Gas Tank cleaning and sealing

Has anyone cleaned/sealed their gas tank. The repair shop says I need to due to rust in the tank, the price $100-150. I was wondering if I could get the chemicals myself and do the job...you know to save some bucks$$$$..

Thanks!

 

I recently did mine with the Kreem System. It's a fairly drawn out affair to apply the system, but I got the kit at a Yamaha dealership for only about $30.00

The instructions are thorough, and although I've heard some negative comments about this and other systems, it seems to be working just fine.

Z

 

Yes, you can do it but it is a labor of love and the results are usually poor. I wouldn't trust the bike shop to do it either. There is a fellow in southern California who will anodize the inside of tanks for about $120. There is also a thread on the forum for how to DIY electralysis, though I forget where. I'm interested in trying this myself. I've used the bio-friendly "rust remover" stuff sold at the local bike shop with good results, but it was very time intensive and the rust came right back after I rinsed and dried the tank! I should have rinsed with kerosene (lesson here boys, take it from me). Additionally, the conversion chemical I bought can be used again and again for about 3-4 tanks. Shop around, there are a number of good options but they will cost! I would avoid the creme that most folks use, unless your really good at following directions to the letter, screws up carbs if you don't. Oh yeah, the stuff I got was from SUDCO, here is their site http://www.sudco.com/ . Good luck!

 

Just a word of warning, if the tank has already been coated I would STRONGLY suggest you pay someone competent to do it. I tried it years ago with the Kreem system and screwed it up so bad it costs twice as much to fix.

Good luck though.

 

I have heard good things about por15.

Here is a link to the por15 forum http://www.por15store.com/forum/forum-20.html

http://www.cbxman.com/tech_sealers.aspx

http://www.por15store.com/page/por15/PR ... lers/CTRKH

 

Cleaned 2 tanks using the following method, and was shocked at the results. Plus it was a lot of fun. Everyone that saw it eventually did their tanks as well. Cost 50 cents for the salt, and a buck for the rebar I used.

Mix 1/2 canister (about 13 oz) of common table salt with 3 gallons of water.

Block the petcock and sending unit holes, then fill the tank right up to the filler neck so that all inside metal is covered with the salt water. Use fresh water to fill as needed. You will add extra salt later.

Make an electrode out of something steel (I used some 18" x 3/8" rebar I had laying around). This will go into tank, and must NOT touch anything metal in or on the tank. Use a plastic funnel at filler neck to prevent touching, and use a wad of tape at bottom of rod to prevent touching. Make sure tape goes up far enough so that tank hump does not touch rod.

Use a "manual" battery charger of at least 10 amps.

Connect negative cable clamp to rod.
Connect positive clamp to tank. I used the tank mounting bolt.
(flow is positive to negative, so rust will leave positive charged tank and go to negative charged rod).

Turn on the charger and adjust your charging rate to get as close to 9 or 10 amps as possible. Add more salt to increase charge. I had to use almost all of the canister to get near 9 or 10 amps draw on each tank.

You will see bubbles forming and the water will turn brown.

First tank was spotless in about an hour!
Jaws did drop! We expected something to happen, but nothing this good.
Second tanks was rough, and it took about 3 hours cooking before it too was spotless. This second tank was for a ninja, and the dealer told him tank was junk and could not be cleaned or used. WRONG! 6 months later it is still like new.

You can reuse the solution. Turn off charger, remove rod, empty tank, and look at results. Pour solution back in and restart process if needed. It's cheap enough to use a fresh batch each time.

Watch the rod. The second tank ate away the rod at one spot about 80% through. Change if needed.

I found this by searching various methods. Google and see similar methods. Most describe sodawash instead of salt, but it takes longer. Salt works!

No sealing of either tank was needed. Rust was removed, not metal.
Where there was rust, there is now a darkened scar.

When done, rinse dry and coat tank right away. Tank will start to rust again very fast. I used tranny fluid to coat tank.

WARNING: I think this creates a type of Chlorine gas, so don't stand above the tank, looking into it while cooking and breath the fumes. Be smart and use normal precautions. (well ventilated area outdoors, etc).

 

My tank was a mess and I used the POR15 and it cleaned it up pretty well. One of the chemicals had some pretty strong fumes, so when it says use in well ventilated area, they mean it.

 

The Kreem stuff is crap - stay away from it. It will almost guarantee that you'll be paying someone to do your tank again in a couple of years.

If you're going to do it yourself, the POR15 kit is the way to go.

 

Hi I cleaned my XJ750 tank with Kreem Took time but it worked. I cleaned the biger pieces out by putting a handfull of steel shot in the tank. Seal the petcock and float holes with home made gaskets rolled it up in two sleeping bags and put in cloths dryer with no heat for half a hour. Cleaned up nice. PS do the dryer part when wife is not home.

 

Like I said - The instructions are very thorough (precise) using the Kreem sytem. I also mentioned negative remarks. ;-)

For me anyway, so far, so good.

And man, I really like the clothes dryer idea. <kicking self>

Z

 

Gas tank cleaning by electrolytic method.

I have cleaned lots of rusted steel marine parts using the method described by RobsTV -- "electrolytic de-rusting". It works great.

I usually use Ospho as soon as the part is dry and then prime and paint. Using a product like Ospho "passivates" the metal and chemically changes any remaining rust.

If I were to treat my fuel tank, I'd de-rust it (being sure to get my sacrifical/waste electrode inside the tank), dry it, treat it with Ospho and use it (no paint).

I use washing soda (in grocery store laundry isle) instead of salt. Salt solution creates chlorine gas (poisonous). Washing soda solution creates hydrogen gas (flammable/explosive) though it is not formed as quickly (conductivity of solution is lower).

There are many websites that explain this process but here's a fairly thorough one: Electrolytic Rust Removal

 

cool site!

 

The exact method I used came from the XJ FAQ website:

http://www.i-op.com/jimm/xjfaq.txt

It's about 3/4 the way down.
If you do this "use common sense and DON'T stand over tank and BREATH THE FUMES".

Lot's of good XJ info and links can be found the that FAQ site.

 

Robs I think I am going to try the electrolytic rust removal method that you described and use scubamoo recommendation of washing soda on my spare gas tank. I wonder if OxiClean would do the trick. Just hate knowing that by buying OxiClean a small amount of my money goes to that loud obnoxious chap who must be responsible for hundreds and thousands of blown television speakers as far as the eye can see. And maybe using pour 15 after.

Oh yeah welcome to the site scubamoo this place is great.

 

You can also take your tank to a radiator shop and they will flush it for anywhere from $25 to $50 bucks and it come out shiney with no need to re-treat the metal inside.

 

Gas Tank cleaning and sealing ala CTSommers

Thanks for the "shout-out" CT. Not knowing you, I assume your other comments are tongue-in-cheek. However for any forum readers here, please don't confuse washing soda and washing detergent. We're not washing the metal we're de-rusting it.

For any of you rat bike fans who may want to rust your bike's "sho metal" you could use those parts as the waste electrode and attract rust! So cool...