Cleaning the inside of a steel fuel tank - outboard

[m1taylor]

Any ideas or suggestions? Basically mixture of gunk and small rust flakes.

 

[oldaljones]

you could try adding some fine PEA gravel and shake vigorously, and then flush out with petrol, worked for me.

OldAl

 

[VicS]

What a coincidence. See here

 

[lw395]

And then add an inline filter!

 

[AndCur]

Simple buy a new plastic tank. They are not expensive.

 

[Topcat47]

It's been a long time since I had to do it myself but there's a tank sealant around in classic (worn out old crap) bike circles that coats the inside with some form of plastic goo. The guy who bought my B31 is still riding it around with the old tank so it must work. As I get older what I miss most is my mind and I can't remember the name of the gook or the supplier I bought it from.

 

[m1taylor]

Brilliant - two ideas now. I'll try the pea gravel, and then I googled petrol tank sealant on classic bikes, and came up with a product called Petseal which seems to be a resin based product. Plastic tank is not an option - this is a 1961 British Anzani Pilot outboard with the wrap around tank - but don't /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif. - it's quieter and more refined than a seagull!

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
it's quieter and more refined than a seagull

[/ QUOTE ] At least my Seagull tanks don't go rusty. Pity they replaced brass tanks with steel later though. Anyway Seagulls are not noisy. Noise is unwanted sound. Pure music the sound of a Seagull purring down the creek

 

[m1taylor]

Well the noise of a seagull is distinctive, I'll give you that. My biggest argument with the seagull are the wretched holes in the exhaust above the water line on the 40 series. I understand why they are needed, as otherwise seagulls won't start due to back pressure. But those two holes vent exhaust in yer face, and seem to me to be a design flaw.

 

[milfordman]

I had a problem with a leak from a kerosene tank. My brother recomended to me products by Frost restorer equipment www.frost.co.uk They recomend a three stage process.

1. Rinse with Marine clean S203, dilute with hot water to remove petrol grease etc.

2. Flush tank with Metal Ready S205, this disolves rust and etch primes, leaves Zinc Phosphate coating.


3.Seal with Petrol Tank Sealer (POR15) S200 POR15 is resistant to all fuels..

I did this work last summer so far so good.

 

[Freebee]

alternatively use a piece of chain to rattle round inside the tank at least your guranteed all the chain will come out unlike the pea shingle!

 

[milfordman]

P.S.
I forgot to say the rust caused a leak. The sealer is not intended to seal the leak. I first cured the leak by welding. The Three stage process is to stop the tank from further rusting, which would contaminate the fuel.

 

[andy01842]

I think the suff you are thinking of is petseal (spelling)

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
But those two holes vent exhaust in yer face

[/ QUOTE ] I think you must have put yours together wrongly. Both of mine have them but they face backwards away from me. It's not only Seagull 40's that have them. Most if not all outboards have exhaust relief ports on the leg, some even spurt quite a bit of water out from there as well.

 

[Moonshiners]

Marbles, shake em around long enough and you'l even smooth the dents out!

 

[ex-Gladys]

POR15 is reckoned in the Classic bike field to be better than petseal....