Cleaning my tank

[Voo_Doo]

Well after reading through the threads here I have decieded to try and clean the fuel tank by electrolysis. I have all the stuff just need to take off the petcock and fuel pump and fasion be a plug for the hole. There is alot of rust in this tank. I hope it works. The outside of the tank dont look too bad. But I will find out after I strip the paint. I will post some before and after pics of the inside of the tank soon.

[Voo_Doo]

Here is the before

[JayH]

You didn't mention what bike the tank came off of but does your tank have a fuel level float assembly? You might want to take that out also.

[Voo_Doo]

Thankyou for pointing that out. Its a GS550L. I will be taking everything out of it that I find. If I miss something else please let me know. As I am not experienced in bike repair but I will learn after getting this together.

[Voo_Doo]

I think I have every thing I need to begin the proceedure. I just went to Napa and picked up tank sealer. Its called Red-Kote Fuel tank liner. Dont know how well it will work but wil find out.

[chuckycheese]

Red Kote

I think I have every thing I need to begin the proceedure. I just went to Napa and picked up tank sealer. Its called Red-Kote Fuel tank liner. Dont know how well it will work but wil find out.

Red Kote is a wonderful product!\\/

[doctorgonzo]

I think mine was done with Kreem by the PO. I hope it holds up. Everybody on here disses it.

[Voo_Doo]

I am glad I got the Red-Kote . It was the only one the local shop had anyways. But I think I lucked out from what I have read.

[spyug]

We don't all diss Kreeme. I have used it twice and it works well. The only down side is that it requires very close attention to the preparation procedure.....especially the cleaning of the tank. It won't stick properly to a flaky surface.

The POR 15 product is better but still need close attention to the cleaning. The best I've found so far is the Caswell Plating two part epoxy. It is designed to work with the rusty surface so prep is minimal. Just knock of the big flakes, pour it in and rotate it til it covers all the surfaces. Pour out any excess. word of warning the kit is sufficient to do 2 tanks so don't use it all in one go or you might end up like me with a big lump right where the tank sender unit was supposed to sit:shock:

I don't have experience with the .Red Kote stuff but I hear it is good . I'd like to hear your findings.

Good luck with it.

Cheers,
Spyug.

[Jon Burke]

I've had good luck with Kreem also. Follow the directions to the letter and don't get in a hurry. Let it cure...takes several days. Did mine last September. Holding up well.

[Voo_Doo]

Update on cleaning the tank. It is now on its third day of electrolisis and I can tell the difference in the feel of the tank inside so I am hoping it is cleaning it all. I have the tank where the gas cap is on the right side instead of center so I have the sacrifical annode pointing down the right side and the ground on the back left tab. I am hoping that does the trick of transferring the electricity throughout evenly. I check it through out the day and clean the annode due to it gunking up. I am hoping in one more day it will be ready for the red-kote seal.

[Nessism]

The best I've found so far is the Caswell Plating two part epoxy. It is designed to work with the rusty surface so prep is minimal. Just knock of the big flakes, pour it in and rotate it til it covers all the surfaces. Pour out any excess. word of warning the kit is sufficient to do 2 tanks so don't use it all in one go or you might end up like me with a big lump right where the tank sender unit was supposed to sit:shock:

Good luck with it.

Cheers,
Spyug.

I’m not comfortable with just trying to seal over rust since no matter what that insidious stuff seems to always come back. I feel much safer with removing as much rust as possible before sealing.

Used the POR-15 kit and noticed that a LOT of rust remained after doing the phosphate wash (following their instructions on dwell time). Ordered some more acid wash and this time left it to dwell longer in the tank; it took about three days to completely remove all the rust. The phosphate left a chalky residue inside the tank which wouldn’t come out until dumping some aquarium rocks in there and shaking the crap out of the tank. Lots of work but in the end, the tank was pretty much rust free and ready for sealing.

Wound up using the Caswell epoxy to seal it all off. Mixed up ½ the container but was not happy with the way it was flowing (its killer thick – flows like cold honey) so I dumped in the other half. Flowed it around as much as possible and then pored off the excess – not a whole lot came back out, maybe ¼ of the total amount. The epoxy added several pounds to the weight of the tank so I know there is a good thick coat on the inside of that tank. Hope this is a good thing.

[northwoods]

I'm in the process of cleaning and lining my tank as well. I'm using Kreem as it's the only product I could find locally and I didn't want to wait for an online shipping. It's currently soaking in the acid wash overnight, so we'll see how well it cleans it up.

[Nessism]

I'm in the process of cleaning and lining my tank as well. I'm using Kreem as it's the only product I could find locally and I didn't want to wait for an online shipping. It's currently soaking in the acid wash overnight, so we'll see how well it cleans it up.

You need to rotate the tank to keep the rusty areas wet. When I did mine, the tank was turned every few hours so another area of the tank is under water so to speak. Whole process took about three days. As mentioned, the phosphate will leave the metal chalky – which should be removed before going to the next stage. If you just do the standard two hour soak, the chalky residue will not develop – but the metal will still be rusty.

[almarconi]

I've had good luck with phosphoric acid. I filled the tank about 3/4 full with water and then added concentrated phosphoric acid. Let the tank soak for a day or so. After draining the acid, I washed the tank out with a pressure washer. The acid removed the rust and left a phosphate coating on the metal. Mine did not have any pinholes so I did not need to use a sealer. I have used the caswell epoxy in the past and it worked pretty good.

I've used electrolysis on the rust seat pan of my GS and after the rust is gone the metal is coated with a black coating. The nice thing about electrolysis is that it does not attack clean metal only the rusty metal. I painted the seat pan with 2 coats of zero rust paint and have not seen any more rust.