rust in gas tank

[jerkus730]

I have a minimal amount of rust inside my gas tank, any suggestions on removing it?

 

[DrAllis]

(quoted from post at 12:12:38 03/18/23) I have a minimal amount of rust inside my gas tank, any suggestions on removing it? *** I've saved several over the years with a small hand held sand blaster aimed in thru the fill hole and also in from the outlet hole. Power wash out and dump several times and let dry and air dry for a couple of days.

 

[CEP ACB]

Be careful sandblasting if there's fresh gas fumes , you don't want it to go woof.
I've blasted in the dark before and it makes quite a lot of tiny sparks.

 

[DrAllis]

(quoted from post at 06:11:49 03/19/23) Be careful sandblasting if there's fresh gas fumes , you don't want it to go woof.
I've blasted in the dark before and it makes quite a lot of tiny sparks.

EDIT: I always washed out and flushed each tank a couple of times before the sand blasting. And washed/flushed several times again to get out all the sand. Sometimes the first washings with a power washer/soap/hot water got it clean enuff I didn't have to sand blast.

This post was edited by DrAllis on 03/19/2023 at 10:39 am.

 

[Mike(NEOhio)]

EvapoRust. Let it soak a couple of days, hot water rinse then dry thoroughly.

 

[Watthour]

I've had reasonable success using methanol (denatured alcohol) to loosen rust and sediments before dumping out the tank. Some have taken multiple applications. Be aware that methanol does have an affinity for lead, do it the tank is soldered at all, it may weaken those joints. Plain rolled and formed seam steel tanks should be safe to treat that way.

 

[thdrduck]

The one on my B was really bad. Final solution was to dump in a hand full of granite pea gravel and slosh it around for a few days. Cleaned it up nice and it was really bad.

 

[ChillyB]

Another vote for Evapo-Rust, or Metal Rescue (similar product but without a rust preventive product, which is advantageous in many applications).

Why introduce more trash into your tank? Let the evapo-rust or Metal Rescue work on one area, rotate and repeat until its all dissolved. It's expensive but a couple gallons and a week of letting chemistry do it's thing is a lot gentler than some other methods.