fuel tank, cleaning it out and checking for rust/crap inside

steven_191 · Nearly there... Joined: 31 May 2009 Karma :

i opened up a fuel tank that i thought had fuel in it, took the tap off and brown water come out lol. so i assume its moisture built up and probably started to rust.

can i salvage it?? someone suggested filling it with diesel and washing that through it but i dont think that will do anything for the rust problem, assuming there is one.

oriel dave · Nova Slayer Joined: 29 Jun 2006 Karma :

My brother just fixed his tank using por15. It's quite a long process but cleans out all the rust and forms a new seal on the inside of the tank. Thumbs Up

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Robby · Dirty Old Man Joined: 16 May 2002 Karma :

There are lots of methods.

You can pour in various acids that will strip the rust.

You can use a rust converter to turn it into a hard black coating.

You can shake a handful of nuts on a string around inside until it scrapes all the rust off.

Or you can use electrolysis.

I'm going to hook mine up to my electrolysis rig tomorrow, very important to let it dry thouroughly afterwards. Water and fuel together are bad.

steven_191 · Nearly there... Joined: 31 May 2009 Karma :

Robby · Dirty Old Man Joined: 16 May 2002 Karma :

Whatever method you do, if you use any water (any many do for rinsing etc) You can expect to leave it inside for close to a week to fully dry.

You might get away with just doing the marine clean part of the POR-15 job. If you do, let me know how it goes. It's supposed to strip out the rust and leave a zinc coating. The next plastic coating part is for a tank that's starting to leak or rust through.

el_oso · World Chat Champion Joined: 17 May 2008 Karma :

the electrolysis method works extremely well and will be very cheap to do using household items. the advantage of electrolysis is that it doesn't damage any of the good metal unlike acid methods.
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Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

steven_191 · Nearly there... Joined: 31 May 2009 Karma :

if i were to try the elctrolysis method would i put the rod thats taking all the rust (anode of cathode) inside the tank (without touching it) to draw it all away or would it still work just as well if it were outside the tank?

Robby · Dirty Old Man Joined: 16 May 2002 Karma :

You fill the tank with electrolyte and have the electrode stuck in the filler hole, without touching the metal of the tank.

Will take a good while, give the small contact area possible for the electrode. 8 hours on 15 amps got the worst of the looser rust off, but it's going to go back on for a longer session when I get round to it to give me clean metal all round.

el_oso · World Chat Champion Joined: 17 May 2008 Karma :

the negative end needs to be connected to the tank. (cathode)
the positive end needs to be connected to the metal rod that doesn't matter about being destroyed. (anode)
i removed every single piece of rust from a motorbike frame in about 4hours or so. used an old computer power supply. used a 12v 5amp power rail.
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

chris-red · Have you considered a TDM? Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Karma :

chris-red · Have you considered a TDM? Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Karma :

Scratch that there are loads of cheap, Tanks on ebay, buy one of those.
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steven_191 · Nearly there... Joined: 31 May 2009 Karma :

cheap and not dented to fuck?