Re: Gas Tank Rust

Posted by Bob Johnson on March 27, 1998 at 16:55:34

In Reply to: Re: Gas Tank Rust
posted by Joel Rapose on March 27, 1998 at 11:35:36

WARNING
Muriatic acid ... More specifcly ... Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) will dissolve most metals including steel (iron).I would not get it anywhere near your tank.Take a nail shine it up with sand paper put it in a cup with muriatic acid and watch it bubble. Granted swimming pool acid is not real strong, but it will attack iron.
Here is what I did.
First I filled the tank with nuts and bolts, count them so you are sure that you get them all out when you are done.Then shack the heck out of it.Next I removed all of the nuts and bolts and flushed it several times with water until the eater was clear.Repeat the nuts and bolts followed by water until no more rust comes out. Then I put about 1/2 pound of lye (NaOH) in the tank and filled it with water.The fuel gauge must be removed and the hole pluged.Then I took a large pice of scrap iron and hung it in the tank through the filler hole.make sure that the scrap iron does not contact any part of the tank.Also hang it using something that does not conduct electricity such as wood or rope. Now the fun part.I connected the positive lead of a battery charger to the scrap iron and the negative lead to the tank.I turned on the charger and ran 2 - 4 amps for about one day (24 hrs).After one day the scrap iron was coated with rust and the inside of the tank had very little rust left.The theory here is that the iron on the scrap iron turns to rust and the rust on the tank is converted back to iron.I then flushed out the tank and did the nuts and bolts thing again. Finally I used a gas tank sealer (use an alcohol resistant one) to finish the job.
WARNING lye and electricity can be very dangerous.Do not do this unless you know what you are doing.
Bob

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