Cleaning rust out....

[BenR]

From petrol tanks? How do you do yours? I've heard of people putting stones in the tank & shaking it but I'd be worried I wouldn't get them all out again. Cheers in advance.
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Current bikes: suzuki RG125UN wolf. Yamaha MT-07

[jaffa90]

I use big nuts & bolts.
Never tried chippings yet.

[stinkwheel]

Use nuts, thread them loosely on a bit of string first.

Or treat the whole tank with POR15. Which you'll probably land up doing anyway. Any tank I've ever de-rusted like that has landed up with pinhole leaks very soon after.

Another thing to try is filling it up with white vinegar (often sold very cheaply as "non-brewed condiment) for a couple of days then rinsing it out with a pressure washer.

It would have to be pretty heavy rust for me to bother at all though. As long as it's not coming lose and blocking the fuel tap, I'd make sure I have a good filter fitted and avoid parking it for prolonged periods with an empty tank.
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[doggone]

You might try phosphoric acid but don't leave it in too long.
This widely sold as rust remover, but I suspect any acid would work to some degree.
Whatever you do will basically expose more bare metal so not much of a solution.

The root of the problem is condensation in the air above the fuel so keeping it almost full if unused for any time is wise.

[andym]

3 replies and no mention of electrolysis

[piazza]

Cider vinegar works great. I used it a few years ago after reading it somewhere - possibly here- I agitated it with a sander and shook it every few hours..or when you can be arsed. I left it a day or 2 as I recall.
The tank was from a SL125 which had been garage bound for 12 years.

[stinkwheel]

[BenR]

Thanks for the replies guys.
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Current bikes: suzuki RG125UN wolf. Yamaha MT-07

[Robby]

Phosphoric acid. It attacks rubber and aluminium, so doesn't work on tanks with a sender unit and the fuel tap has to be removed and blanked off. Gives the best results on rusty steel.

As ever, prep and finishing are important. Needs to get the tank really well rinsed out first, then rinse afterwards, then immediately pour in a bottle of meths, swill it round and drain, then fill with petrol. If you leave it empty after treating, it will rust quickly.

[WD Forte]

I've used light chain like you get on plain tanks ( no senders etc).
after doing a cocktail waiter shaking thing on it, it's easy to fish out again without worrying you may have left something inside.
You could also use it alongside your favourite antirustoprene jollop.
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[jaffa90]

Just remembered that i used oxy clean granules / whitener for a squeaky clean but don`t tell the wife!

[Teflon-Mike]

Main ingredient of coke-a-cola is phosphoric acid...... its a fantastic solution for de-rusting stuff, and disolving teeth.....

I have to err with Stink though; I tend to use a lot of water rinces to get the crud and silt out first; then I might, depending on how bad, use electrolysis on a car-battery charger, then onto a couple of soaks with whit vinegar and rince.... Then POR15 treatment, following instructions ABSOLUTELY to the letter vis the rinces and turn times, and especially the drying and drying times and excessively extending the final cure of the liner treatment 'cure'.

If the tanks old, and or particularl;y bad, AND if you use electrolysis, you can very easily knock out any rust that's actually plugging pin holes... so you need the POR15 ultimately anyway to seal it back up!

If you DONT do a liner treatment, like POR15... then tends to be a fop, and the rust comes back, and you end up doing and doing over time after time, to 'not' save the time or a lot of money doing it once, and doing it right first time about.

Your call.... how rusty is the tank, and is it enough that the rust is clogging tap, pipes and cab-jets, yet?
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[BTTD]

Used electrolysis on a couple of tanks. Always got good results and you get to feel like bit of a scientist if you wear a white lab coat while you do it.

[Moo.]

Bilt Hamber Deox-C.

Fill up the tank with it and dilute with water, decent rust remover.

Not nasty chemicals and can be dumped down the sink after
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[A100man]

Tried them all but phosphoric stands out as the best/quickest in my experience, Get the 90% concentrate and dilute down to 10-15%. Probably works out cheaper than vinegar which I always found a bit weedy.
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