Another problem question I created with fuel tank

[Schming]

If the vinegar doesn't get all the rust out Evaporust will.

It's a bit costly about $26.00 a gal. 'round here at HF but with the 20 % off coupon a little better.
I bought enough for my Standard tank which was barely flashed and reused it for 3 more badly rusted tanks with great results. It's a bit old and dirty now but I'll throw a rusty tool or small part in and leave it till I remember to check on it and it still has some life after a few years.
If I need to derust another tank I will purchase another supply of Evaporust.

dolphans1, your tank is not bad enough to need a liner, hope the vinegar works.
I'm anxious to see the results.

[jetmechmarty]

If the tank is rusty or already acid treated, there is no reason to spend money on Evaporust or Metal Rescue. Acid will do the job if you're careful. Two cups of phosphoric acid diluted in four gallons of water should leave bare metal in six to eight hours depending upon how bad it is. Acid (even vinegar) will eat good metal, too. So, don't go to sleep on the job.

Afterwards, one cup of baking soda dissolved in a tank full of water will neutralize it. Otherwise, it keeps eating. Follow will liner of choice. I recommend Caswell.

Metal Rescue or Evaporust is the best choice if you have a small spot or two and you don't want to damage the original liner. Either will derust the entire tank, but as stated, they are around $25 per gallon.

[dolphans1]

If you acid etched your tank with vinegar, it will quickly rust again, or you may install a liner.

Yes, a liner will fail if not properly installed. I favor the Caswell epoxy liner. That one is most forgiving and won't fail if done properly. Mess it up and your tank is junk as no solvent will dissolve that epoxy AFAIK.

My tank was like a new tank inside before I ran water through it to clean it. It’s obviously a steel tank inside. I plan to air dry once I drain tank of vinegar and rerinse with water. I’m going to air dry, fill with acetone and then oil fog it and seal the filler opening with tape while tank is repainted.

I will report back in stages.

I was going to go with evapo rust or the other brand but I could not find it at Home Depot.

What I caused was flash rust because I allowed moisture into a steel tank.

If I could do it all over again, I would have flushed tank with mineral spirits.

[Radioguylogs]

I Like Evaporust Better

I had great experience with Evaporust in a few previous gas tanks.

Recently, I needed to de-rust another gas tank. I could not find Evaporust at Home Depot, nor the local hardware stores, nor the auto parts stores.

So I bought Metal Rescue. It worked on the submerged parts of the tank, but new rust formed on the parts of the tank that were not submerged.

I looked harder and found Evaporust at Tractor Supply and the rest of the job went better.

[Ranger_xs1100]

5 gallon evapo-rust

About 2 years ago I picked up a 5 gallon can of evapo-rust at Tractor Supply for $80. Amazon has it on sale right now for $81 with free shipping. Yes, a bit pricey if you're only cleaning one tank, but So far I have cleaned 4 tanks, re-using the same 5 gallons! Not too bad!

[Eveready1100]

US Bike Tank Capacity
Specials - 4 gal
Standards - 5 gal
Venturer - 6 gal

Depending on whose book you are reading, you will see numbers like 3.9 gal, 5.1 gal, etc.

I was told by a UK member that all of the UK Standards had the 6 gal tank.

It wasn't just the UK ones, mate. It was only the American market where the Standards came with the little 20 litre tanks, no oil coolers and the cruiser style riding position with the forward mounted footpegs. All the other markets had the big tanks all years and the more sporty riding position.

As for the capacity of the various tanks, try using metric measurements, at they are standard worldwide as opposed to gallons which for some reason are smaller in the US and Germany.
15 litres for the Specials and Sports,
20 litres for the US Standard,
24 litres for the rest of the Standards + the US Venturer

[MPittma100]

It wasn't just the UK ones, mate. It was only the American market where the Standards came with the little 20 litre tanks, no oil coolers and the cruiser style riding position with the forward mounted footpegs. All the other markets had the big tanks all years and the more sporty riding position.

As for the capacity of the various tanks, try using metric measurements, at they are standard worldwide as opposed to gallons which for some reason are smaller in the US and Germany.
15 litres for the Specials and Sports,
20 litres for the US Standard,
24 litres for the rest of the Standards + the US Venturer

Good to know. Quite interesting that Yamaha used the smaller tanks only in the U.S. I'm sure they had a reason for that. Can't imagine what it was. If I had to guess, I would think that some US government regulation had something to do with it.

Are the bigger Standard tanks readily available in your neck of the woods?

[Eveready1100]

I wouldn't say they're just laying around everywhere due to their vintage, but they'd be as common here as the smaller ones are in the States. I've got one on my SF, and another 2 in my garage, along with both the original 15 litre one and one of your 20 litre ones that came off an import bike. My mate Steptoe has at least 7 in his workshop ATM.
BTW, Specials look great with a big tank on -

[IMG][/IMG]

[motoman]

Definitely a very nice looking bike with improvements Eveready1100! A nice fork brace would 'icing on the cake' so to speak, and GREATLY improve handling!

[dolphans1]

I wouldn't say they're just laying around everywhere due to their vintage, but they'd be as common here as the smaller ones are in the States. I've got one on my SF, and another 2 in my garage, along with both the original 15 litre one and one of your 20 litre ones that came off an import bike. My mate Steptoe has at least 7 in his workshop ATM.
BTW, Specials look great with a big tank on -

[IMG][/IMG]

Nice Bike, do you really have that many miles on it with no engine rebuild?

[dolphans1]

Continued saga of my xs 1100 special tank

Nothing is ever easy, is it?

Well here is my promised follow through on my tank, and though I thought my tank looked like new for all these years (39 years to be exact), because my gas in it was always clear when looking into the top of it, apparently it had some rust flakes into as you can see in this picture of a 5 gallon white bucket.

The Apple Cider Vinegar worked great.

When I dumped it out, I rinsed out with water again and then dried the tank out with a heat gun, but noticed as soon as I did, I started to get that orange flashing hue all over again.

I put a quart of acetone in it, sloshed it all around and drained the tank. The acetone came out semi orange.

I then sprayed the inside of tank with stab-bil oil fog and ran a log t-shirt through it about 20 times and removed the fuel sending unit and ran a t-shirt through the sides as far as I could go with a long screw driver and a coat hanger.

I resprayed sta-bil oil fog into the tank and taped up the fueling hole and the sending unit hole.

After the tank is painted I am going to flush the tank with gasoline.

[dolphans1]

[dolphans1]

Again, aint nothing easy, even taking a photo is hard when you don't have enough light, but here it is.

[dolphans1]

[dolphans1]