I use to rebuild old bikes from the 70's, and came across something that worked great for cleaning rust out of MC gas tanks. No need to spend alot of money on POR-15, or Kreem systems. This would probably apply to gas tanks that have alot of rust in them, or some surface rust you want to get rid of, not meant for carbs or fuel systems.

Go to K-Mart and buy "The Works" toilet bowl cleaner. Its $1.99 a bottle. For a bigger tank use two bottles, for a peanut tank one will work. Drain gas out, remove petcock and plug up the hole that is now there from the petcock. Pour that stuff straight in, fill the rest to the top with warm water. Let it sit for an hour, picking up your tank every 15 minutes and slosh that stuff around good like your mixing a drink. After an hour pour it all out. Flush your tank out about 3 times with warm water. Take your wifes hair dryer and dry that sucker out good. Then fog it with WD-40 or it will flash rust. Your tank will be shiny new bare metal. Top off with fresh gas. I cleaned out many rusted tanks that way, works every time. I have a feeling this wont apply to about 90% of the bikes here since they are new, but if you have an older bike with rust try it. I suppose this stuff would also work for anything you have that you want to get the rust off of.

 

thanks for the info man. i did the same thing but with a chemical called PD680. we use it on the V-22 Osprey at my work. i wish i new about the works stuff though. it was a pain with the PD680, but it was free.

thanks again,

wanna

 

Sounds good, Wouldn't you want to seal it with Kreem when finished ,so it wouldn't rust again? I would.

 

the kream kit comes with a acid that is used first and you would be amazed.i took my wifes 65 honda dream tank,the first step is an acid that sits in the tank overnight on used tanks.if you have a new tank the period is shorter for this step.well anyway the tank was pretty rusty and next day i emptied it i could not believe it,looked like new,now of course if you have a tank that is pitted real bad you may have trouble but it worked great for me,the kit is about 40 bucks.

 

When I cleaned up my old Triumph tank years and years ago I used lead shot for a bit of extra oomph on the bad parts. Just be sure to use lead only (absolutely no steel or other metal of any kind - it will spark - kaboom! - lead *only*). And count them into the tank, so that you can count them back out and make sure you've got them all.

I still remember the old wrench who hipped me to it telling me that if I blew myself up by using ball bearings, he'd kill me :-)

Nice tip on "The Works," Saltlick, it probably woulda worked on that old Triumph -- Thanks!

-JP

 

I dont like that coating, it comes off after a while then you got a real mess on your hands trying to get bits and pieces of that **** out of your petcock filter. Some people have no problems with it, others do. You shouldnt have a problem with your tank rusting again as long as you try to keep it full of gas.