MTFCA Forum

What solvent or chemical (lacquer thinner, mineral spirits, etc) is good to pour into a gas tank that has sat for awhile to drain out through the potato for a general cleaning?

Thanks,
Jim

Alcohol

Rich- what type: rubbing, methyl, ethyl, Everclear, etc?

Jim, I wouldn't say it's fool-proof, but I've always had good results cleaning gummed up fuel components with alcohol. It seems to dissolve "gum" very well. Rubbing alcohol has a lot of free water, it doesn't seem to matter whether it's ethyl alcohol (the drinkable kind) or methyl (wood alcohol that turns us blind and dead). To slosh through a fuel tank, I'd say it would be best to use the highest proof stuff you can get cheaply. Denatured just means it's been made undrinkable. Even everclear is only 180 proof !

I just cleaned a Model a tank with this kit from Eastwood (POR 15 Fuel Tank Repair Kit Item #13431ZP Brand: POR-15). Had about three inches of solid sticky goop inside, from the mid 1980s when I had last run the car. If you just want to clean the tank, do yourself a favor and get a couple quarts of the cleaner/degreaser. Follow the directions, spend the first hour rotating the tank every few minutes to a different position. Throw in a couple of handfuls of big old castellated nuts, and shake it around before you rinse it out. Best thing is the cleaner is non toxic, and will evaporate rapidly from your discard bucket, leaving you with a bucket of dirt.

Koke, alcohol probably wouldn't deal with what you found in that Model A tank. Good to know there's stuff out there that works. On the other hand, you probably can't make a bloody mary with POR-15

I used lacquer thinner in an A tank that was really badly gummed up. I put a couple of gallons in and every time I walked by rocked the car some. After a while I drained it. Let it settle, added the cleared (HA HA) and some new. Took a little while but got tank mostly cleaned of the lacquer left by the old gas. That old, what people call real gas, can really leave some nasty stuff in the tank when it evaporates. I am sorry in my OP, unless you remove the baffles you are only going to get the middle of the tank clean using nut, bolts, rocks or screws and that includes T tanks. The space between the edge of the baffle and tank wall is not as big as you think.

With the oval and round tanks with which I am familiar, 16mm tek screws poured into the tank through the filler at one end have no trouble migrating into the other two sections of the tank. I put the tank into an electric concrete mixer and rotate it for as long as it takes. It does take some time to rattle all the screws out again, but manual shaking will certainly let you know if you have left any behind. Then the POR 15 treatment regime really works well.

Allan from down under.

Your right Mark, the baffles make it tough. Two quarts of cleaner plus two gallons of hot h20 pretty near fills the end beyond the baffles if you stand the tank on end. Do that in a plastic garbage can and you can shake it pretty good, I used a pressure washer and various homemade extension tips to get behind the baffles, and have a little scope with a tv screen and light, so I could see back into those corners. Took awhile, like two weeks while doing other stuff, but the tank is nice and clean now.