Clean fuel tank question

[Steve McMahan]

I’m pulling my new fuel tank later in Nov; it has <5 gals of fuel in it (first fuel), and I was wondering what cleaners do you guys use to prepare it for work. No welding or cutting, just remove and replace stuff. Don’t like to work in those fumes. Thanks in advance. Steve

 

[Hemikiller]

Drain as much out as I can and remove it. Put it in a well ventilated area. Cap the pickup and I stick a rag in the inlet hole.

 

[Steve McMahan]

So, you wouldn’t clean it to remove the fumes? I was thinking there is some easy, available stuff to clean it so I can work with it. I’ve got to pull the in tank pump and stuff, so both of the fittings (vent and feed ) will be removed.

 

[Hemikiller]

Not unless you plan on welding on it. If you remove the sender, you can drain out 99.9% of the fuel.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Thanks, that’s what I’m going to do. I need to verify the in-tank pump from the hanger is about 1/2” from the sock to the tank bottom. The sending unit opening gives a great view.

 

[giantpune]

New fuel tank? I just use them right out of the box. If you're paranoid, you can use some sort of cleaner that evaoprates quickly like brake or MAF cleaner and wipe it out with a blue shop towel. I've seen folks use WD40 for cleaning them, too. The WD40 doesnt dry as fast so you have more time to swish the dirt around.

But yeah, I don't baby my stuff. There's enough filters along the way between the sending unit, the pump, and the carb. If the motor can't handle anything that happened to make it through, then the motor was a weak little lamb and deserved to be broken.


IMO, no point worrying about the fumes if you're not welding on the tank. They wont hurt anything. They will eventually make it out the vent tube to the atmosphere anyways.