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How long to leave Acetone in a tank?

chuck hahn

chuck hahn

Forum LongTimer
Past Site Supporter
Guess since I am soaking some thick black sludgy old fuel from a tank using Acetone to soften it. This stuff is like blackish butter tub plastic in consistency. I was wondering if leaving it in over night would be a bad thing.

I put it in around 11 AM today and its dissolving the stuff pretty good as far as I can see into the tank with the flashlight.

Acetone comes in a metal can..but still am questioning if an overnight sitting will do any internal harm.
 
I cannot see it harming the metal at all.
Just do not get it on the paint.
 
Has the screw on style Honda petcock and I jammed a cork in it...which will be the drain hole.

Its a 83 Honda CM 250C Custom that Matt got for his girlfriend and daughter to learn on. last registration was in Texas on 03.

Was brown turpentine smelling gas that we drained out and then saw the gunk all along the bottom..and its pretty thick too. I would say between 1/16 inch to 1/8 in some places. Gotta get the stuff out before a good look at the rest can be done.
 
When you do finally drain it, you might put a handful of drywall screws in there, add another dose of acetone and shake it for a bit to make sure it's all scrubbed clean. :D

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Steve..I was actually think about buying a few cartons of BBs just for that purpose. Shake them out the petcock hole a bucket, dry and reuse again and again.
 
Chuck, BB's are too smooth. They will just roll over the crud instead of scrubbing the metal. Learned this using pea gravel which is also too smooth. Something like aquarium rocks have sharp edges and will offer more scrubbing power. See if you can find the type that's not coated though; a lot of aquarium rocks are coated with some sort of sealer.

Good luck
 
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Never thought of that edge thing Ed. I was thinking about how to get something small enough that will come out the petcock hole..relatively easy. No sending unit hole on this tank, so a pencil magnet to pick nuts out like I do with a 1000 tank is out of the question.
 
You could also try try a length of chain. It's easier and quicker to fish back out
 
nejeff said:
You could also try try a length of chain. It's easier and quicker to fish back out
Click to expand...
Like the BBs, most chain is rather rounded. Now if you have a "sash chain", it might work.

SashChainSteel_TN.jpg


Those edges just might be sharp enough to cut through any residual crud.

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I used a couple small boxes of lock washers and screws. They had sharp edges for scraping rust and sludge off and they were easy to get out with a magnet. When I used the rocks it seemed like it took forever to get all of them out of the tank. Maybe I just didn't have the right technique.
 
In my experience, acetone sure does a number on aluminum in the presence of water...but it should not harm steel Chuck.
 
I've had some thinner sitting in one of my Skunk tanks for months now. NO harm that I can see.

As for the cleaning, use screws. Much more scrubbing power. Also, can use a magnet on the outside of tank to move em around. As to scrub the inner, from the outside.
 
Nasty brown maple syrup looking crap came out this morning. Rinsed it with lots of water and then 2 rounds of gas to get the metal coated again.
 
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