To clean inside Aluminum Fuel tank.

[James R]

This below deck tank has been removed to replace the deck.
The tank is in good shape except that it containes a lot of shelac from old gas. The only stuff I am aware of that will remove shelac is the chemical in a carb' cleaning kit. It would be awfully expensive to soak this tank in that.
Can anyone tell me how I can go about cleaning this tank without a huge expense?
Thanks.

 

[iwombat]

Re: To clean inside Aluminum Fuel tank.

Is the tank coming out?

If so, kerosene a section of chain and a lot of shaking will do it.

If not, a good soak in paint thinner will probably do about as good as anything else you can dump in there.

 

[wncrjb]

Re: To clean inside Aluminum Fuel tank.

Be careful !!

I don't know how old your boat or tank is, but I took out my aluminum tank to clean it and opened up pandora's box.......

After I cleaned it, I ended up with many little spots on the bottom that seeped gas out of it.
What was weird was I filled it with water and had no leaks, but with gas, it would seep, that is how small the bad spots were.
I ended up having a new bottom welded in it.

After you clean it, pressure test it with air ( about 3 PSI ) and spray some soapy water all around it many times and look for leaks. just my $.02

wncrjb

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: To clean inside Aluminum Fuel tank.

Handfulls of new nuts and bolts..... buy a good size box and use sone kerosene...... you will be able to retrieve them after the cleaning and even use a magnet.

Just don't go crazy shaking it. The cleaning will take more than a 10 minute job.... let the kerosene coat the bottom about 1/4"

 

[wire2]

Re: To clean inside Aluminum Fuel tank.

I'd like to suggest regular paint remover, feel it will attack the coating well enough that it can be rinsed away with detergent/water.
If you have some handy, try a small area.

 

[jeeperman]

Re: To clean inside Aluminum Fuel tank.

E85 gasoline has made the news as a very good gas tank cleaner!
No agitation required either.
And if you filter it after letting soak the inside of you tank for a week or two you can burn it in your lawn mower.

Gas is thinner than water and will leak out of a tank where water will not.
As you have found out.
Remember the funnels you can buy with the brass screen in the bottom that lets gas thru but not water?

 

[Big Keepers]

Re: To clean inside Aluminum Fuel tank.

Fresh gasoline whether it be E-85 or E-10 gas. Ethanol in gasoline acts like a solvent and will clean the inside of your tank. Put the fresh gas in and shake the tank a lot. Until your arms fall off. Try that first before you get involved in nuts, bolts, thinner, etc. Then definitely have it pressure tested.