Gas tank acid rinse.

I followed the article at the bottom of the Home page and this muratic/phosphoric acid deal is right on to clean up the inside of a gas
tank . Thanks KZrider!

I need to do this soon, just apprehensive because I have nowhere to dump the acid My bike is garaged at my buddies house. I guess I could always dump it out on his neighbours lawn.

i just stuck it back in bottle put it on my self so kayleigh cant reach it and use it again on something else that is rusty.

It's a chemical thing and concrete (the lime in it, I think) is a good neutralizer. Or just spread some baking soda on it. Lots of water dilutes it plenty. In comercial construction they use muratic acid to clean the side of buildings after the masons finish slopping morter all over the stone. They spray it with a pressure wash machine, dilute, of course, but it gets blown all over. It gets on you, in your eyes, on cars, kinda bad for the clear coat not to mention eyes! Just dilute the hell out of it and it is safe if you only use a quart at a time.

If you find some crappy concrete you can just pour it out on the concrete. It'll be neutralized pretty quickly. It's a good idea to flush it away with a hose after just a few minutes.

KZCSI

Bought the 3 bottle set from Z1, and need to do my pristine tank someday.

Hey Corey,

Why would you do that to a pristine tank? Those epoxy tank coatings are only useful if your tank is a leaker. A tank that has been sealed is worth a lot less than one with rust in it.

If it'll make you feel better, return that Kreem to Z1 and send double the money to me.

KZCSI

Post edited by: KZCSI, at: 2007/03/13 08:32

CoreyClough, me acid washing my tank only cost me like $15 for the chemicals. Z1's great about returns. Read the article at the bottom of the Home page. Muratic acid is readily available at Home sheepdip, but you have to buy a box of it for like $10, two gallons. I could not find the exact Phosphoric acid formulations printed in the article there, but this was at Home Depot.

Last time I went through this I had an auto radiator repair shop boil out a previous tank (not terrible shape, but some scaley rust-it needed something done) in December and they coated the inside with red liner goo. This means a new paint job is neccessary, as well. The inside coating they did is sort of like what your thinking of doing.

It cost me $60 to have the boil out done. The process worked ok, but I would have rather done the acid wash method. I later found the article here.

The aticle's method really worked great. The inside was new looking after the Muratic Acid. I got a little flash rust during the phosphoric acid part, so I may try to use a little more phos next time (I may have only added 12oz of it) with a little more agitation of the tank during this pahse. I followed the article as precisely as I could. It is the method for retaining your pristine paint job, and saving dough.

mountain wrote:

...It cost me $60 to have the boil out done...

Yowza. :woohoo:

Been awhile since I had one boiled out, but I recall paying $5 for it. An influence on the price may be having enough patience to wait around until they're scheduling a truck core to be done and having your tank done at the same time. Those boil out rigs are gas-fired and cost a buck or two to get up to temp...

And a boil job will neatly remove any paint on the tank.

The muratic/phosporic treatment is a hands-down winner in any case, especially if you're trying to save a paint job.