Cleaning out a petrol tank

[Misc]

Got mine off & drained at the moment & have noticed particles floating around when there was petrol in there. What's the best (money free) way to give it a good rinse out & get rid of the crap inside please?

Cheers.

[Chris750]

Personally I would rinse it out with a bit of fuel.
Do it a few times giving it a good shake until you don't get any bits coming out.

[Misc]

[.....]

[The Artist]

I use small stones. Not very small, make sure they are all at least pea size so easy to get out, put some petrol in there with the stones and shake about, this will scrape any crap off the inside of the tank.

Then get them out and use a hose pipe to completely empty it of debris then leave the tank out in this hot sun for a few hours to properly dry.

Win

[ms51ves3]

[Misc]

[The Artist]

True that lots of nuts on string is good and easier.

[Misc]

Will use ms51ves3 string method a try.

Thanks all.

[Misc]

Sorry for the bump but today i got a good look inside the tank & it wasn't rust, more like debris or dirt & random crap. Not much but can clearly see them in the tank.

I tried shaking the tank hard with petrol in it & then emptying but the debris is still there.

Any other suggestions? Is there a very cheap fluid i can use to fill the tank to the brim & empty it & repeat until the crap is out?

[gmanxiii]

I'm looking to restore a tank at the moment and found various suggestions on cleaning one being to use phosphoric acid or equivalent industrial cleaner. However you want to be careful as some may leave residue that will end up being mixed up with your fuel. Also its pretty nasty stuff and I think it may be fairly difficult to get hold of. What is generally recommended is the POR15 kits which im looking to use to derust and seal my tank and one of the items in the kit is a Marine cleaner which removes most crap and residue and is available on its own at 9quid a bottle.

kit

Marine cleaner on its own

Heres a guide on how to use it.
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[ms51ves3]

Let the tank dry and then tip it upside down. Shake it about a lot to try and get the crap out of the filler. It takes a while but I did this with my TZR tank.

[Bishbash]

I used brake cleaner and an air gun to blast on out, works a treat. After the brake cleaner going in there though, give it a rinse out with fuel
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[alun111]

Have you taken the fuel tap off? (Might have missed that bit) I would then use fuel (you can re-use it if you filter it before putting it back in- so does this between each flush too)
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[stirlinggaz]

aqnother vote for air line.
give it a good rinse out using the "small nuts on a string & some fuel method", then give it a good blast with compressed air.
just done 2 mito petrol tanks using the very same method.
then fit an in-line fuel filter, to catch anything else.
if you dont have access to an air-line/compressor then one of the tank sealing products like petseal or the por stuff mentioned above, are very good & should stop any further rusting.
cheers,
GAZ

[ZRX61]

Take the tap off, the in-tank filter is stopping the crap coming out..

[Misc]

Thanks everyone above, very helpful but when with the 'tap off' route.

I took the tap off & flushed it that way (thanks) not sure why i didn't think of it before, i've had the tap of at least 3 times the past few weeks. The crap seemed to come out, little bits of dirt & other bits of crap.

Only had a tiny bit of fuel so couldn't give it a good shake but will give it another go.