Getting rid of rust build up in gas tank

[Karate.Snoopy]

Getting rid of rust build up in gas tank.
Online I have seen people using Apple Cider Vinegar and letting it sit in the tank for a couple days then once the rust is loose just running it through water.

How have you treated this?

[Jim]

i'm in the process of doing it now.
2 gallons of EvapoRust. leave it on a section/side for 2 days, then rotate.

[nick5446]

50/50 evaporust and water for 3 days and flush is my current go-to.

[jimmycapp]

I did the vinegar process on a Marauder tank a few years ago. Removed a bunch of rust, though it created a ton of pin hole leaks. lol. Tried lining it, failed. Ordered new tank on ebay...

[petro]

+1 for evaporust. It’s paint safe and reusable, which is nice.

My uncle recently went to the internet for rust removal advice for his ‘74 Z1 tank. He read something about vinegar and baking soda.. but missed the part where it’s two separate steps. He sealed it up tight and left it to work it’s magic.


He’s buying a replacement now. I laughed a lot.

[Paul_E_D]

+1 for evaporust. It’s paint safe and reusable, which is nice.

My uncle recently went to the internet for rust removal advice for his ‘74 Z1 tank. He read something about vinegar and baking soda.. but missed the part where it’s two separate steps. He sealed it up tight and left it to work it’s magic.


He’s buying a replacement now. I laughed a lot.

Did it inflate?

[Karate.Snoopy]

Doing the evapoRust. thanks guys

[RandyO]

Oxalic acid

[petro]

Did it inflate?

Right up until a seam blew out!

[Jim]

Did it inflate?

cheap trick to expand a tank for endurance racing

[Paul_E_D]

cheap trick to expand a tank for endurance racing

I made an endurance tank on an extra by accident once. Popping out dents with air pressure, couldn't see that the bottom was ballooning until it was too late. Hahaa

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[DirtDawg21892]

Electrolysis worked really well for me. I basically flipped the tank on its back, filled it up with water and baking soda, and put a graphite rod in through the petcock hole. Just make sure the rod is insulated and not touching metal on the end or on the edge where it enters the tank, otherwise you've got a short. then you just hook a battery charger or other current source up to the tank and the rod. rust flows from negative to positive, so the rod is the anode.

It worked way better than I expected. It's pretty basic chemistry and I was just messing around, but that bike is still on the road today.

[ZX-12R]

Project Farm videos on rust removal.

This one is a bunch of liquid products including Evapo-Rust:


And this one is electrolysis vs. Evapo-Rust:

[Jim]

Project Farm videos on rust removal.

but would you trust those other chemicals with a gas tank?

[ZX-12R]

but would you trust those other chemicals with a gas tank?

For me it would depend on the general health of the tank. The acidic removers work the fastest but in many cases can erode the underlying material. If the rust isn't bad and the overall structural integrity of the tank isn't in question, I wouldn't have any problem with those types of removers. They aren't meant to be left in unsupervised.

The selective chelating rust removers like Evapo-Rust are inherently safer as they don't attack the underlying metal. They don't work as fast but you can generally leave them unsupervised for a long period of time to do their work.

[nick5446]

If your tank is so bad that properly cleaning it compromises its integrity, you might want to hop on eBay for a new tank. If you just lightly clean it and then coat over the rust/rot, it'll lift the liner and/or start rusting outwards.

[dontpanic]

I also had very good results with electrolysis.

[Rambunctous]

How about taking about a cup of small nuts and washers and just a little gas or maybe baking soda with water and swirling them around in the tank a while and then rinsing with clean gas?

[RandyO]

How about taking about a cup of small nuts and washers and just a little gas or maybe baking soda with water and swirling them around in the tank a while and then rinsing with clean gas?

have you ever tried retrieving anything out of a gas tank ? the only abrasive you want to use is a length of light chain

[csmutty]

have you ever tried retrieving anything out of a gas tank ? the only abrasive you want to use is a length of light chain

That's actually a really good idea. Bicycle chain would be perfect.

[PurplePackage]

ultrasonic, but the steps are inside-out: you dunk a cheapo chinese ultrasonic vibrator into a tank filled with greenclean or whatever liquid you like to remove the rust. but cleaning just buys you time. a used tank is 100% worth the cry if you can find the matching color.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08DNG7QM6

[boosten lebaron]

I have an old harley tank thats all rusty and has a liner falling out of it. Gonna toss a chain in and see what it can do. I may step up to some screws if that liner is stubborn. Vinegar will finish off the rust if any is left.
Any good liner kits out there now? I did a cadwell coating on my last bike but its like glass and is cracking now.

[number9]

have you ever tried retrieving anything out of a gas tank ? the only abrasive you want to use is a length of light chain

Or tie them to a length of wire sorta like a necklace...

[PurplePackage]

Or tie them to a length of wire sorta like a necklace...

the way I used to clean tanks was a handful of ball bearings and a 20 minute shake. a chain won't get into the nooks and crannies of the tank. pull them out with a pickup magnet tool. if you are smart enough to count how many you dump in you know if one is stuck. doing that with evaporust and sitting it overnight will clean it like taco Tuesday

[LuvDog]

I used a cheap soda blaster setup from HF