Cleaning fuel tank

bosco659

bosco659

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If the inside of your fuel tank has spots of light surface rust that is staying put, is it advisable to remove it before it gets worse? I was thinking that rather than do a heavy / harsh chemical or mechanical cleaning (chains, nuts, bolts…), why not dry the tank out and fill it with Evaporust or equivalent? That will definitely take care of the rust and if the fuel is kept topped up and ethanol free, shouldn’t this keep the rust away? Any thoughts?
 
Fuel normally sloshes around inside the tank and as petrol is refined from crude oil, as long as there is fuel in the tank, free of water, it shouldn't rust.
If you like problems, line the inside with some sort of sealer.
 
I used Metal Rescue and It did a good job on my 73s tank
The tank inside looks better than the photo
 

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I just quickly rinsed it out with water and then took a hairdryer to it and just shloshed some oil and gas in it and now I just keep it full of gas
I was amazed at how good it turned out
I also added fuel filters to it but I don't think I needed to just added insurance
 

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Mikey said:
I just quickly rinsed it out with water and then took a hairdryer to it and just shloshed some oil and gas in it and now I just keep it full of gas
I was amazed at how good it turned out
I also added fuel filters to it but I don't think I needed to just added insurance
Click to expand...
I did it last summer it still looks good
I jus wouldn't want to risk a liner
 
Mikey said:
I did it last summer it still looks good
I jus wouldn't want to risk a liner
Click to expand...
Thx, looks great. That’s what I plan to do with my new project! Also thought maybe I’ll add a very low % oil with each fill up to keep the tank rust free. Oil won’t matter because it’s an oil injected 2 stroke.
 
bosco659 said:
Thx, looks great. That’s what I plan to do with my new project! Also thought maybe I’ll add a very low % oil with each fill up to keep the tank rust free. Oil won’t matter because it’s an oil injected 2 stroke.
Click to expand...
I don't think you'd need to add oil to it but if it's a 2 stroke it won't hurt
When you buy the metal rescue it will come in a concentrated liquid make sure you buy enough to be able to completely fill the tank
When I first did it I only used enough to make 2 gals in a 4 gallon tank then I kept rotating it on and on
Just fill it up to the brim and let it do it's work
If you get as much of the rust out before you put in the solution so much the better you may even be able to re use it on something else
People have used nuts / bolts old chainsaw blades etc to do that
Get out what you can easily and let the solution do it's thing
And it's bio degradable and won't scar you for life if you get some on you
 
Get 4 jugs of vinegar, fill completely and slosh it around every time you think of it for 24 - 36 hours. Drain it out, flush, then give it 24 hours of metal rescue which will leave the surface chelated. Drain and flush, dry it out, slosh a quart or so of strong oil gas mix in it, drain out you're good to go.
The vinegar treatment gets rid of the heavy rust. Also assuming that all the loose stuff has been vacuumed out.
 
Last edited:
I just did my tank which had some light rust from condensation. First, tried vinegar and that just didn't work. Then a splurged for 2 gallons of Evaporust. It took about 24 hours and a some occasional sloshing, but it turned out beautiful.
 
When you have finished rinsing your tank with water to get your cleaner of choice out put some methylated spirits in. It mixes with water and helps it evaporate. Meths will also go through carbs ok so you can put some in the tank from time to time to slow the water build up.
 
I’ve used straight vinegar on a heavily rusted tank. Added a handful of nuts and bolts and sloshed it around once a day fir about 4-5 days. Good rinse and dry and no issues. The pan has the crap that came out of there.EEDD327A-BA45-4D5C-BF95-125825D73816.jpeg0CD203E1-EEDC-42F3-809E-8DF5B328FBD5.jpeg
B73D8C19-BC6D-44F8-B23E-8994FD986EFC.jpegA4F00718-CA78-4279-994F-58493D8F707A.jpeg
 
Yeah on the last tank I used vinegar too and it worked great
But I made the mistake of rinsing the tank out with soupy water then a clean water rinse and then a hair drier to get the water out
Of course I got flash rust immediately :banghead::banghead: and I knew better I sloshed it with oil and a kerosene mix it's fine as it is but ........
"to soon to old to late to smart "
 
None of the rust remover solutions work when it’s colder. I used to keep a small container of the evaporust in the house for smaller parts in the wintertime.
 

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