The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Gas tank Sealers/ Coatings

I know there are many products out there . Does anyone have any suggestions on what brand may work best to seal my rusty tank ? Tank is solid..... just has all that powered rust that needs to be taking care of .

Thanks

Eastwood sells a kit. I haven't used it though. I'd check that out first. www.eastwoodco.com There are also some gas tank restoration specialists that advertise in Hemmings.

Ive had some done at commertial gas tank shops & the results have not been good. You might do OK if you do it yourself but unless you have something that a new tank is not available for I would buy a new tank. Were ever the line, filter, pump, or carb gets clogged up is were you set.

Thanks OCTN ,
What they all have in common is the two step cleaning process and make sure the tank is totally DRY , which makes sense , in respect that it is like preparing to paint something . I will go to the parts store in the am and see what they have

When you check with the vendors, be sure to ask if the coatings they offer are compatible with E10 blended fuel. I've noted that the blended fuels have a tendency to "scour" the inside of a tank and the material winds up clogging up the fuel filters and ultimately the carbs. Any additional coating you might add that wasn't compatible might just add to the mess.

Dave

W Retired ,
There is no big chunks of rust in there , it is like the surface rust you find on the body , it sands off in a light dust

I did get lucky and was able to free up the sending unit , I used a product like wrench buster , but it FREEZES it a little . I never saw it before , but it sure worked !

Fla ,
I never thought about the ethanol factor , good advise , Thanks

I've used several different sealers and I consider Red Kote to be the best. I've got it in my 38s tank now. Many vendors sell it. Google it for the best price.

If it's just light surface rust and no heavy scale a tank full of E10 blended fuel will scour it clean. I'd be tempted to give it a good wash with kero or mineral spirits, and as long as there weren't any chunks of stuff, add some blended fuel and a second filter between the fuel pump and the carb and monitor the flow of crud. I pulled the sender on my 2 year old replacement tank and the inside was shiny.....as was the entire sender unit.

That's one of the few "pluses" I've discovered with the E10 fuel....your tank and lines will be clean. You just need to take extra measures to catch the crud before it gets up to the carb.

Dave

Fla ,
I can look into the tank and it looks " dirty clean "meaning no chunks of rust . I filled it with some sharp gravel that we have here in Md. and shook the bejebbies out of it , all tha tcame out was rocks and a fine brown dust . Are you saying the E-10 cleans it out better than kero or mineral spirits or should I use all three ? How about Coca Cola that I heard in another post ?

Naw.....the kero or ms will just make sure you've washed out any residue from your adventure with rocks. You don't need them passing through your fuel pump. Go ahead and reinstall the tank....make sure you use the ethanol rated blue-lined rubber line wherever you have rubber line and add a second disposable filter between the pump and the carb. I tried one right off the tank and it caused me issues when the tank got down below 1/2 full. None experienced when adding it between the pump and the carb. Make sure the filter is E-10 rated.....some plastic filters are reported to soften with the blend. Haven't had that problem as I like the metal-cased filters.

The rust will come out of the tank so you might try backflushing the filter to see how much is being scoured. It may take a couple cycles to get it all out of the tank. I haven't had any issues since the initial "vapor-lock/phase seperation" was cured by insulating my steel line up in front of the valve cover.

Dave

Fla
I always worry about the fine particles that get through the filter and into the carb ….ya think that 2 filters for the first run of gas is excessive ?

Negative.....I had large sand-like particles trapped in my glass bowl filter directly before the carb....added another filter closer to the pump and had no more residue in the glass bowl. The pump will only loose 1 psi with another inline filter.

When the stations converted over to E10 they were required to clean their tanks, which I doubt they did, and were required to change the filters on each pump weekly. Just can't picture Habib springing for 25 new filters every week. So taking the suggestions of the boating industry and adding additional filtering just made good sense.

Dave

Dave
This may be off subject but didn't I read about a bunch of boat owners whose engines were ruined because of some "funny " gas ? Was that E-10 that did it ?
Dan

Refer to the post about E-10.

Affirmative....the E10 has raised havoc with the boating public...especially the owners of older larger yachts. What's really amazing is that a lot of the specific information on E10 problems that was on the internet 4 months ago is no longer available. The problems still exist, but the explaination for what's causing them has been removed.

When I read a post about fuel related issues on our old trucks I can't help but think that many of them may be related to these same issues.

Dave

I used the Por15 kit in my 37 pickup 9 years ago and it still holds up nice. I can see straight down into my 37's tank and the stuff looks like I just put it in there. It did take me and my nephew a whole saturday afternoon to do it but the results have really been good. Just another option!

When I did mine I took a coffee can full of sheet metal screws and sprayed a can of foamy engine cleaner into the tank, I sealed up all the openings and proceeded to shake and tumble it for about an hour, works best with a little screachin' "honky tonk' playing in the background.
When I dumped out the screws the threads were packed with a rusty clay sort of sludge.
I cleaned the screws off in diesel fuel and returned them to the tank with another can of foamy engine cleaner, a little more "honky tonkin" and I poured them out, not near as much crud but not as clean as I wanted it.
More diesel wash and back into the tank, third time the screws came out as clean as they went in, rinsed the tank, put it in the sun, stuck a hair dryer in it and ran it till it was bone dry.
I didn't seal the tank.

I ran all new lines and fitting, cut and flared my stainless fuel line and put an old style glass bowl filter (the type with the replaceable elements) just ahead of the fuel pump and then put a marine style glass filter (also with a replaceable element) just before the carb.
Nearly 2 years and not a hick up, I expected to have to replace an element early on but it's been fine.
I carry spare elements in my on board tool kit.

YMMV

I had a simlmar problem with my boat tanks. I had them boiled out and coated at a radiator shop and have had no problems so far.
62Blue
Don

Oldog Any new info? I just sent my tank off to a stripper today to get cleaned and cleared of the rust dust and need to decide whether to coat it when it returns. From what I am hearing a good rinse with lacquer thinner is all I will need.

If you have more on your experience I would be happy to learn more.