The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Gas Gone Bad

Helping a buddy with his newly purchased 48. Vehicle's been sitting for quite a while and the gas that was in it, has long ago, gone bad.

Anyone had any successes with any methods, products, etc. when it comes to cleaning the varnish from the tank, once it's been drained.

I know before the EPA become such a strong part of our lives, the local mom and pop radiator shops used to boil them out. With the newer controls etc. most won't touch them now.

Nothing worse than bad gas. Usually comes after chili or hard-boiled eggs. Seriously in the latest Vintage Truck the editorial is about keeping gas over the winter. This is a preventive method and I don't think it wopuld apply here. A previous article in the same magazine wrote about cleaning a gas tank which might apply in this case.

oldblu49,

I get that mag, it's a good one.

I don't recall what issue that gas tank cleaning article was in, do you?

This is a serious issue. I bent two pushrods because I didn't have all of the bad gas removed before I started my 38. After I shut it off the gas hardened on the intake valves & stuck two shut. I ended up acid cleaing my tank and coating it with Redkote tank liner. The "kits" you buy use phosphoric acid which is safer than the muratic acid I used. The muratic is about 10 times cheaper though. A good 5 minute slosh with the muratic acid was all it took. I then poured in several gallons of soda water (one box baking soda in water) to kill the acid, let it dry and coated it. After the acid wash the stuff that comes out is N A S T Y!!!!

I was recently cleaning my tank. and what i found to work to loosen up all the loose stuff and some varnish. I poured in about a 1/2 gallon of paint thinner and i dropped in a steel chain and is shook the tank and it got a lot of stuff out. you can repeat that a few times. but I am planning on replacing my tank once my car is finished becuse there is still alot of sediment in there that i could not get out

Tiny, Thanks for the tip. Where did you locate the redkote tank liner? Mom and pop parts place?

Chaimv, the tank doesn't appear to have alot of sediment in it. But it does have a very thorough coating of hardened gas that may be covering up some of those issues as well.

Thanks for the help guys.

I got my redkote through the local Bumper To Bumper parts house. I imagine about any jobber can order it for you. I see there are some folks on eBay selling it...or at least what they call redkote. I've used Kreem and Redkote and much prefer Redkote. It takes about a quart to do a tank but I bought a gallon. My reasoning is it'll do a better job of coating the tank using more liquid. Put a few drops of water on a dinner plate and try to spread it by moving the plate around. Now put four times that much and see how much easier it is to cover the whole thing. I put the extra in an air tight container & have it if I ever need it.

Thanks Tiny.

I'll do some checking around here and see what I can find.

Jed - Vintage Truck October 2006 or Volume 14 No 4.

I had the same bad luck as Tiny with the valves getting stuck from varnish. I solved the problem with a valve job on the head and a brand new gas tank (about $160.00). I have everything back together now and it runs just fine.

Thanks oldblu49, I'm pretty sure I have that issue in the "library" archive.