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Phosphoric acid worked brilliantly on my tank. And it didn't damage the paint or anything else when it slopped all over the tank. Don't get it on your hands, especially if you have hangnails... OUCH
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Currently bikeless
'81 GS 1100EX - "Peace, by superior fire power."
'06 FZ1000 - "What we are dealing with here, is a COMPLETE lack of respect for the law."
I ride, therefore I am.... constantly buying new tires.
"Tell me what kind of an accident you are going to have, and I will tell you which helmet to wear." - Harry Hurt -
Originally posted by themess View Post
I think I'm going to try it for the heck of it. Nothing to lose except a few liters of stuff I don't drink anyway. If it doesn't work, no harm done, and I'll share the results. The rust isn't severe at all, so I'm thinking this is worth trying. Any ideas on how long I should let it sit and how much friction time I should give it? At what point might the phosphoric degrade? I'll probably do the process twice, the second with fresh cola.
Someone suggested BBs instead of marbles, but I'm concerned they might get lodged in places I can't see. Plus with marbles I can count them before and after to make sure I get them all out. Any other ideas or thoughts on this?
I'm also going to look for a soft brush on a long wire handle or fab one myself... I'm going to do a search now too to see if I can find out which sodas have the most acid in them. I'm wondering if Mountain Dew might work even better!
**EDIT** Mountain Dew and Pepsi have none! According to my first source, which may be old, the highest are in: Tab, Coke, Diet Coke, caffeine-free Coke, and Mr. PibbLast edited by Guest; 11-16-2006, 04:12 PM.Comment
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If it doesn't work you can always pick up a quart of phosphoric and do it again. A handful of pea gravel works just fine. With soda you can probably leave it as long as you want to. It will take way longer than if you used acid.Originally posted by MissFabulous View PostComment
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I'm going to start it tonight, so I will let every one know how it goes, and of course, take pictures. I'm in no rush, so I'll do the wash, rinse, repeat a couple of times and see how it goes.
I see a few advantages to starting this way: no need to wear gloves, and since it's a really big tank, it's going to be very heavy full, so if nothing else, I'll have a better idea of all the safety precautions I'll need to take if I use the real thing. The paint job is already toast so no fears there.
Wish me luck!!Comment
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researched it before hand, thats why i'm still here...Originally posted by themess View PostComment
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was getting worried what you were going to do with the waste products...Originally posted by MissFabulous View PostComment
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There are actually a couple spots where I'd like to kill off some grass!!Originally posted by rustybronco View PostComment
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When I cleaned my tank, I was concerned that pea gravel would be hard to remove from tank since the filler neck has a lip on the inside. I used a piece of decorative household chain and attached small bolts through the links. I had to double nut the bolts to prevent loss. Then I half filled the tank with water, added chain, stuffed a temporary stopper in filler hole and shook it. And shook it. And shook it. Rinse and repeat.
I had to do this as my tank was encrusted in very heavy rust which made it sound like a rattle when dry. Then I went with the acid baths to remove remainder of rust and prep for epoxy.
Cola might work for a lightly rusted tank if left overnight. I doubt it would harm tank to leave it soak. Might taste like little funny when done though...Comment
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Chain! Great idea! I have a nice, new smooth dog choke collar around here somewhere. I'll bet if I take the rings off of it that will work well. I have the same concern about pea gravel myself, although I do have some. I'm afraid some of the irregular ones might get lodged or that some would break and get lodged here and there... I have no idea what is on the other side of that lip or how far down it goes!Comment
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I didn't have any trouble getting the gravel out of my tank. Just kept shaking it to see if I could hear any of it rattling around.Comment
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Well the tank is soaking with several liters of Coke in it tonight. Tomorrow I'll see if I can find that chain and hit it up with that and see what happens. If I don't feel like I'm getting enough friction with that, I might try gravel or marbles.
Confirmed that my gas cap leaks... I pretty much knew that anyway, but with the Coke in it I could hear it breathe. Pet cock seems to work just fine as far as I can tell.
Why is it such a PITA to get all the gas drained out??? Could hear so much of that last cup full or so swishing around but couldn't get it to drain out of the petcock anymore (set to prime, then I tried reserve with no difference) and all the tipping, shaking and displacing I tried still only let a little bit of it come out the fill opening. Where was it hiding on me??Comment
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AAAUUUGHHH!!!!! Sacrilege! Waste of a good over-caffenated soda!Originally posted by MissFabulous View Post
Can anyone tell I'm addicted to Mountain Dew?
I'm glad that it has no phosphoric acid (just checked my bottle to make sure). It does have erythorbic acid, which I've never heard of, as well as brominated vegetable oil, which is slightly worrisome. Maybe it'll keep my joints lubricated in old age.
When I knock out loose rust from a tank, I use old nuts and bolts. Fairly easy to count and the sharp edges seem to work better. A guy at a machine shop said they used to put a double handful of pea gravel in a tank and tie it to the rear tire of an old 2 1/2 ton truck with low low gear. They'd jack the back of the truck up, put it in superlow, and let it idle for about half an hour. Seems like an awful lot of trouble, considering a gear reduction motor hooked up to a 110 outlet would be simple to set up, and you could even mount a platform to it via belt drive to specifically hold a motorcycle gas tank. I wouldn't recommend running it inside the house, unless you're hard of hearing anyway......it's kinda like a rock tumbler in reverse. I've even entertained the notion of using one of those rotisserie attachments for grilles.
Hope the Coke works, just to have an interesting story if nothing else. BTW, the petcock is going to need to be flushed thoroughly....Comment
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POR 15 & Phosphoric???
Hopefully folks are still reading this thread! My stock 1980 GS850L gas tank has a tremendous amount of rust caked onto the interior. It was left outside for 12 years with stale gas in the tank...man that stuff smelled really great after I opened the gas cap - whew! :shock:
Just wondering if the POR 15 or the Behr Phosphoric product at Lowes/HD will work on a REALLY rusted tank...I mean really bad rust! I just wonder if it would be worth the time & effort & money to try and clean that tank or just keep an eye out on eBay & the GSR for a less rusty tank...
I currently have another L model tank on it so I can ride/enjoy the bike, but it is UGLY - spray painted, dented & rusted! (but it works! I'll be riding my not-so-pretty 850 tomorrow!) \\
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As long as the tank is sound the acid will work. First thing to do is get as much of the loose rust out with nuts and bolts, gravel, or whatever else is handy. After treating mine with acid I did a wash with a mixture of naptha and motor oil to coat the tank since I wasn't going to be filling it right away. When you neutralize the acid just put your garden hose in the tank and let it run awhile and slosh the water around. I dried mine out with a blow drier after getting as much water out as I could.Originally posted by 80sGSfan View PostHopefully folks are still reading this thread! My stock 1980 GS850L gas tank has a tremendous amount of rust caked onto the interior. It was left outside for 12 years with stale gas in the tank...man that stuff smelled really great after I opened the gas cap - whew! :shock:
Just wondering if the POR 15 or the Behr Phosphoric product at Lowes/HD will work on a REALLY rusted tank...I mean really bad rust! I just wonder if it would be worth the time & effort & money to try and clean that tank or just keep an eye out on eBay & the GSR for a less rusty tank...
I currently have another L model tank on it so I can ride/enjoy the bike, but it is UGLY - spray painted, dented & rusted! (but it works! I'll be riding my not-so-pretty 850 tomorrow!) \\/Comment
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Originally posted by joeyplumley View Post
Wow. Excellent sources for lots of info - thanks a bunch, Joey.
Ironhead - I feel your pain with the Dew. Heck, I don't even realize I'm buying it anymore when I'm at the pump with my truck. For some reason, I always come out with a pack of Camels, a Dew, and more often then not a bag of seeds - kind of like pulling into your driveway and not remembering the drive home - it's almost automatic....
It's embarassing how many empty pop bottles are in my truck at any given time. But in my defense, I do typically drive or ride up between 900 and 1200 miles a week for work (if you've got no reason to put in a 1500 mile week in a pickup, you definitely don't wanna - lemme tell you). The upside is that I get guv'ment rate mileage whether I'm driving or riding - but I'm getting off track.
MissFab - a lot of bikes are set up with a self-venting fuel cap. It should hiss if it's pressurized (when you shake the cola) - if not, when your engine sucks fuel out of the tank while it's running, you'll create a vacuum in the tank and vapor-lock the carbs - or fuel starve them because they can't suck any more gas from an already negatively-pressurized tank. Kind of like pulling a straw full of pop from a cup by clamping your finger on the top of the straw when you were a kid - the straw is open at the bottom, but the pop won't spill because the vacuum in the straw overcomes gravity. Yours might have this kind of cap, so I wouldn't worry too much right now about a "leaking" gas cap.
Also, it's easier to drain your tank if you completely remove the petcock. Drain the tank as empty as you can, then turn it on its side (the fuel should be low enough that it won't spill out), remove the petcock, then turn it over to the petcock side and shake the rest of the fuel into a bucket. Especially if your bike had a fuel guage - you wouldn't want to shake around a chain or a bunch of gravel with the fuel sender in there. You can put the petcock back on for the cola soak, or just hack a piece of sheetmetal or plastic as a cover for the petcock hole. A bit of innertube works great as a gasket under this cover. With the petcock removed, you can also drain the peagravel out of the petcock hole (if you use small enough gravel) instead of the filler cap so you won't have to worry about the lip in the filler neck.
Half the time in my garage, I'm "analizing" about my plans - I spend a lot of time going over the "what-ifs", too. I'd probably get a lot more done if I wouldn't think so much about the consequenses or possible mistakes...
Alright - enough preaching from me. I'll get back to work now.
-Q!Last edited by Guest; 11-17-2006, 04:29 PM.Comment
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