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Gas Tank Cleaning and De-Rusting Walk Through: Electrolysis

paperslammer
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Posts: 144
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2009 1:53 am
Location: Palo Alto, CA

Gas Tank Cleaning and De-Rusting Walk Through: Electrolysis

Post by paperslammer » Tue Jun 01, 2010 3:54 am

Hey everyone, just finished de-rusting my gas tank. Thought it would be used to post pictures on how I did it. There's another thread here that talks about it and is where I got some of my ideas.

First I took my tank off and drained it. I left my petcock on (even though not pictured below). I did take the screen out of the petcock, even though I don't think it would have done anything to it. I had recently bought new tubing for my bike, so I took some left over and attached it to the tank, clipping it off so about 1.5" was hanging off.

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After putting tubing on the three exits of the tank, I tied them shut with some twine. You may get some leakage, so be prepared to tighten the petcock / your knots.

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Now you'll need

1) A 10 amp car charger (6amp will work, but will just take longer)
2) Prepped gas tank
3) Bucket / Pot to mix in (you'll need 4 gallons of water)
4) Some sort of rubber. I bought rubber "Tie rod dust boots" from Kragen (~$6) and they worked great.
5) Washing Soda. 'Where in the world do you get this?' you might ask. You usually can get it as your local grocery store. You can easily find it by calling 1-800-524-1328 and giving them the UPC code 33200-03020. They should tell you the closest place to buy it.
6) Nuts / BBs
7) Steel wire / steel parts which will become your sacrificial anode
8) Measuring cup
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Fill the gas tank with a water + washing soda mixture. You should use 1/4 cup washing soda per 2 gallons of water. So w/4 gallons it was 1/2 cups.
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Funnel helped a lot
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The idea is to make something that hangs the steel inside of the gas tank but does not touch the inside of the gas tank. Here was my rendition. I had to change the material in the end, because copper / whatever this bolt was made of did not give me good results.
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I used the rubber parts to place the metal through to gas tank hole without it touching the sides.

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Now connect the positive battery charger wire to the metal hanging in the tank, and connect the negative side directly to the tank

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After turning on your charger, you should start to see bubbles coming of the steel hanging in the tank. When I took mine out after ~ 2hours, it look like this.

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It's a pretty color, but I realized after a couple of 2 hours session that it wasn't that effective. I switched to a coat hanger and got much better results.

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You'll have to clean the anode every 2 hours or so to remove all the crud. Repeat until no more crud collects on the anode. I replaced the water every 4 cycles or so.

After you're done, the rust should be gone and in it's place will be a black substance. Put the BBs/nuts in the tank and shake the tank to loosen all the black stuff. Rinse with water, and you should have a new tank on your hands! I got tired of shaking so mine could have looked better, but there was a large improvement!

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Other tips

If you use steel, it's OK to dump the water in the ground. If you use stainless steel, it is ILLEGAL to dump the water on the ground

Do this in a ventilated area. The process breaks water apart into oxygen and hydrogen, and both are flammable.

Good luck!

bjshealy
honda305.com Member
Posts: 29
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:14 pm
Location: Texas

Tank Cleaning/Repair

Post by bjshealy » Sun Jun 20, 2010 6:48 pm

Your step-by-step procedure accompanied with color photos is the very best explanation and easiest to understand that I have found by far. I am definitely going to clean my CA 72 fuel tank using your instructions!!
Thank you.

rustywrench
honda305.com Member
Posts: 487
Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 10:36 am
Location: Lake Stevens Wa

de-rust

Post by rustywrench » Sun Jun 20, 2010 7:14 pm

Thank you for that detailed walk through of this process. I once tried this one with a hot tub solution and it didn't work so well and now I can see why. I'm thinking you could use this tank as is and if you wanted to go a step further you could seal with por-15, a much superior product than Kreem for sure. Thanks again, RW

Maverick
honda305.com Member
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Jul 10, 2010 9:35 am

Post by Maverick » Sun Aug 29, 2010 7:08 pm

Do not let this stuff set in your tank overnight or any extended time.
The soda will settle to the bottom of the tank and turn to a hard soapstone. It is almost like concrete. It will be hard to get out.

rustywrench
honda305.com Member
Posts: 487
Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 10:36 am
Location: Lake Stevens Wa

tanks

Post by rustywrench » Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:00 pm

Hey Mav,
Dare we ask just how you know or just assume the obvious? RW

Maverick
honda305.com Member
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Jul 10, 2010 9:35 am

Post by Maverick » Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:41 pm

Learned the hard way.

rustywrench
honda305.com Member
Posts: 487
Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 10:36 am
Location: Lake Stevens Wa

Post by rustywrench » Sun Aug 29, 2010 11:25 pm

Yes we do that from time to time. Occasionally we even have a story to amuse as well as learn by.
RW

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