Evaporust methodology to clean inside a tank?

I've got two different gas tanks with light rust. I thought I'd give Evaporust a shot at it, as I like the non-toxic nature of it. I was going to buy a 1 gallon container of the stuff, but wonder what the best procedure is in getting a whole tank clean with this stuff? Put the whole gallon in there rotate the tank 90 degrees periodically? Lastly, I'm assuming it's wise to remove the petco0k while doing this, and welcome best practices on how to cover up that hole during the process.

Salutations from the cold Twin Cities!

 

google "oxalic acid" get it on ebay

 

phosphoric acid also does a great job of removing/converting rust as well.

CN

 

I have used metal rescue, same thing as Evaporust. It works great and metal rescue doesn't eat away anything but the rust. You can leave the pecock in if you want. I bought enough to fill the tank and it even cleaned the rust around the gas cap. I had light rust inside the tank and after 24 hours it was all gone.
The trick is to make sure the temp is above 70 degrees it will not work if it's cold.

you could always fill the tank half way and flip it at about 12 hours and finish off the other half.

 

Agreed. Not as "environmentally friendly" but I've used it successfully on 3 tanks so far with good results. You would want to remove the petcock. I used multiple layers of aluminum furnace tape (NOT duct tape) to seal the petcock and fuel gauge sending unit openings and the phosphoric acid didn't dissolve the adhesive or anything.

 

it is the main ingredient in naval gelly and krud kutter. I just rescued a set of carbs (the ones featured in my thread titled "yuck". it turned them black, but it removed all the rust scale and corrosion in the float bowls, and opened up all the cold start wells. I am confident that a good soda blast and they will look and work like new.

CN

 

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... lysis.html

 

I have used white vinegar, leave in 24 hours and does a good job. Environmentally safe and much cheaper than other rust removal products

 

blanking off petcock and fuel guage holes using a couple of 3mm ally plates and some rubber pieces.



stu

 

I should of tried your idea, bensalf! I tried several layers of duct tape, and that made quite a mess! Remember that I have a full garage and trying to do it in my kitchen...! Yeah, there's a reason I'm single!

Anyways, I emailed the makers of Evaporust, and they told me it's OK to leave the petcock in there while using it. HOWEVER, be aware that when you this product, rust will flake off, and if you leave your petcock in there and just drain out the evaporust through it afterwards, you'll be leaving those chunks in there.

 

rather than trying to close up the openings on the tank, I am going to opt for complete submersion instead. in which case I will want all the openings "open. however because of the cost of phosphoric acid, I am going to try the electrolysis method linked above. here is how I plan to execute the process...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Electro ... aka-Magic/

the bucket will be replaced by a plastic tub of suitable size.

I have a perfect candidate...


tank by bmonkey36, on Flickr

the remaining fuel in the tank looked like this...


ugh! by bmonkey36, on Flickr

and the fuel sender looked like this...


sending unit by bmonkey36, on Flickr

we will see how this all works out.

CN