirty tanks must be a petrol thing. When I pulled the sender out of my old 504 diesel after 25 years the bottom of the tank was as clean as new.
 
59 Floride (sold) said:
I recently dissected a vintage fuel tank that had been soldered at all joints. The tank was badly rusted, full of holes and clearly hadn't been used for many decades, perhaps 4 or 5. As I un-sweated the joints much to my surprise it ignited. There was some fuel trapped in there somewhere..
Click to expand...
Many years ago a young boilermaker at the abattoir I used to work at was tasked with cutting the top off a 44 gallon drum. The drum's history was a bit hazy so he unscrewed the bung and took a good whiff, he couldn't smell anything at all, so he got into it with a 5" angle grinder and the drum went BOOM.
Poor bugger was months in the burns unit at RBH, 70% or 75% from memory.
It was subject to investigation obviously, but the volatile agent was never identified.
 
Not a random case happens often!
Even chiselling is fraught with danger.
 
There's theories out there you can weld a full tank safely. The Russian gent in the attached video puts the theory to the test.

<iframe width='640' height='360' src='https://www.videoman.gr/en/174972/embed' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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