How-To Get Rid of Rust in your Gas Tank

[megaloxana]

I had an incredible amount rust in my YZF tank after I took it to the body shop a while back. The rust completely covered the inside of the tank and plagued my carbs with dirty residue.

Shopping list:
(*) Phosphoric Prep & Etch by Klean-Strip (Homedepot $15.00)
(*) Handful of bolts, nuts, BB's or similiar metal objects
(*) Telescoping pen magnet
(*) heat gun or hair dryer
(*) 1-7 days without a gas tank


Here's my gas tank before the treatment


FIRST...REMOVE THE PETCOCK and ANY SENSORS Plug up the holes and make them water tight. I cleaned the area well and used duct tape, but it did not hold over night and leaked. I would recommend using some some plastic or sheetmetal, drilling holes to match the petcock and bolting it to the gas tank. Place some duct tape between your blockoff plates to form a gasket.


Now you want to do is get rid of the loose rust. Do this by dumping in some handfuls of bolts, nuts, even metal BB's. I bought a 50/pack of mahine screws & nuts. It's good to know the number of objects you're putting in so you know if you got them all out.

Now you want to shake them around in the gas tank. You want to use a motion so that the nuts&bolts slide across the surfaces of the gas tank(think sandpaper motion). Do this til your arms get tired, take a rest, then do it some more. Get a flashlight and take a look inside, make sure you got all the big flakes. If you're done, then fish out all the bolts&nuts with your pen magnet.

Wash out the gas tank with water

Next pour in the Prep&Etch, I initially poured the whole thing in but 3/4 of it leaked out overnight. I went ahead and used the 1/4 that I had left and got excellent results, I just had to turn the gas tank around a lot more. Shake the gas tank around every few hours or so and sit it down on a different position everytime. If you have light rust, then 24 hours might have taken care of the rust. My results were after 3 days.
*NOTE* the prep & etch is green liquid.


After you are satisfied with the results, dump the liquid out of your tank. Now thoroughly wash out the inside of the tank with some soap and water. Then use a hair dryer or heatgun to completely dry out the inside of the tank. Refill with petrol of your choice.


..AND the results..

[thatkid]

That is quite the difference. Way to go!

[sweekster]

Great find and the tank looks great.

[mossy1200]

Nice job.Looks very good after treating.I had never seen a rusty tank inner.Is it common?

[DonTZ125]

Park a bike for a few seasons with a half-tank of gas, and it fills with water vapour, which condenses into liquid water. Water and iron have this REALLY annoying habit...

Megaloxana - are you going to seal the tank? A lot of people swear by Kreem and other products; many others swear AT them.

[megaloxana]

are you going to seal the tank? A lot of people swear by Kreem and other products; many others swear AT them.

I don't plan on it, I've heard many horror stories and thats something I don't want to go through. I would rather do this again than trying to clean out the kreem coating. I can't speak for the kreem so don't think I'm knocking it..it's just not for me.

[TomGun]

Very nice howto. This needs to be added to the wiki!! Anyone disagree?

[zero9243]

Man thats awesome!

[haunter]

are you going to seal the tank? A lot of people swear by Kreem and other products; many others swear AT them.

I don't plan on it, I've heard many horror stories and thats something I don't want to go through. I would rather do this again than trying to clean out the kreem coating. I can't speak for the kreem so don't think I'm knocking it..it's just not for me.

everyone I know that hates KREEM(every yamaha xz550 vision owner I have talked to) swears by POR15

[95FZR600]

I will add it one night this week to the WIKI for sure unless someone beats me to it.

Very nice work!

[billy_awesome]

Thanks for the write up!

I'm definitely going to do attempt this in the next few weeks!

[dru86]

Looks like it did a pretty good job. I'm not a big fan of any rust remover kit that involves resealing the tank. What happens once the sealer starts to peel off? You end up gettting all these chucks of crap in your tank.

[moto]

Nice job.Looks very good after treating.I had never seen a rusty tank inner.Is it common?

Rusty tanks are a real pain - I went to look at an RG125 Gamma earlier this week, bought in 1990 and unused since 1992 it had done just 660 miles from new! Sadly the owner had left 1/2 a tank of petrol in it when they put it away in the garage in 1992 (or it might have been 3/4 full then!), the result was a nice 1/2" of rusty sludge coating the inside of the tank with the petrol smelling like varnish. prevention is better than cure, if you won't be using your bike for a while fill the tank right up with petrol & add some fuel stabiliser, if you think you might not get back on it for 21 years I seriously recommend getting all the fuel out (and the carbs too!) and pouring a glass of oil inside, then slosh it around to coat the inside of the tank. Makes it much nicer for people like me down the line...

[~JM~]

Add a shot of 2-stroke oil & some Stabil or other fuel preservative & it will not rust. Keeping the tank full to the top is the other rust preventative.

~JM~

[yamaha_george]

Meg,
Nice write up, however the etchant is a corrosive liquid and should be handled with care ie gloves and eye shield. Once the rust is removed the etchant leaves bare metal that is subject to chemical re-action ie it will rust again.!!!

If you select this page :-
http://www.saltmine.org.uk/kgb/faqindx.html
& click on rust removal it will auto download a PDF with the full details which basically is:-

You can buy a very cheap chemical at the super market that with the aid of a battery or battery charger will chemically alter the active red oxide (rust) into an inert black oxide which will stop the red rust returning.

If you do not want to be fishing nuts and bolts out use an old bike chain, the above method foes NOT require the removing/sealing of petcocks etc