The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop cleaning original tank

GUYS, I am pulling the original tank on my '53 to flush and clean it. What is the best way to do this and should I use any sealer or chemicals on the inside to coat inner tank.

My truck is a 1 owner with all original interior. Sat for 10 years with gas in tank.

What I've done before is, take some large nuts (like 1/2" or so) or large ball bearings, throw them in the tank with a gallon or two of diesel fuel or kerosine. Shake everything up and rinse and do it all over again. On the really sludged tanks, I get them boiled, you can't get that hard stuff out of the seams without a chemical. If the tank has a rust problem I would consider sealing the inside with a tank coating.
Good luck,
Scott

Hey Upsman,

I'm putting a used tank in my '47. What I have learned is:

1.) You have it leak tested.

2.) You have it cleaned.

3.) You have it relined.

4.) A local radiator shop will do all this for me for approximately $80.00. Repairs are extra. Repairs on a seam leak are not worth trying.

Since I bought a used tank I asked the questions, how clean is it, and does it leak. The answers were good enough to satisfy me, and the seller is a fellow stovebolter, so I took a chance on it sight unseen.

I'm not sure how they leak test it, the seller says he filled it with soapy water and it held it. As far as cleaning, the shop uses some kind of acid bath. One of my options was an aluminum tank a guy had for sale. The radiator shop said they couldn't clean it, there would be nothing left. For relining it, they have some kind of rubberized paint type stuff they pour in, agitate the tank until it's coated and then pour out the excess.

It seems to me that it's worth the $80 to let the pros do this. I don't want to mess with the acid, waste (and have to dispose of) the acid and a couple gallons of liner stuff, and who wants to shake a gas tank around until you think you have it all coated? If it needs repairs, I may do that myself. I can weld and braze. I'm assuming repairs must be made before the cleaning/lining process. Wouldn't want to burn off the coating.

You only need to remove rust if the inside of ther tank is rusty. If you are lucky and the tank is not rusty, you will still want to remove any deposits from dirty, evaporated, and/or old gas. Most of us have not been lucky and the inside of the tank needed to be cleaned and rust had to be removed.

As 48bigtrucks says above, nuts or bearings or pea-stone, or small gravel, or a length of small link chain have been used by people to free up rust. Some people have used tank cleaning solvents (or thinner and/or alcohol) with whatever abrasive they have used. Be sure to rinse the tank several times after removing whatever abrasive and/or solvent you choose.

POR is one of the companies that sells products for cleaning and sealing gas tanks (this is no recommendation for their products - read the Q&A down to the bottom - they state that sealer is not always needed).

Tim

dont waste money on tank liners if its that bad after a cleaning spend the money on a new one

i had my tank vatted and sealed with liner for 60 buck at a radiator shop...worked fine

Correction. The seller of the gas tank says he filled it with compressed air and used soapy water on all the seams and exterior surface.

Makes more sense. Didn't say how he got it sealed up though...

Upsman, I just went through what you are going through. A while back I took the tank out of my 49 and steamed it out good. It looked realy good inside. I put it back in the truck, and a little while later, I started seeing rust in the fuel pump bowl. I bought a new tank from "Chevy Duty" and when I got it installed, I put gas in it, and it leaked like a sive around the hole where the shut off valve threads into the bottom. The new tank has some design flaws in it. It isn't near as good as the original. I took it back to them, and got my money back. Then, since my original tank wasn't really in too bad a shape other than the rust, I bought a cleaner/sealer kit from Eastwood, and did the job myself. The tank is sealed, and back in my truck and working great. I had asked a local radiator shop here about boiling out the original tank, and they told me that their insurance people made them stop messing with gas tanks because of the danger factor.

I used the POR15 on an irreplaceable motorcycle tank recently, and while I haven't put gas in it yet, the cleaning and sealing process went pretty well. The phosphoric acid etch made the metal inside look brand new, without the need for any ball bearings or rocks sloshed inside. You can leave it that way, as long as you fog the metal with some light oil to keep it from rusting, otherwise it will rust almost instantly. The POR sealer seems to be some tough stuff, and I ended up lining my bike tank with it. My bike sees low miles and gets to sleep in a heated garage, so it will probably last a long time, but I would use the sealer on just about any tank. Just make sure the inside gets cleaned and coated thoroughly or the coating will fail quickly.

nope por 15 is no good i did just what you did put the tank up for a year got ready to use it looked inside and it was peeling in a few places this was on a bike tank por would not respond to my messages it may work for a while but i wont waste my time any more

mayby if you put gas in the tank after a week it may keep the sealer from drying and cracking

I'll let you know, I'm about to clearcoat the tank and put it back on the bike.

If you don't like POR-15, try this:
Slosh Sealer

I've used POR15 tank sealer on several tanks at our museum, the only one I had problems with was when someone told me they had cleaned the tank per the instructions and didn't. And that stuff is the devil to get out. MEK didn't even want to cut it.

Prices on tank cleaning vary a bunch. Around here there is now only one outfit that will boil a tank, and he has a several week waiting list. Charges $100 just to clean the tank.

Somebody at work told me to use gas tank "kreem". He talked about using it on motorcycle tanks. I had never heard of it, but guess it may be expensive to use on something as large as what we have.

I took my tank to the local radiator shop and the guy there looked it over and told me to just install it. It was in good shape the way I bought it, so I dodged the bullet on cleaning and sealing my tank.