A Tip: Drying the inside of fuel reserviors.

Hi.

Sometimes washing the inside of a fuel reservior to remove contaminants, is advised. The remaining problem is to dry the inside of the reservoir - not so importtant if it is made of brass, but essential if made of steel. One way of removing the last few drops of water is to rinse out the reservior with alcohol/meths. Alcohol has a great affinity for water and will absorb it. Just to be sure, you can rinse out again with fresh alcohol. The used alcohol can still be used for priming.

JIm Ford

 

If you use cheap Scotch you can tip it back in the bottle and give it to visitors that you're not fond of

 

HINTS OF BRASS--
who knows--they may like it in a "connoisseur" sort of way.."Primus--very hard to get,
just small lots for those in the know"----

 

Might just work, they do flavour spirits with all sort.
We could be on to a fortune here

 

If it's anything like the tanks I clean, it will be green...

"yes actually it is an absinthe derivative, how frightfully clever of you, do you know much about spirits?"

Another good one is when your veggie friends come to supper, use beef stock to make their veggie lasagne... to my shame I used to do this becasue I resented cooking separate meals for my vegetarian friends.

GC

 

I rinse mine with water, then leave in a warm oven for a couple of hours.

The stuff these guys make should clean any grime off a tank, I know it cleans my inside without problem

 

Not that it matters to anyone but myself. I completely disassemble all of my Colemans, clean the inside of the tank. Then put a fuel tank liner in it. You can get it at any Harley Dealer for a few dollars. This stuff is excellent. Let it sit for a few days and re-assemble. Never a worry after, just make sure you have completely removed all previous fuels. I like to do it with several slatherings of mineral spirits followed by some alcohol and then brake cleaning fluid. I know all of you junkies have at least one you can give it a try on.

Rob

 

Ah yes, home of the famed 'SA', my home beer

It does do a good cleaning job, but not as well as Guiness which seems to have the unfortunate trick of acting before your evening is over

Beer, honestly, who'd drink the stuff?

Cheers
GC

p.s. I also do the warm oven thing to dry them out.

 

Hey Rob,

I have a Coleman 530 that was stored in a barn for too many years and the tanks is a mess of rust. This just might be the trick. Any suggestions for removing the rust?

Iain

Spirits come in many forms.

 

RIK--
wonderful shot of a steel mill--i like the gray utility boxs in the foreground and the
weed trees growing along the fence--i assume the brewery is the brown buildings
on the left of the photo---
ok--ok--bad attempt at humor--at least you have a local beer works..across the
mississippi river in St Paul Minnesota all the brewerys have shut down or are reduced
to making meths from local corn-maze- to add to gasoline--the part of Minneapolis that
Doc Mark was living in--"nort-east" had a huge brewery--its gone also--Minnesota
had "3.2 beer" the alcohol content was--yes--3.2--there are "3.2 bars" where thats
all you can get--the yuppey generation wanted the real thing--something that you could
taste and just not chug down in a dim,smelly bar--so good-by Grain Belt Beer--

on tank cleaning--the best idea i've seen on on the forum is to pour a tube
of BB shot in the tank and keep the stove in the trunk/boot of your car for awhile-
all the sloshing around will scrub the rust out---

a last word on the brewery in St Paul-- the one thats making alcohol for
gasoline has left the free well water taps open--on the side of the building
in a little parking spot there are faucets where you can still fill up gallon jugs with the
good,pure well water they made the beer from..

 

Canadian,

I do have an idea, it is one that I use. Clean out your tank completely. There is a solution that you can buy at the auto parts store. It converts your rust into something of which I do not know, It turns all the rust black. I don't have any on hand but they will know what I am talking about. After you have done that fill the tank up with alcohol and remove what ever residual might be left in the tank from the rust stopper and then coat the inside. Usually after I have cleaned and before I coat I take a hot plate to the tank. Just set it on there and any speck of oil based anything will smoke away. Before you put the fuel tank coat in it be sure there is as little residue as possible. Your local auto parts store should also carry the tank liner, if not, Harley does for sure.

Rob

 

There are various forms in the U.K., one of the oldest and most popular being 'Jenolite'. The active ingredient in them is phosphoric acid, which converts the rust into iron phosphate. My experience of them is that they are OK with superficial ferrous oxide rust ('ginger plating'), but if it's built up to any depth with underlying ferric oxide (grey 'millscale'), it's ineffective.

Jim Ford

 

Re derusting tanks because they have lots of relatively sharp edges, a handfull of small nuts and bolts will loosen rust better than BB- (or other round) pellets.

(standard procedure with rusted motorcycle-petrol tanks)

Jur

 

JUR--
good idea--next time i'll try that rather than opening a few shotgun shells..

 

Hey Jur,

I'll see if I can throw some in tonight and add the stove to the car trunk (Boot to the Brits).

Iain

P.S. I'll count the parts that go in so that I retrive the same.

May the Spirits smile on us all.

 

10 nickel plated wood screws in the tank and in the trunk.

So will I need Time, i.e. a few weeks?

Shall I measure miles, 1000KM?

Should I go from a simmer (Highway) to hard boil (back road at speed)? Keep in mind that I drive a Honda Civic and hard boil is to be avoided if possible.

Iain

Only the Spirits know!

 

I'd say the driving around-method won't speed up derusting at all - unless roads are so bumpy (and your car so springy) that the nuts/bolts/whatever that are jumping around in the tank will actually reach the upper parts of the tank too. But my guess is the car and/or its driver won't survive THAT for long.

So how about taking the tank into an aeroplane and making a couple of loopings? But I'm afraid that won't work either, because centrifugal forces will only force the nuts etc. to one side ot the tank.

Any better ideas? (apart from lots of elbow grease, that is)

Jur

 

I seem to remember reading (it might have been 'Travels with Charlie') that the authour did his laundry by suspending a pail with a close lid, containing his dirty gear, water and soap, by a system of bungeecords in the rear of his vehicle, caused it to jig about whilst he was driving so that at the end of the day the gear merely required rinsing and drying. Perhaps a similar arrangement supporting the tank might have the desired effect. Shouldn't be too difficult to set up, even in the back of a Civic.

 

I use steel shot for a bead blaster and an old rock tumbler,mind you this is good for lantern founts. For stoves I use the bartender method (Shaken not stirred) Dan

 

You are obviously unaware of the true nature of a leaf-spring Land Rover.
I reckon a Landy could acheive in five minutes what the aforementioned Honda Civic would take ten years to do.

Sometimes when I've hit a speedbump* too fast I;ve been able to see ALL my toolboxes in the air in my rear view mirror.

GC

* Are 'sleeping policeman' only a UK curse?