Gas tank cleaning

Whats the best way to clean rust from a gas tank ? I recently used muriatic acid which was great until the other day when my tank lid accidentally closed and kaboom . Soooo now im looking for another method of tank cleaning that does not involve muriatic acid and baking soda. -Tyler

Just use a mix of water and muriatic acid as directed in acid container for rust removal, do not add baking soda, let sit overnight, rinse well, and then spray tank to flash metal with WD-40 to prevent rustig.

Baking soda neutralizes acid, so you aren't supposed to use it during the de-rusting process. You could use it after doing the acid treatment... but I only rinsed w copious amounts of water.

ahh okay , Well maybe I will use acid again . Ill just have to be careful i guess

There are other ways to clean the tank, including the use of alternate acids - for example oxalic acid - do a KZRider search. Or search for tank treatment... something like that.

Some recommend using full strength muriatic acid. I used a 50-50 solution. It did a good job on the light rust around the fuel filler opening, but I didn't leave it in long enough to treat the heavy stuff at the bottom (which I didn't realize was there). I only gave it 15 minutes or so, maybe less.

Schmeck wrote: Whats the best way to clean rust from a gas tank ? I recently used muriatic acid which was great until the other day when my tank lid accidentally closed and kaboom . Soooo now im looking for another method of tank cleaning that does not involve muriatic acid and baking soda. -Tyler

Sorry Tyler! You can't get there from where you are. I've tried several methods and found Muriatic acid to be the only way to go.

I just finished removing the rust from this gas tank for my 47 Chief.

Here's before:










Then after adding a quart of Muriatic acid sealing the fill and petcock with Gorilla tape and sloshing it around several times during the next hour. I flushed the acid with cold water which I followed immediately with lots of WD40. I then use a shop vac to force the tank dry and finally spray some Marvel Mystery Oil around, which you can see a bit of in the bottom of the tank.

When I stripped my tank I used EvapoRust. I found it on sale at Autozone so I used 2 gallons. I don't think its the cheapest, I think the 2 gallons was around $40. It worked really well, all the rust is gone. When I was done I just strained the EvapoRust and put it back in the containers since you can re-use it. I just flushed the tank out out with some clean gas afterwards.

Before:



Before/After Comparison:

I've used a tank kit from Yamaha with great results..its a two bottle kit for around twenty five to thirty bucks..it is caustic and you mix it with water in the tank very easy to follow leave the cap off of the tank let it sit overnight or for whatever it says on the bottle a few hours I think it says..then rinse with water. Use the second bottle to neutralize the tank just another rinse with that solution and your done..I used one kit for two tanks...I've been told by greagz that vinager works as well.
if Yamaha does not have the kit in your local neighborhood jim at redline cycle carries it in stock he can get it to you within 3 days usualy..goodluck

oh I forgot to mention don't run that solution through yourfuel tap I simply unscrewed my pet cock and let it drain out

I used Metal Rescue to derust my tank. It's $25 for a gallon at the Home Depot. It worked great. And it's reusable and clean to just dump in your yard.

The quart of Muriatic acid I bought at ACE hardware cost $3.88.

Bill

Does the muratic acid dissolve the black tar looking shellac out of the tank from 30 year old gas sitting in it ?