Xj550 Fuel Tank Rust Removal - from inside

Haven’t started a new thread before - so here goes.
It’s time to try and remove the rust from inside my fuel tank.
I’m going to try the diluted Molasses method (1 part molasses, 9 parts water). I’ve removed the petcock and fuel level sender unit and tried to blank off where these were. Success around the petcock hole - not so much with the larger fuel level sender hole - have a small leak here which means I have to keep topping it up.
Since molasses takes some time to work this is a bit of a ball ache.
Question : does anyone know if I put the fuel level sender back in the tank, will the molasses mixture damage it in any way? Could it even clean up the sender unit too - it’s in quite a state as well. Thanks in advance.

 

Use something like metal rescue or evapo-rust. Both work very well. Not sure about how either would affect the sender, but would certainly make it look better!

 

Thanks. Yep - just need to try and keep whatever stuff I use “inside” the tank - maybe just need to fashion a better blanking plate? The sender was seized but is now freed up and seems to be working ok. Presume it’s just a variable resistor ??

 

I use a 3D printed blanking plate, with a 'gasket' made out of gorilla tape:
https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/xj-fuel-sender-blank-550r-650l-750r-1100.130903/

 

Hi mate, check out my video on how to clean the tank out so its like new. Mine was pretty dirty and total time was 2 days to complete...

 

I'll be curious about how well it goes. I recently did Vinegar and it turned out great, you really have to fog the tank when you are done cleaning it up, or it will rust up pretty quick again if you are not going to coat it.
From my previous experiance with Molassas, I found it removed the rust and did not require me to scrub off the black film like when you use vinegar.
I'll be interested to see if that ends up being the case with you. For the vinegar, I had some nails and steel BBs in the tank and rotated it around 3 times a day.

Good Luck.

 

I did the vinegar thing then the full Por-15 process and was amazed at how well it turned out. If you're trying to seal a pinhole definitely take a look at Por-15 or some other tank sealer. Months later the inside of the tank is still 100% cherry.

 

I’m pretty happy with the results of using molasses in the tank to remove rust. Takes a while but quite a difference with the before and after. Seemed to work ok on the sender too.

 

Is there a before/after in those pics? All look the same to me.. not much rust!

 

Molasses tastes to good to waste it in a gas tank……

 

Not sure what method you used, but I'd suggest checking the fuel sender as there are delicate wires in there that don't like chemicals or electrolysis

 

Yep - they’re all “after” shots.

here’s one or two from before….