Rusty gas tank solution?

[scott#2]

Its been a while since I have posted, I was wondering if anyone has tries a product called Iron Out to rid their tanks of rust? Its a $15 jug of granuals that I got fron Lowes in the cleaning sectioon, similar to CLR i suppose. I filled the tank half full with water, poured some in, topped it off and poured the rest in and shook it around a few times over a few hours until disloved.

So far it has been the tank for 3 days now, it needs to come out, like yesterday. I think it did its magic by the end of the second day.

This tank was nasty, full of scum, rust, who knows what and it has cleaned it very well. All that is left are small black splotches the size of a match head where, what I assume to be deep rust pits existed.

I am pretty impressed as I have done the nuts, tie it to the tire thing and go cutting fields before, works but tis appears to be easier, just let it sit around.

I"ll pour it out, rinse it out with water, blow it out and slosh a couple quarts of iso through it and see how it goes.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I would seal the tank yo keep it from risting again

 

[Anonymous-0]

I would seal the tank to keep it from rusting again. It seems that if they were rusty they just rust again.

 

[Stephen Newell]

I’ve never heard of Iron Out. Most people here use muriatic acid to clean a rusty gas tank. I recently did my tractor and it worked very well and is cheap. I just poured the acid in and let it set for 15 minutes, rotating it around the tank often but at the time the weather was 100 degrees. It would take longer now. Then I drained it and thoroughly rinsed the tank with a power washer. Then I poured a baking soda solution in the tank to neutralize the acid and thoroughly rinsed again. I then forced dried the tank with a heat gun and when it cooled, I coated the inside with Red Kote fuel tank liner to keep it from rusting again. This stuff will also plug pinhole leaks you might have in the gas tank. I used the Red Kote on a leaking gas tank I had on a Jeep five years ago and it’s still holding.

 

[biggerred]

Do you pour the acid in uncut? (not watered down)How did you make that bakeing soda solution?

 

[Stephen Newell]

I used Sunnyside muriatic acid I bought at Tractor Supply. It is 31.45% hydrochloric acid, 20% baume. I used it uncut. For the bakeing soda solution, I mixed a half box Arm and Hammer bakeing soda with a half gallon of water. It was only a 10 gallon tank.

 

[rustyfarmall]

(quoted from post at 09:07:05 11/20/11) Do you pour the acid in uncut? (not watered down)How did you make that bakeing soda solution?

Use the acid straight up. Do not dilute it. I made the mistake of diluting it 50% with water the first time I used it in a gas tank and while it still got results, it was not what I wanted so I started over and used it full strength this time. The tank was clean in almost no time.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Where can you get Red Kote tank liner?

 

[Anonymous-0]

You can buy Red Kote at Oreileys auto parts . You have to ask for it because they keep it behind the counter. Bought 3 quarts this summer and it runs around $25.00 a quart.

 

[showcrop]

The black splotches sounds like iron phosphate which is what is left after using one of the phosphoric acid products. So the Iron Out must be phosphoric Acid. You just paid a whole lot less than most guys do for their favorite brand.

 

[cuttman]

When checking at O'Reillys about Red Kote. If you need more than 2 quarts, get a price on a gallon, seems to me if memory serves me right it was only 55 bucks or around there. Gregg