Rusty gas tank

cubluvn8n

Member
Besides removing the tank... Is there anyway to clean out the loose rust in my Cub gas tank? I was thinking vacuuming it, but I'm sure there's rust behind the baffle. Is there a fuel additive that I should be adding to prevent this?
 
I taped a piece of 1 inch copper pipe to my shop vac and cleaned tank on my 460 it worked well bent it a little to get all the crap out
 
I had good luck using a couple of gallons of a product at the local farm store called evaporust.
There are many others, this is just the one I have experience with.
The rust in my tank was not bad, just loose scale.
 
I think I'll be trying the Evapo Rust. Hopefully it'll get the majority of the rust out. It is mostly in the bottom half of the tank, so I'll give it a good chemical soak. Thanks for a the responses!!!
 
DO NOT VACUUM THE TANK! The fumes pass thru the vacuum motor, which can ignite them. Makes huge blow torch. Have a good radiator shop chemically clean your tank, the plastic coat it to prevent future rust.
 
i have done a lot of different things now I go streight at the problem ---drain all the fuel--pull out the sediment unit --turn the water hose on it--some sort of spray directional nozzle--catch what comes out in a 5 gal bucket you will be surprised---- put your sediment unit back in--hook the lines up--put 1 gal gas in and drive it a little---drain the bowl a few times -all water will come out
 
Thinkng on this a little bit, and I have NOT DONE THIS, so I am not recommending it actually, but what might work is rinse it out real good, with water, put the Shop-Vac on the "BLOW" mode, and blow out all the dust and debris and fumes as possible. Then put in a collection of sharp-edge hex nuts, and strap the tank to a rear wheel, and drive it around and around and around and around. Then repeat the "BLOW" mode. Then Red-Kote, if I remember right, O'Reilly's has it.
 

If it is seriously rusty, removing the tank and having it chemically cleaned is the only answer.

If the rust is not all that bad, just leave it alone, make sure the sediment bowl is fully functional, and clean the sediment bowl on a regular basis. Eventually, the rust will have all been flushed into the sediment bowl, you will have cleaned it out, and it will be gone. NO more problems.

THAT is what the sediment bowl was designed to do. Just let it happen.
 
I did not believe what I saw when I saw my friend put a lot of loose bolts, nuts, nails , washers and anything that would fit into the tank. He tied it behind his four wheeler and had his son pull it around the yard for about an hour only on the grass and at a fairly slow speed. Dumped everything out, washed it out with kerosene, shinny as a new penny, tank not damaged by pulling it around. fresh coat of paint and good to go. Would not have believed it if I did not see it.
 
Evapo rust works great... rather pricy for a tank. A couple different things that you can do.

1) Electrolysis. Fill tank with washing soda solution. put a piece of rebar in through the neck into the solution, but isolated from the tank. Hook a battery charge + lead to the tank and - lead to the rebar. Let it run for a couple days.

2) Acid. Either a few gallons of muratic or phosphoric acid into your tank. Top it off with water. Let it sit for a week. The more acid, the less time it takes. Phosphoric acid works better, but you can do it with muratic acid too. Just make sure to wear proper protection and get a bag of baking soda from the feed store to neutralize the solution as you start to drain it. Before you start the process, put a sacrificial petcock where your fuel bowl is and a length of hose to your 20 gallon tote with your baking soda solution so you don't get any on your transmission.
 
I use muric acid, 2 gal and roll it over and over letting it set on each side about 12 hours. I save it and use it again. Rinse and rinse again,set you vacuum on blow to dry it out.
 
RC,

Are you sure the positive goes to the tank? I could've swore the positive goes to the sacrificial electrode (scrap).

D.
 
Hawk, I've heard that one and it should work. On really bad ones I stick a log chain in it and haul it around loose in my pickup bed for a few days. Generally a good power washing and air blowout does the trick. A healthy shot of heat goes into the first tank of gas.
 

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