Oil tank cleaning

[Panacea]

Description: Would anybody know of something I could use to dissolve rust

Hey guys, I'm about to give up on this tank, I've shaken it with a bunch of hex head screws and carb cleaner inside for hours. and now that i've gotten all the sludge and crap out I'm still rinsing out what looks like tiny rust particles. Would anybody know of something I could use to dissolve rust? The tank looks good on the outside so I'd hate to have to buy new. Thanks, Mike

[Fixman]

Rusteco is expensive, but it is the best product that I have ever used. It is also safe on the paint, your hands, and the environment. Will work for numerous tanks before it is used up.

http://www.rusteco.com/

Kent

[kell]

Antique tool restorers also use electrolytic rust removal.
Get a plastic tub and fill it with water and dissolve some baking soda in it. Submerge the oil tank and a sacrificial electrode (any iron or steel junk).
Get a battery charger and connect the positive cable to the sacrificial electrode and the negative cable to the thing you want to clean.
The polarity matters, and don't let the two pieces touch each other.
Since you are cleaning the inside of the oil tank, I think you should take it out occasionally, swish and dump, the resubmerge it. Rinse, repeat

[mbskeam]

if the tank is out and the paint is going to be redone, then muriatic acid, will get the job done real quick.
the electrolytic rust removal, does work well but the bar will have to be on the inside of the tank, as this process is kinda line of sight.
just insulate the bar at the opening of the tank(funnel) and the bottom of bar (tape).
I did this to my fuel tanks and it works very well.

mbskeam

[57pan]

I used the muriatic acid technique on a very rusted, brand new oil tank.

Here is a picture of the setup that I used to clean it.

oil-tank-fix.jpg

I suspended the tank so that the filler neck was verticle then put in two quarts of water and topped off with two quarts of acid, then let it work for a couple hours. I kept watching it and whenever some acid bubble over I sprayed off the outside of the tank with water. I only ended up with one little spot where I must not have rinsed the acif off soon enough and it discolored the chrome. The inside of the tank was spotless.

It's nasty stuff though - use every precaution to prevent any acid from contacting your skin or breathing the fumes. After I dumped it out of the tank into a container I used a couple large boxes of baking soda to neutralize it.

[panfreak]

Post by panfreak on Nov 27, 2006, 10:17pm

I found that coarse sand and a bit of gas worked well. I used maybe 2 large coffee mugs full of sand, and only enough gas to swish it around. Quite abrasive, like sandpaper, and I kept at it for awhile. When I got tired I'd put it down for a bit then come back. There are lots of methods for sure, but I had gas and sand at the time I needed to clean my tank so thats what I went with and got good results.

Got a yap full of muriatic when I was cleaning concrete tools once....WOW, that'll clear a head cold! Good stuff though, just be careful.

[FlatHeadSix]

Just a word of caution here; the muriatic acid works great but you have to use the correct sequence when mixing. Always add acid to water, not the other way around. This is true for any acid/water solution.
If you pour water into pure concentrated acid it will splatter right back into your face! Always pour the acid into the water.
I don't want to see any usernames on here like "scarface" or "one eye"

mike

[Cotten]

I'll suggest aquarium gravel instead of sand.

It's plentiful in alleys if you look for it. (Usually found in the bottom of large rectangular glass containers with excessive lime deposits.)

It's pre-washed, and easy to see with a flashlight.

...Cotten

[FlatHeadSix]

I agree with Cotten, you need something larger with a lot of sharp edges that will also dump completely out of the tank when you're done.

My father in-law taught me a trick years ago when we needed to clean the fuel tank on an old outboard motor. If you can still find a hardware store that sells stuff by the pound get a pound or two of #10 or #12 x 3/4" sheet metal or wood screws. They have lots of cutting edges, they have enough weight to dig in and scour the scale out of the tank and they dump right out when you're done shaking them up inside the tank. You can even still use the hardware after it comes out of the tank.

mike

[Panacea]

Well I finally got rid of the rust. I found some naval jelly, dumped about a quart inside the tank, sloshed it around with some hex heads and let it sit overnite. The next day I washed it all out with soap and water, dried it out with compressed air, then went back to rinsing with gas. I know that part is really dangerous (stupid), but it worked. Now inside looks great and no more crap. I also got my painted parts back, and they look great! heads are at Headhog for intake thread repair. Things are coming together! Mike

[Moose]

after you decide what you want in the tank (the sand scares me) you might want to use the rotissere attachment for your outside girll and it will keep it turning as long as you want to clean thing up

Moose

[Pantony]

dump a few cans of Pepsi in there, youd be suprized how many of my old wrenches I cleaned like that, if not that then CLR toilet bowl cleaner

[bedwyr]

i have just used panzeramas screw trick,and it works beautifully after an hours shaking!to ease the load on my arms i looped an old luggage elastic through the middle,where the battery lives,and hung it from a beam.this let me shake at all corners and got a relativeley clean tank,there are still rusty areas but nothing that will fall off and get into my engine.i finished by rinsing repeatedly with petrol into a clean glass jar ,untill there was no more debris visible in it ,or on my magnetic drain plug.

[King]

Be safe use kerosene not gas/petrol. Static electricity is always around, especially in the winter when we do most of our stuff. I loaded mine up with sharp metal objects and kero shook it (wish I knew of that suspended on bungee trick)forever and kept flushing with alternations of hot (near boiling) water and kero. To save a $ I ran the kero through a coffee filter in a Pepsi bottle funnel and used it for later parts cleaning.

King