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How dangerous is it to solder a gas tank?

Geo-TH,In

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member
I know people at some radiator shops used to solder my gas tanks, I never have. So, How dangerous is it to solder a gas tank if you fill it with water and only have a little space with no water. Leak is at the place where sediment bowl attaches?

I once watched a welder repair my motorcycle tank by putting a chemical in it. He said the chemical produced something like CO2 so the tank would blow. I watched from around the corner of his building. He fixed my tank.

Not looking to make the news at 5, 6 or 11 pm.
 
if you do as you mentioned and use an iron and not a flame you will probably be able to tell us how it went.
 
(quoted from post at 16:54:53 05/28/14) I know people at some radiator shops used to solder my gas tanks, I never have. So, How dangerous is it to solder a gas tank if you fill it with water and only have a little space with no water. Leak is at the place where sediment bowl attaches?

I once watched a welder repair my motorcycle tank by putting a chemical in it. He said the chemical produced something like CO2 so the tank would blow. I watched from around the corner of his building. He fixed my tank.

Not looking to make the news at 5, 6 or 11 pm.
Click to expand...
hemical might have been dry ice. A little space left unfilled blew the end out of a tank & wrapped it around my Dad's face. All speaking about open flame. With electric iron, I would just solder it & do nothing.
 
Iron won't get it hot enough. Would like to silver solder if possible.

Chemical used was a liquid, not dry ice.
 
Jessie,
My motorcycle tank was welded with a torch, chemical
was a liquid.

No plans to have tank wrapped around my face.
 
This topic reminds me of the guy who jumps from a plane and his chute doesn't open. Hurtling toward the ground, he passes a guy going up.
"You know anything about parachutes?" he asks.

"No. You know anything about gas stoves?"

Larry
 
If you'll blow it out, get all traces of liquid gas out, maybe even let it sit with a vacuum exhaust blowing until it no longer smells of gas.

Then pipe in anything that will not support combustion, like argon or CO from a wire welder, or gas engine exhaust, even heard of using dry ice, should be safe.
 
I paid $75.00 to have mine welded last year. Heard a story about a guy who lost his life welding one that had not been used in twenty years. In my opinion pretty cheap compared to what can happen and I gave a professional some work!
 
You won't be able to solder the tank with water in it. That would be like sweating water pipes with water in them. I have soldered and electric welded on several gas tanks with no problem. If you open up as many holes on the tank as possible if the fumes ignite it will just burn instead of explode. It's when you contain the fumes it gets dangerous. I normally set out a tank open for a couple of days sometimes with a air hose run it it to dry it out first. Then I put a flame to the fill neck to be sure before I start. Regular solder won't adhere to steel, you will need silver solder to do it. After the job is done be sure to pour in a fuel tank liner to further seal it and prevent future leaks. I normally use Red-Kote.
 
BTW, this isn't my tank, neighbors. There is a once inch crack next to where the sediment bowl attaches to tank.

It looked like someone used bondo to repair it.

If silver soldering is dangerous, what kind of glue can be used on gasoline?
 
I saw an OSHA report where a guy was using a torch to cut a barrel that had acetone in it. The acetone was gone, but fumes were still in the barrel, a minute after he started cutting the fumes ignited and the barrel blew up and sent him across the shop,......Killing him.

I would take it to a place that can weld gas tanks. Better safe than dead.
 
A crack is difficult to solder and make a good fix. Because it is near the sediment bowl, it will flex and solder is 20% as strong as steel.
Putting a well fit patch over the crack and 1/2' beyond and wider will reinforce the defect.
Soldering with a 450 watt electric is advised. They are big, but heat and work well. They are way bigger than most. Many have a 3/4" copper diameter. Use acid core solder, clean to bare shiny metal, tin the area to be patched, Yin the patch, and place the patch heath till they melt together. (Tinning is wetting the surface with flowing solder so you know it is fully covered. Jim
 
I replaced the filler neck on an Allis Chalmers tractor by soldering with a soldering iron. I have soldered a lot of steel. You just have to have the flux and a set of three pound soldering irons. I have also soldered automobile gas tanks with a set of soldering irons.

Former apprentice Sheetmetal worker Local 36
 
This topic gets questioned, and cautioned several times a year, so if you go back and do a search you"ll probably come up with half a million ways to do it, and twice the amount of reasons not to.

That said, my advice every time someone asks is to recommend dry ice. It's readily available from several different grocery stores (at least around here), and it's cheap. The best thing is it does two things for you. One it is extremely cold so it keeps the tank temps from getting to hot, and, given that it"s pure C02, it will not promote combustion so the tank can"t explode. Too if you put in several pieces, it constantly replentishes itself.

That said I have repaired quite a few gas, diesel, and kerosene tanks using it and given that I am still here to type this it must work pretty well. Not to mention the outfit I got the trick from (via my Dad) used it in cutting up underground gas tanks in order to scrap them.
 
(quoted from post at 19:02:07 05/28/14) This topic gets questioned, and cautioned several times a year, so if you go back and do a search you"ll probably come up with half a million ways to do it, and twice the amount of reasons not to.

That said, my advice every time someone asks is to recommend dry ice. It's readily available from several different grocery stores (at least around here), and it's cheap. The best thing is it does two things for you. One it is extremely cold so it keeps the tank temps from getting to hot, and, given that it"s pure C02, it will not promote combustion so the tank can"t explode. Too if you put in several pieces, it constantly replentishes itself.

That said I have repaired quite a few gas, diesel, and kerosene tanks using it and given that I am still here to type this it must work pretty well. Not to mention the outfit I got the trick from (via my Dad) used it in cutting up underground gas tanks in order to scrap them.
Click to expand...
greed, if I had sufficient flow of CO2 from a tank or sufficient dry ice, I feel ok welding with torch or arc, but not so ok as to have bystanders. As for those who support sufficient cleaning & drying, I say you are at risk. Clean enough if you first burn it in a bonfire. Otherwise there are still vapors that come out of the metal seams of the tank when exposed to heat that can & will support explosion. Open enough to just burn & not explode? Virtually no tanks have adequate openings for that theory. Go find the expansion ratio for gas/air burn!
My Dad had done plenty water 'filled' but was doing it on borrowed time.....until the explosion.
 
I've used this stuff with great success over the years. Clean the area well, apply seal all, lay a piece of cloth on it, smooth it out, add more seal all, lay another piece of cloth on it, smooth it out again, done. Will last for years, no danger of making a big noise.

mvphoto7363.jpg
 
The BIG BANG theory is well known. I don't plan to prove it really works.

May try seal-all.

Ebay has a new tank for $265.

Owner may try finding someone to weld or silver solder, before he tries gluing. As for me, a leaky repair job could cost a tractor. If this were my tank, I would spend $265 on a new one.

Thanks for all replies. I think I don't want to be around a tank that goes bang.
 
When I worked in radiator shop I soldered gas tanks with an Iron. Used a piece of copper to make a patch.
 
done correctly it is not dangerous. I have removed tanks from vehicles and soldered a few, with patches also. did not remove the gas some time. other times did put in an air hose blowing slowly to remove the fumes. its the fumes that blow not the liquid gas. just heat up your soldering iron and go to it. not going to blow as you have no open flame. just make sure you have the old style soldering iron. DO NOT have any open flame around and all will be well. don't make any static electricity either.
I have always done it outside also.
 
I've soldered a few tractor gas tanks with a torch but only after I power washed them out really good.
 
I just came in and saw your post. The metal working shop I go to all the time has a photo of the original owner on the wall. I deal with his son all the time. His dad died fixing a gas tank. He was a very experienced metal worker who had run his shop for many many years. Need I say more.
Richard in NW SC
 
I soldered a gas tank on an 8N Ford tractor.
Used a copper soldering iron (no open flame).
Worked well; still using the same tank.
 
A good welding shop soldered a patch on my dad's car gas tank years ago using a hot iron, no open flame. I have two IH trucks with JB weld patches on their fuel tanks. They have been holding for years with no leaks.
 
I agree Steve.

"till it no longer smells of gas"

or rotten gas that smells like varnish. . . and the cap off and sender unit out. I've done a few tanks by brazing the holes using oxy-acet. the last job held up on a '67 Chev panel truck but it was good money after bad.

I used up 12 long brazing rods before i got all the holes.
I'd patch what I thought was the last hole, fill it with water from the hose, and find another leak. I sold the truck and I still see it driving around and that was 10 years ago.

I'm about to do the tank on my '54 International 3-ton . . .
but this time i"m using BONDO by 3M. Go to their web site and you'll see how they stand behind using their product for pin holes in GAS tanks.

As long as bondo isn't submersed in gas, it will hold up fine. Anyway, I'm going to do it in the next few weeks so I might let you all know.

Cheers,
Terry
 
Silver solder is not what you want. It's too stiff, doesn't flex enough. Soft solder is fine, so is the idea of a copper patch. You CAN do it with an iron but it's got to be a real old time copper iron of at least 3-5 lbs heated till it's glowing. The crack area has to be very clean and tinned well. You aren't going to be able to flow solder into a crack, at least a crack as I would define it, but you can lap over the crack.

Beyond that, Seal All will work and I like the cloth idea over it. So will JB Weld and similar products if you can get it clean enough. I had a Case VAC tank I couldn't get to stop weeping. A bead of JB smoothed with a wet finger and the weep has been stopped for well over 10 years now.

FWIW- a section of rubber fuel line will help reduce the flexing and vibration around the sediment bowl.
 
I had a gas tank repaired at a local radiator shop. They blew air into the tank while soldering. At work they had to be cleaned using a steam jenny for 8 hours before soldering. I used a big soldering iron on my own tank. Hal
 
My dad always took them to the car wash, then scrubbed them out with hot soapy water a couple of quarters worth, dried and soldered.
 
In New Jersey we have to open fuel tanks from home heating oil and clean them out. I was the one in the yard that had to do this service so that we could bring it to the junkyard and get a receipt. I used a cutting torch, at first I would stick the torch in the hole that you fill it from, sometimes it made a little poof other times nothing, then I would take the cutting torch and cut a large round hole in the bottom of the tank then we would throw in kitty litter pick up any fuel that was left over, then scrape it up and then bring the tank to the junkyard.
As here in New Jersey there are some areas like ours that had septic tanks, we took some of these 550 or 1000 gallon tanks cut a large hole in the bottom a hole the size of a small pump on the top, then normally a 3 inch hole in the top side, then finally a number from 20 to 30 small holes all around the tank. If you got the tag extremely hot from putting all these holes in at one time the tank would occasionally catch fire and when it was burning the black smoke was thick. Sometimes we let The tank sit there and burn as it would get rid of all the fuel that was still in the tank which consisted of just Slime. But as far as exploding no it doesn t happen not from a diesel tank, take it from experience I have cut open with a torch at least 25 tanks in my lifetime, but a gasoline tank there is no way I would even think about it. I have only seen one gas tank welded, it was around the neck where the cap locks on. He was older gentleman, doing the job he filled the tank up completely to where the fuel was just below where he was going to weld, Then he stuffed a rag in the tank brazed the area that he was working on the rag did catch fire as soon as he was done he pulled the rag out and he was finished in less than five minutes and collected $50 this was back in 1976
 
(quoted from post at 18:22:05 05/28/14) Iron won't get it hot enough. Would like to silver solder if possible.

Chemical used was a liquid, not dry ice.
Click to expand...

You need a bigger iron then.
 
(quoted from post at 19:18:40 05/28/14) BTW, this isn't my tank, neighbors. There is a once inch crack next to where the sediment bowl attaches to tank.

It looked like someone used bondo to repair it.

If silver soldering is dangerous, what kind of glue can be used on gasoline?
Click to expand...

it needs to be welded if it's cracked.
 
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