Chemically cleaning a petrol tank

[winchman]

Some of the fleet ned the petrol tanks cleaning so whats best, just to remove general gunk, rust and stale petrol.

 

[snoozer]

DEOX-C

 

[8ob]

A big bag of old nuts into the tank,a drop of diesel and give the tank the Maxwell house shake, rinse and repeat as necessary

Bob

 

[northwest]

Following on from Bob's advice if you can find a little electric mixer to lashit to you could save yourself some muscle fatigue.

 

[voipio]

High pressure washer?

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Length of chain?

 

[awemawson]

I've seen videos of them nut filled and then lashed to a tractor wheel as an improvised tumbler.

 

[Rannsachair]

Once I get rust in them I start with a mechanical clean with nuts or ball bearings in paraffin then use the POR15 kit and just coat it as the instructions, saves repeating the exercise every few years: https://www.frost.co.uk/por15-motorcycle-fuel-tank-repair-kit/

 

[droopsnoot]

I'm told molasses is (are?) good for cleaning the inside of petrol tanks, but I haven't tried it myself.

 

[Bluemotion]

Caustic soda works best for my long standing vintage bikes. It’s so cheap. Put it into water and brim the tank.
I finish of by using those nasty plasterboard screws. There’s nothing more evil than those as they’re pointed, sharp and cut into your fingers and make everything other ideas like nuts, bolts, chains look tame.

That ****e that’s looks like stone is old petrol!!

 

[graffian]

Clean the rust out with phosphoric acid.
The acid comes out clean and the tank will be clean.
The crap gets teleported to the tank above.

 

[Turbo]

I used a good strong mix of hot citric acid & some s/s nuts to clean a petrol tank on a small petrol engine that was rusty inside. After an overnight soak & some shaking around I was surprised how well it worked.

 

[winchman]

Thanks I will decide which method!