Rusty Tank Problem?

[LikeMike64]

Damian, The time until the leak gets worse depends on a number of things.
Is there any antifreeze in the oil?
How long does it take for those drops to come out?
IIRC Whiskerfish was able to run his like that for close to a year.

[DamianBarna]

When I drained the oil I saw no contamination. The drips are about 17 seconds apart at idle. Thee was some oily slop on the bottom of the motor which I just power washed off.

Thanks,

Damian NJ

[dbtroudy]

Damian,

If you are dripping one drop every 17 seconds at idle, you have a pretty good drip going. Are you checking your reserve coolant tank and topping it off? It sounds like you have a water pump replacement project in your near future. It is only going to get worse because the internal o-ring is going...

Don
Diamond Bar, CA

[bob-o]

Magical Gas Tank De-Rusting *
Naptha here in the U.S. Is sold as "Zippo Lighter Fluid"!!... Fuel for Zippo lighters....
(* The actual science is explained at the end)

The things you will need:
1 rusty gas tank
1 small container of sodium carbonate
(chemical compound = Na2CO3 from pool/spa supplies PH+)
1 4amp or better battery charger
1 average steel bolt approx 3/8 x 1.5
1 short length of solid 12ga copper wire
2 quartt Naptha
2 quartt denatured alcohol


Empty out all the gas and other items in/on the tank and remove the fuel cap. Remove any and all old fuel residue and varnish with a good rinse of the Naptha. Make it petroleum free and then drain and dry.

Using a sock with a handful of small nuts/washers etc.; add a little water into the tank and “shake it aroundâ€ÂÂ

[bob-o]

What type of suppliers sell Naphtha and denatured alcohol?
Hardware stores just stare back at you like you've asked for Randakk's Kriptonite donuts when you ask for naphtha.
Been looking on the web, had no joy there; so where?

Read the ingredient label on ordinary lighter fluid.... it's NOT coleman fuel..

[Dannyj29]

I picked my up at Home Depot :

[louisaduvall]

I am presently working on a 1982 Goldwing Aspencade that I bought for $650.00 with no compression on the number three cylinder! Yea the piston it had a hole in it caused by the intake valve sooo I'm installing a new salvage engine so of course I'm taking a lot of precautions cleaning everything! The bike had set up a loooong time and the Gas tank had a lot of rust flake,most of which I was able to blow out with compressed air but what about the rest and the rust clogged pickup screens? Well I did not want to have to pull the tank out like lots of folks recommended now dont get me wring I wanted to do it right and get it clean,But I remembered a friend from Peoria Illinois showed me how to Clean Carbs. using Easy Off Oven cleaner and Dang if it don't work on rusty Gas tanks to !!!!! With the tank still in the frame I sprayed the inside of the tank down as good as I could and let set overnight flushed the tank out with plenty of fresh water till it ran clear then used a hose and compressed air to remove all of the water and WOW IT LOOKED BRAND NEW !!! I did slosh the indentured alcohol in the tank to help prevent flash rust and blew the tank out again with compressed air. so far its worked Great !!!!!

[lazair1]

I have a question about rust in the tank.
The tank had been treated when I got it, and the
owner used the old fuel sending unit plus the old
gas cap.
What do you with them, or do you replace them?
Where do you gef new ones.
Lazair1

[mogold]

Magical Gas Tank De-Rusting *

(* The actual science is explained at the end)

The things you will need:
1 rusty gas tank
1 small container of sodium carbonate
(chemical compound = Na2CO3 from pool/spa supplies PH+)
1 4amp or better battery charger
1 average steel bolt approx 3/8 x 1.5
1 short length of solid 12ga copper wire
2 quartt Naptha
2 quartt denatured alcohol


Empty out all the gas and other items in/on the tank and remove the fuel cap. Remove any and all old fuel residue and varnish with a good rinse of the Naptha. Make it petroleum free and then drain and dry.

Using a sock with a handful of small nuts/washers etc.; add a little water into the tank and “shake it aroundâ€ÂÂ

Hi...I've read this thread over and over. I'm still stumbling trying to figure out how to find stuff on forums... I can't find where it tells us what to do with the above supplies. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

[Whiskerfish]

Hi...I've read this thread over and over. I'm still stumbling trying to figure out how to find stuff on forums... I can't find where it tells us what to do with the above supplies. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

I would say looking at all those funky letters at the bottom of Bryan's post that is a section of the Data base that got corrupted a while back and what he wrote is gone

[afalenski]

Here are the procedures resurrected from a hard-copy I just found:

Magical Gas Tank De-Rusting*

(*The actual science is explained at the end)

The things you will need:
1 rusty gas tank
1 small container of sodium carbonate
(chemical compound =Na2CO3 from pool/spa supplies PH+)
1 4amp or better battery charger
1 average steel bolt approx 3/8 x 1.5
1 short length of solid 12ga copper wire
2 quart Naphtha
2 quart denatured alcohol

Empty out all the gas and other items in/on the tank and remove the fuel cap. Remove any and all old fuel residue and varnish with a good rinse of Naphtha. Make it petroleum free and then drain and dry.

Using a sock with a handful of small nuts/washers etc,; add a little water into the tank and shake it around inside the gas tank to loosen the big chunks. Rinse with clear water. Repeat: scrub all very well.

In a clean pail dissolve about ¾ cup* of the sodium carbonate in a gallon of clear regular tap water. When it is dissolved all the way, stir it a bit more!
(*based on GL 5+ gallon tank size)

Seal up all but the filler cap opening on the top, pour in the well stirred mix (use a funnel if you’ve had too much coffee).

Fill the tank right to the top with water.

Set the tank securely somewhere and so that the cap opening is the highest part; burp out as much air as possible and keep the tank full for the process.

Strip the insulation off the last 10” or so of the wire and then wrap a series of turns of bare copper wire around the bolt to hold it secure (twist it tight so the bolt won’t fall off). Use something like a paint stirrer with a hole in it to run the wire through and keep it away from the metal tank neck.

Attach the (-) lead of the battery charger to the outer shell of the tank.
Attach the (+) lead to the other end of the copper wire.

Suspend the bolt (through the tank opening) into the solution and turn on the battery charger to a fairly high rate.

An amp or two flowing is good, then wait.
Time to process is ~48 hours and it won’t overdo itself.

Reading back are some things to note:
Compressed air or hair dryer will help dry the tank.
Be sure the suspended wire does NOT touch the tank metal.
Be available to top off the water level (evaporation, etc).
The bolt gets nasty after a day and it won’t hurt at all to clean it now and again to remove the crud.

After a couple of days, remove the leads and discard the bolt.
Drain and rinse the tank well and drag out that sock again and slosh it all around to remove any loose material.

Rinse a few more times until the rinse water seems clear; shake well and then use the alcohol to fetch out the rest of the water. Dry.

Once the tank is dry, you’re all set to put it back into service.
Coating (Kreem, etc) not required.

The Science:
The process by which rust forms is electrochemical in nature so this method employs a reverse current flow in an alkaline bath at a higher voltage to reverse the process at a quicker rate.

There are actually two forms of rust: iron III oxide or red oxide (Fe2O3) and iron II, III oxide or black oxide (Fe3O4) (FeO). Black oxide is the smaller molecule.

The electrolytic process converts red rust to black rust and in the process the black rust becomes weekly bonded to th3e base metal. The black rust that takes the place of the red rust can be easily wiped, washed, or brushed off leaving a rust free base metal. Any pitting that has occurred will remain, this method will not repair damage, but the pits will be rust free.

This is an alkali process and not acid. So it won’t result in a lot of pits in the steel filled with stray hydrogen ions which would just love to start rusting immediately; instead of this much less active coating of black oxide.

You can’t solve your problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems. –Albert Einstein

Naphtha is commonly sold as Coleman Fuel for camp stoves and lanterns. Denatured alcohol is “rubbing alcohol” sold in drug stores. Usually comes in 70% or 91%, with the rest being water.

Sodium carbonate is WASHING SODA, not baking soda and is sold in the laundry soap section in larger grocery stores.

Naphtha is also sold as charcoal lighting fluid.

Get denatured alcohol in a building supply store like Lowes or Home Depot, or equivalent stores in the UK.

If you have access to a paint shaker you can put about 2 pints of water and a handful of clean gravel the size of peas. Close all openings and shake the tank for a few minutes. Then have a look. If it needs more, rotate the tank and shake some more. Repeat as needed.

When it’s all shiny inside, pour in a quart of alcohol and slosh it around. This will absorb the water.

[cob]

Damien: best of luck, sorry about your job.
If you get the bike going( doesn't sound expensive) if you sell it, you will get more.
In any case, best of luck guy, hoping for you.....

[Carlonious]

I am going to perform this procedure on my tank soon. I have but 1 question:
When you mix the solution (3/4 cup sodium carbonate to 1 gallon water) this, obviously, yields a gallon of mixture, do I mix up 5+ gallons in this fashion? or do you add plain tap water to the solution to fill the tank? ( and keep full during electrolysis?)

I would think this is an important point.

Thanks for your input.
Carl

[gltriker]

I am going to perform this procedure on my tank soon. I have but 1 question:
When you mix the solution (3/4 cup sodium carbonate to 1 gallon water) this, obviously, yields a gallon of mixture, do I mix up 5+ gallons in this fashion? or do you add plain tap water to the solution to fill the tank? ( and keep full during electrolysis?)

I would think this is an important point.

Thanks for your input.
Carl

I've taken some liberty and inserted a few more words to help with the understanding....

In a clean pail dissolve about ¾ cup of the sodium carbonate, into a gallon of clear regular tap water. When it is dissolved all the way, stir it a bit more!

Seal up all but the filler cap opening on the top of the fuel tank, then pour in the well stirred mix.

Fill the rest of the fuel tank right to the top with clear regular tap water.

[chewy999]

What type of suppliers sell Naphtha and denatured alcohol?
Hardware stores just stare back at you like you've asked for Randakk's Kriptonite donuts when you ask for naphtha.
Been looking on the web, had no joy there; so where?

I googled both Naptha and denatured alcohol, (thought that was lager), in the UK, and apparently Naoptha is White Spirit, but not the cheap Homebase/B&Q own brand, and denatured alcohol is methylated spirit. Hope that helps, but just can't find Randakks Kriptonite donuts anywhere!!