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Does anyone know if a cleaner that cleans sludge and rust from gas tank I have a 1985 replaced sock and fuel filter was real bad seen lots of stuff at bottom of tank ?
If there is a local radiator repair shop they can boil / clean it out. Most motorcycle shops sell a coating you can put in the tank to prevent rust from floating up. It is likley cheaper and better results to replace the tank.
Does anyone know if a cleaner that cleans sludge and rust from gas tank I have a 1985 replaced sock and fuel filter was real bad seen lots of stuff at bottom of tank ?
I don't know if this is in any way an approved or recommended method, but when I was changing out my son's fuel pump and level sensor assembly, I saw some junk in the bottom of the tank as well. I took a magnetic pickup tool I had on-hand and just ran it around near the bottom of the tank a bit. It came out with a fair bit of debris on it, so I'd consider that at least a moderate success. If the tank is severely rusted, however, I wonder if this might cause more issues by disloding additional flakes, etc.
I don't know if this is in any way an approved or recommended method, but when I was changing out my son's fuel pump and level sensor assembly, I saw some junk in the bottom of the tank as well. I took a magnetic pickup tool I had on-hand and just ran it around near the bottom of the tank a bit. It came out with a fair bit of debris on it, so I'd consider that at least a moderate success. If the tank is severely rusted, however, I wonder if this might cause more issues by disloding additional flakes, etc.
I did this exact thing and cleaned mine up quite a bit.
On a snow blower gas tank that was rusted I took it off, filled it about 1/4 of the way up with aquarium gravel and shook it around for several minutes. Then filled it with apple cider vinegar and let it sit overnight. Worked like a charm.
Interesting question. I recently watched a Russian guy do an incredible restoration of a Soviet-era motorcycle with a sidecar. He used a lot of natural and "home remedies" to clean items and refurbish them.
For the sludged up and rusted gas tank, he used water / citric acid. He then let it sit overnight and flushed with fresh water again. The next step was using Acetone. The results were amazing and highly recommend you check out his video. "Great Idea."
I literally just did this on my 1987 this past weekend. There was about 3 oz of rust and sediment in the bottom of the tank from a previously rusted sending unit prior to my purchase and after previous owner put in a new one and pump. I used a turbo pump (as seen on tv) and that ot most of the gas and a lot of the rust flakes out. I then stuck my arm (getting it almost stuck several times) through the filler neck and removed most of the rust with a roll and a half of paper towels. Once all the fuel was out and the tank was dry, I used a piece of pvc pipe and paper towels taped to the end to wipe out what I could not reach. Finaly I shpop vacc'd the last little bit. It took about an hour and a half but fixed my fueling problem. Fuel sending unit came out in about 20 min. I will try and upload pics. The last pic is before the shop vac. It came out almost perfect. I was losing fuel pressure as I got into upper rpms. it runs almost perfect now. I will be changing the fuel filter soon and already have new injectors I will be replacing eventually. This solved 98% of my issues though, including my hard to set idle.
Originally Posted by Jerry G.
Does anyone know if a cleaner that cleans sludge and rust from gas tank I have a 1985 replaced sock and fuel filter was real bad seen lots of stuff at bottom of tank ?
Last edited by jclarkwins; May 12, 2021 at 11:16 PM.
Reason: adding pics
I'm about to undertake this myself since the inside of my tank looks much like jclarkwins'. I have a couple of things to add here. First, keep in mind that the inside of the c4 tank is rubber lined; so, techniques that you would use to remove scale from a metal tank don't really apply (i.e. tumbling ball bearings or the like).
Second, I've had to clean out a boat gas tank, and what I did was use an electric fuel pump and filter to pump all the gas out (the filter allows you to reuse it in another vehicle if it's not stale). Let the tank air out for several days until you can't smell fuel anymore. Make sure any loose fuel lines are plugged, and then you can use a shop vac to vacuum out any scale (should be dry by now). The c4 tank is even better because you can get a hand in there to wipe off any stubborn grit. In my boat tank the opening was too small to do this.
