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Re: Fuel Tanks

To: Glenn Stauffer <stauffer@voicenet.com>
Subject: Re: Fuel Tanks
From: Nolan Penney <npenney@erols.com>
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 15:18:29 -0700
Couple of comments about your FAQ or whatever from a motorcycle list about 
handling rusty 
fuel tanks.

While chemicals such as muric acid or vineger (my favorite) are very good at 
disolving rust, 
they cannot handle stuck chunks.  The rocks the author eschewed are quite 
usefull for 
knocking stuck chunks of things lose so the chemicals can do their work.  A 
suggestion I saw 
once (and have never used since I learned of it after doing the last tank) is 
to use 
aquarium gravel.  Small, lots of sharp edges, should scrape things very well 
and very 
quickly.  Especially compared to the rounded gravel pieces laying in the 
driveway.

>IMMEDIATELY coat the inside of the tank with the liner as it will start to
>rust within minutes because it is very bare metal in there.  CAUTION: the
>liners will also eat paint, as they are caustic in order for form a
>chemical bond with the metal surface.

I disagree with the assessment that the tank will start to ruse within minutes. 
 More like 
seconds, if not instantly.  Especially when the agents you have used to clean 
the tank are 
suspended in water, or the tank was rinsed with water.  Water rusts bare metal 
superbly.

I would also strongly advise against using a tank coating chemical.  The 
manufacturers, even 
the one who makes the best, Krem, will admit under some pressuring that it will 
fail within 
a few years at best.  Giving people like me more money as you pay me for taking 
out of the 
tank what you just payed me to put in the tank.  People really have done both 
when I was a 
motorcycle mechanic.  A car fuel tank may hold up better with this then a 
motorcycle beause 
of the lower vibration and beating a car tank would get.  But I still wouldn't 
do it for 
love nor money.

The best most reasonable chemical I have found for coating the inside of a fuel 
tank to 
prevent rust is gasoline.  A liberal coating on the metal keeps water displaced 
and 
prevents rust.  Namely, keep your tank full, especially if it's going to sit.  
Gas doesn't 
rust, and it doesn't atract water.  Though it is up to you to not pour water in 
the tank via 
cheap gas or parking it with the cap off in the rain.

Just some ruminations as I lay here chewing my cud.


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