Re: fuel tank, how to clean out rust

Posted by Bob Johnson on December 31, 1997 at 16:02:46

In Reply to: fuel tank, how to clean out rust
posted by ben umberger on December 31, 1997 at 15:10:49

Ben,
I will tell you what I did to 'clean' my tank.First the tankwas removed from the car. Next I removed any liquid from inside the tank. Then I tossed in a couple of handfulls of asorted nuts and bolts (make sure that you count tham before you put them in the tank). Now shake the heck out of it.This will remove most of the rust.Remove all of the nuts and bolts, you did count them didn't you. Flush out the 'rust dust' with water. Next I filled the tank to the top with water. I added some lye (Sodium Hydroxide) to the water to make it conductive.Then I connected the negative side of a battery charger to the outside of the tank. I connected the positive side of the charger to a piece of scrap iron and hung it in the water making sure it DID NOT touch the tank at all. I then turned on the charger at about 5 amps and let it run for about 12 hours. What should happen is the scrap iron will turn to rust and the rust on the inside of the tank should turn into iron particles. Then I flushed the tank with water until it was clean. Make sure that the inside of the tank is completly dry. Lastly I used a 'sloshing compound' to seal the inside of the tank.Make sure the 'sloshing compound' is alcohol resistant.The insides of the gas tanks were originally sealed with something (a lead/solder compound).
Bob

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