The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Panels 'N Burbs old gastank cleaning?

What's the best way to clean the 36 gastank on my Suburban? I've heard tricks like: use a solvent, drain, then throw in 300 wallboard screws. tie tank to a tracktor wheel,drive around for an hour. Don't have a tractor...and it;s snowing here.
Any products out there? It was sealed good, but lord only knows what is in there. Want to be as original as I can be.so no new tank for me...thanks guys...Bruce

Hey, When I was restoring my 53 pickup, the gas tank had some rust in it, and who knows what else. My buddy and I took a chunk of airhose with a fitting for weight and stuck it down the guage hole, turned on the air and let it flop around loosening up any rust. We didn't use a vaccume as there might be a spark from the motor to set off any fumes. Then I bought a couple of kits for gas tank lining at NAPA store, followed the directions and it coated the inside. Haven't had any problems other than cramming expensive dinasours down the filler spout. Good luck.

I hosed out the tank as much as possible then used a 10' chunk of chain and some pea gravel sloshing around in hot water and dawn for about 20 or 30 minutes then rinsed it out with more hot H2O followed with some mineral spirits, followed that up with the shop vac blower to dry things out real good.

If your tank does not have baffles in it, it will be easy to clean out with previously suggested methods. However, if it does, like my '40, I gave up and bought a new repro tank. Expensive, but no problems since.

There is some good tips on the Tech Tips Links that you might try if it is only Rust or Varnish. It is at the top of the Forums page. Vinager is cheap out here in Calif.
62Blue
Don

I did the screws and shake method. I didn't have any other vehicle around this time, to tie the tank too. Any old thin that turns slow will work, concrete mixer, or whatnot. Dang, did my arms hurt after that. I also used boiling water and automatic dish washer detergent.

This is from a post I made a couple years ago.

"I was heading to the Orphans Home Christmas car show to buy my first trophy for the "new" Suburban. It quit on me about 2 miles from the house.

I determined it had trash in the fuel tank that had blocked the fuel filter. The fuel pump has a settlement bowl before the fuel filter and it, too was full of trash.

I drained and pulled the tank. I added some pea gravel and mineral spirits to it, sealed it off and strapped it to the tractor wheel. I brought the tractor in the shop, jacked it up and tumbled it about 30 minutes, then unstrapped it and turned it a quarter turn and gave it another 30 minutes.

I then washed it out with a heavy duty cleaner, like Simple Green but a cheaper brand I can't remember the name of. It took a couple of rinses to get all the gravel out.

I let it air dry a day and a half then poured about a quart of phosphoric acid in. I left that in about 30 minutes, sloshing and turning every 5 minutes or so. Then I dumped it in the gravel. I thought later, "Dummy, you could have saved that and used it to de-rust small parts later."

I rinsed with water a couple of times again. Then I ran a hair dryer in it for 30 minutes. Next I added a pint of acetone and sloshed it around. It is supposed to absorb any remaining water. I dumped that and gave it another pint. After dumping the second pint I let it air dry. I thought about the hair dryer again but was afraid the heat coil might ignite the fumes. Then I thought about compressed air but that would be blowing moisture back into it. By the time I got all those thoughts out of my head, the acetone had evaporated. Even if there was any left in the corners, it is soluble in the Red-Kote. That or MEK are the recommended thinners for it. Mine didn't need thinned.

Next I poured in 2 quarts of Red-Kote. I sealed it off and rolled the tank around a while to be sure it covered all surfaces. There is a big baffle in the burb tank and I wanted to make sure it got covered too.

I drained about a quart and a half back out. It left a thin coat of sealer in there. I thought about a second coat but I really don't think this tank needs it. It was really in pretty good shape after I got all the trash and surface rust out of it."

I used the POR 15 gas tank cleaning and sealing kit on several of my trucks.

A two step process that always work well for me.

You can put all kinds of items into a tank to rattle around while you put some sort of dangerous chemical to smell up everything while trying to attach it to a rotating thing and then dump it all on your property and stink up everything...I took mine to a radiator shop with a big tank of real hot, lye type cleaner, mine actually had gas in it for 15 years. Well the "gas" had separated and the petroleum products went to the bottom and the rest was "water". Anyway, no smell, no chemicals, no shaking, no dumping. $80, clean as a whistle and he fixed the holes. I've done it both ways, this is better. You will spend money both ways. You will never get it as clean as a good radiator guy. And there will be no accidents with you or your wife or your kids or the neighbors kids, or dogs or cats or water wells or rivers or....

Eighty dollars is a bargain. Here in SE Michigan the typical cost is around $300.00.

Gas Tank Renu cuts a hole in the tank, blasts the inside and out, and then coats both with impervious sealers, and welds the hole shut. Perfect, no leaks or contaminants, but very expensive.

http://gastankrenu.com/how.htm

Even that's a good deal for us Suburban and Panel owners. No aftermarket original tanks available. The renu sounds like overkill, at least in AZ.

Thanks to all you Gas Tank Gurus out there..might take it to the Radiaor guy here he;s top notch,and hear his opinion on the old gal..thank you..Bruce

I paid my local radiator and gas tank shop 75 bucks to boil and clean my tank and solder up two leaks, good as new. (although, my tank came from the CA desert)