Cleaning out gas tanks

i decided to make a separate thread from my other one on this since i didnt want to get off track of the other one even though it the same bike and all. but i pulled the tank off and drained it, and tried my best to look in there with a flashlight and see if there was any gunk. and for the most part its pretty clean, just a few floaties and what not. but my question is who do i get it completely clean? i was thinking hook up the garden hose and flush it all out and let it dry? is that even close to what i should do or am i way off? the tank it self seems to be in good shape from what i can see from the gas cap and petcock area, no sings of rust all nice clean metal. what warning signs might want to look out for?

 

I think if you dry it out immediately you should be ok. On other tanks I have used water to flush with followed by gas to help flush out any water left, and then dried with air blown through it with a shop vac and finally left in the sun. If I were doing my tank, I would remove the petcock and let the water drain there.

 

thanks, i did run the hose through it and im glad i did!, there was all sorts of stuff that came out of there, mostly plant matter, well that what it looked like anyways. but the big surprise was the dead moth that came pouring out! i guess you never know! and i had some trouble getting the last remaining water out but i rolled up some paper towels and feed it through the petcock hole to help catch some of the water which seemed to work pretty well.

 

Placing the tank over an exhaust pipe with the engine running works well. This method works well to remove fuel vapor in the tank prior to welding the tank.
Washed gravel swirled around inside the tank removes flaking and gunk at the bottom of the tank. Any stones in the tank when you finish are noticed if you shake it. It pays to remove the fuel tap first though.