Projects Gas Tank Cleaner

What's a good a chemical or cleaner for sludgy gas tanks? I've used white vinegar and a chain and had so so results. Carb cleaner chemical is expensive these days!

 

My advice is to wire a rag on a stick, then pull the gas gage sending unit so you have access to the inside the tank, pour in a quart or two of lacquer thinner and get to scrubbing. Once you get most of the gooey stuff removed take the gas tank to the local car wash and hose it out with some hot soapy water. This also works if you need to weld up a pin-hole or crack in the tank.

 

I am careful to not disturb the coating the factory coated the inside of fuel tanks

I put more than the recommended Star Tron in my 65 F100s fuel tank and drove it around, let it sit... shoved the truck back and forth to sloth it around

The truck would not idle a few days later, and ran like **** when I tried to hold the rpms around 2000 or so

I pullled the filter on the fuel pump, the canister was full of dark debris
The Holley floats were full of dark dark **** as well

I drained the tank but only was siphon effect, so I pulled the tank and drained the fuel
I put a doubled up t shirt over a 5 gallon pail and emptied the tank
A bunch of **** was on the shirt, I put a pint of mineral spirits in the tank and sloshed it all around

Then drained onto a new t shirt.. same ****.. I did this with a gallon of mineral spirits until there no residue coming out of the fuel tank

I then installed a 5 micron filter between the gas tank line and line that goes to the fuel filter

The fuel filter canister filter is supposed to be 20 microns but was p***ing particles into the fuel bowls of my Holley carb I could see and were large


Ricky.

 

IMO if a new tank is available, buy it and save yourself a lot of grief/PIA. I purchased a car with a professionally cleaned and sealed tank, the seller said he paid $150 + shipping, the sealer came loose within a year and got everywhere in the fuel system. I purchased a new tank for $300 + shipping, new fuel lines, filters, new pump and I rebuilt carb, A lot of time effort. For me, the time factor has always been an issue more so than the money. Speaking as an Old Timer that's been doing this car thing forever, Do Not pinch the nickel as it will bite your *** on a regular basis. The other side of the coin, IF you have the time and are that guy that spends many years in the garage doing it all yourself, my hats off to you, we all make our choices.

 

I would have to agree that if you can buy a new tank it's usually cheaper and easier in the long run. But if I had to clean a tank out I would use the zep brand purple concrete cleaner. They sell it home depot. It's really good stuff.

 

Appreciate it guys. No one makes tanks for what cars I'm working on. No, not gonna talk about the here

 

I have an OT car that sat for 5+ years with gas in it. After draining it out I could see lots of dark varnish in the lower 1/4 of the tank. Removing the tank was a lot of work because it was a double sump saddle style tank that would require remove the rear axle, drive shaft, etc. Luckily the manufacturer had access panels in the floor boards to service the fuel senders and fuel pumps. It required removing a lot of interior parts but was still better than the other option. Once that was done I was able to use my soda blaster to clean the residue out of the tank. I rigged up a shop vac to **** out the dust as I was blasting so I could see. When I was done the inside looked the same from top to bottom. It wasnt the fastest process but it was thorough and the soda did not hurt the coating on the inside.