Rusty steel gas tank.

[2dumb4words]

Did a little horse trading today, and dragged home a decent Honda generator. Had it running off an auxiliary gas tank. Seems to be in good shape other then a rusty tank. I've battled this once before with decent end results, at least in the short term (I sold the motorcycle so I don't know how it held up). I cleaned it out with a handful of gravel, then coated it with an epoxy. I was reading about using electrolysis, but it has moderate to heavy rust all the way to the top of the filler neck.

Any of you fellas have an easier, or better suggestion? Should I just resort to my caveman technique? The lazy bastard in me is more than a little tempted to simply run it with the aux tank. Better make it right though.

I know, pics. But it was too dark tonight to get any pics. I will post some ASAP.

 

[2strokenut]

i have use this on a few bikes that i have restored works great

Kreem | Fuel Tank Liner

 

[2dumb4words]

Yeah, thanks. That's exactly what I used on my first motorcycle tank 20 something years ago. Couldn't remember the name. Probably what I'll do. Unless someone has a better way.

 

[bigbadbob]

I have a Honda pump and the tank was very rusty, had good luck using broken glass from a car side or back window.
I think the tanks are pretty cheap if you look around .

 

[Macman125]

I bought a paint shaker at a going out of business sale a while back. throw some sharp gravel in and let er shake. Noisy as all begot, but gets the job done.

 

[jughead500]

evaporust from autozone.just make sure to get all of the crud out first

 

[2dumb4words]

Thinking I'm going to use electrolysis. It's pretty rusty, and from my understanding this should be the least destructive. No additional loss of metal. Besides, I have everything needed to make this happen. So, I give you the "before".View attachment 285341View attachment 285342

 

[2dumb4words]

Did some double, triple fact checking before diving in. Should be good to go. Went ahead and gave it a good sloshing rinse. Some significant flakes of rust gave me some trouble, until I got out a magnet tool and fished the remaining loose bits out. Had to go get some "wash soap" as it differs from baking soda. Wash soap is sodium carbonate (what we want) where as baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Not sure how much it matters, but i'll stick to the plan. If you try this at home, do some research first. Don't rely on my first time trial.

So got it rigged up, topped off with the solution. And as soon as I plugged it in, you could see it start working. These pics were within 1 minute.View attachment 285427View attachment 285428

Edit: I removed the screws as soon as I realized they may be stainless. (They're not).
Do not use any stainless in this process. It produces toxic chemicals (chromium hexavalent). Use some rusty steel, as your anode. I sanded the rust off to my contact area, and along the "sacrificial" area. Also, make sure you have adequate ventilation as the by product is hydrogen.

 

[bigbadbob]

Can you show us your setup???
Nice meter BTW!!!
BBB

 

[2dumb4words]

Of the small mountain of battery chargers I have, the one selected was the only "manual" type. The "automatic" type chargers aren't recommended. As usual, I found some conflicting information and decided to go with a small, very conservative 1 amp manual charger. I was concerned it may be too small, until I saw almost immediate results. I'm in no rush to use the Generator, so slow and steadys fine.

 

[Macman125]

Be sure to do this in a ventilated area as electrolysis produces hydrogen gas which is highly volatile. Otherwise it should work great I have experimented with it a little my self.

 

[2dumb4words]

Can you show us your setup???
Nice meter BTW!!!
BBB

Here's the whole rig. View attachment 285455View attachment 285455 after it had been going for a couple hours, curiosity got the best of me. Had to check progress. Pulled the anode, snapped a pic and stuck it back. Plan to check it again in a couple. View attachment 285457

It doing something. All leads are running cool. Gaining a little confidence that the end eesult will be worth the effort.

I'm considering some sort of coating, to keep from doing this again. This parts been pretty easy, and no nasty fumes from acid or lye solutions. People, earth, and equipment friendly. I'd rather be kicked in the crotch than take that dang carb apart again chasing rust. It running fine now if I feed it from a remote tank. Never thought I'd want a plastic gas tank.View attachment 285463

 

[2dumb4words]

Thanks for the heads up maclover. I set this up in the shed so I could leave the door open to let it breathe. Nothing like brewing up some hydrogen in the garage.


Edit: the mrs would never let me live down any sort of "Hindenberg incident".

 

[2dumb4words]

Just in case the pics weren't self explanatory. The funnel is being used as the insulator for my anode. The 200mph tape is just to prevent the funnel from tipping allowing the anode to short to the tank. This keeps the anode safely suspended in the solution.

 

[bigbadbob]

Thanks for those pictures, all makes sense.
Looks like its working.
NNN

 

[2dumb4words]

Definitely working. Pulled it again (only been a few minutes) and the anode was nearly coated again. Wiped it and stuck it back. Could tell a difference already for sure, just in the filler neck. Probably rinse it and re set it up after dinner and let it run till morning. So far very pleased.

 

[2dumb4words]

Gave it a rinse and quick inspection. Making progress, but my original implementation left much to be desired. What's clear, is greater probe surface area is in order. So I moved from the coat hanger to 3/4 iron pipe in the filler hole, and stuck an old saw file in the gauge window. Ran a jumper from probe to probe and hooked up a 10 amp charger. Lets see if this thing moves a little faster now.

Edit: automatic type charger seems to be working fine.

 

[2strokenut]

cool info iv only ever removed rust in tanks with acid

 

[2dumb4words]

Some notes, and a progress update. It's looking much better. Most rust is gone from what I could see. My tests and data are inconclusive as yet, but its definitely progressing faster with more "contact area", and more current.

Just can't get myself to leave it plugged in while I'm away at work, or asleep. Something about electric & water experiments make me internally review insurance policies.

 

[2dumb4words]

The dual probe, 12 amp system is the ticket for my 5 gallon tank size application. The bigger the surface area of probe the better. Actually considering using a 55 gallon barrel for future rig.

At any rate, key with my current set up is regular probe cleanings. Pull em out, wipe off the gook, put em back. Solution is pretty stable. I've tried refreshing it after a few hours of run and it seems about the same. My recommendation is just to keep the probes wiped down as possible. The reason for ditching the funnel was to allow current to get to the filler neck. The insulator idea was shielding the filler neck. The mk2 solved that issue entirely.View attachment 285772 the "2dumb rusteater mk2". Keen observers may note that I switched my ground clamp from the tank plug to a bare spot on the tank itself. I was concerned the Teflon tape I used to seal the threads may have insulated it from the tank itself.

The "gook".View attachment 285773

View attachment 285774

Really couldn't see much if any rust left. Decided to run it again to see what else it pulls out. As is, I'm sure I could coat the tank with good results. I want to see how well electrolysis alone will work. As it will be an occasional use and "back up" generator, a durable coating just makes sense. My plan at present is to rinse it thoroughly and use WD40 to prevent a "flash rust". May make some calls to see what sort of tank coatings are available locally.