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Post by Woodentop on Aug 3, 2020 7:32:43 GMT 1
Hi, I need to give the inside of my fuel tank a clean and see that some people use vinegar or lemon juice (citric acid) for rust removal. I live in Norway and will struggle to order the normal chemicals due to post rules. What is the best way to use vinegar? Do I need to fill the tank or is a slosh around enough? How long should it sit in the tank? Afterwards i see that a rinse with water, leave it to dry and then a coating of premix with diesel/petrol as a final treatment is advised. Let me know if i've missed anything Cheers.
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Post by 4l04ever on Aug 3, 2020 7:57:54 GMT 1
I have heard of people using Cola in the past, even cheaper brands, and would be easy to source.
I would wash out after and then perhaps swill out with WD40, which is designed to disperse water.
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lc2
Weekend rider
Posts: 84
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Post by lc2 on Aug 3, 2020 8:30:40 GMT 1
See if you can order Deox C, works very well and is reusable.
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Post by JonW on Aug 3, 2020 8:33:16 GMT 1
you will need to fill the tank and let it sit for days with vinegar, sloshing wont work. Vinegar is a weak acid, most vinegar you buy is about 5%. so you will need 20L, but thats not expensive, Aldi sell cheap 2L bottles of it etc.
Its what I use on many things before plating and also on tanks. you will need to drain it periodically and put nuts on a bit of wire and some water and shake like mad to knock off chucks of rust and then rinse and then back in with the vinegar.
Dont let it sit for ages or it will go black.
Once you final rise with water you will need a chemical to stop it rusting immediately, some kind of rust converter works ok
You can buy all manner of specific things to do this, but vinegar will work.
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Post by mangocrazy on Aug 3, 2020 9:20:37 GMT 1
Are you sure you can't source citric acid in powder form? It's used widely in home brewing in the UK and is cheap as chips on ebay (£15 for 5kg delivered.) The advantage of powder is you can regulate the strength of the solution easily.
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Post by mak595 on Aug 3, 2020 13:49:22 GMT 1
On my katana tank, i used white vinegar, bought 20lts off Amazon for about £15, i filled the tank and left it for 5 days then washed out with a power wash, dried with air line, then gave the inside a swill with oil to coat it.
Worked ok but the tank wasn't bad. Like jonw says, if you use vinegar, once drained, you will need to coat it quickly as it will flash rust in a couple of minutes.
I've got a PV tank to do which is fairly heavy rusty inside, ive a feeling vinegar wont really cut it so thinking of using something like Deox C for that....
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Post by tacky1 on Aug 3, 2020 15:37:24 GMT 1
I use vinegar and Sheetrock screws, works every time, Took me 5 days of shaking and swapping out the vinegar to get this one this clean..
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2020 16:04:57 GMT 1
Use phosphoric acid, plenty of household cleaners eg CLR have it as an ingredient
The phosphoric passivises the steel and helps prevent flash rust when you empty it
Once emptied put in some methylated spirits in to absorb any water, drain, then add a strong mix of 2 stroke oil and fuel to stop further rusting if you plan to store it for a while
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Post by steeley on Aug 3, 2020 20:58:22 GMT 1
Are you sure you can't source citric acid in powder form? It's used widely in home brewing in the UK and is cheap as chips on ebay (£15 for 5kg delivered.) The advantage of powder is you can regulate the strength of the solution easily. Hi , citric acid powder 10/20 grms per ltr of water . I have used stronger with no ill effects , you can use a fish tank heater to warm the water to 28 degrees c . When done you can save the mixture for another project . I have used a splash of diesel to chase the remains out or you can dry it out with an air line or hair dryer.
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tomtom1
Thrash Merchant
Leeds
Posts: 355
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Post by tomtom1 on Aug 3, 2020 21:44:45 GMT 1
Toilet cleaner and various size nuts but count them, if you count 20 in you want 20 out obvious I know), rinse and repeat, once your happy wash out with hose pipe, then blow dry with compressor, then mix of petrol with lots of 2t oil. Worked for me.
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Post by JonW on Aug 4, 2020 0:03:50 GMT 1
Toilet cleaner and various size nuts but count them, if you count 20 in you want 20 out obvious I know), rinse and repeat, once your happy wash out with hose pipe, then blow dry with compressor, then mix of petrol with lots of 2t oil. Worked for me. If thread put them on some welding wire then they should all come out at once
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Post by JonW on Aug 4, 2020 0:04:25 GMT 1
Use phosphoric acid, plenty of household cleaners eg CLR have it as an ingredient The phosphoric passivises the steel and helps prevent flash rust when you empty it Once emptied put in some methylated spirits in to absorb any water, drain, then add a strong mix of 2 stroke oil and fuel to stop further rusting if you plan to store it for a while Howard, with CLR do you need to fill the tank or will swilling work?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2020 19:26:04 GMT 1
I’d fill the tank to keep as much oxygen off the steel
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tomtom1
Thrash Merchant
Leeds
Posts: 355
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Post by tomtom1 on Aug 4, 2020 21:31:25 GMT 1
Toilet cleaner and various size nuts but count them, if you count 20 in you want 20 out obvious I know), rinse and repeat, once your happy wash out with hose pipe, then blow dry with compressor, then mix of petrol with lots of 2t oil. Worked for me. Forgot to say shake the tank side to side instead of up and down so nuts slide on the inside surface, if you let the nuts bounce around too much you could put small dents in the tank.
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Post by steven on Aug 5, 2020 10:01:20 GMT 1
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dc
Thrash Merchant
Posts: 339
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Post by dc on Aug 7, 2020 10:09:02 GMT 1
I have used vinegar previously, white was recommended but I used regular brown simply because it was easy to buy in Costco. I added a few nuts and bolts and during the 4 day treatment I rocked the tank gently to move the bolts around. The result was a very clean tank but it was only mild surface rust in the first place. Once drained out, I used a mixture of water and bicarbonate of soda to help with flash rust, then rinsed that and dried the tank with blue paper toweling and a Sidekick and hairdryer. Then a coat of gt85.
You can also look up tank cleaning with Electrolysis, there are loads of vids on YouTube.
Something to consider is rust can form on the top inner surface of tanks so ideally you need a way to seal off the filler area and allow the mixture to work there also, otherwise you may keep finding odd bits of rust floating around. Use a small mirror and torch to check.
Bilthamber Deox-C works, many suggest it is citric acid powder but I think it may have a bit more going for it.
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Dave B
Drag-strip hero
Posts: 240
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Post by Dave B on Aug 7, 2020 10:58:27 GMT 1
Ironically, someone who knows a lot more about organic chemistry than I do explained that vinegar, or more scientifically, acetic acid is what is responsible for causing rust in tanks when the ethanol in the fuel degrades over time. It turns into vinegar and corrodes the steel. A sort of chemical version of 'the hair of the dog'. I do prefer phosphoric acid, though if you spill it, it does make your concrete garage floor fizz a bit!
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