dirty gas tanks

[boxcar]

How do I clean gas tanks 6 gal type that havent been used for 3yrs? The gas smells bad and im sure it isnt good for carbs.

BT

[PierBridge]

I've used both of these technics successfully.

What I do is as follows I empty as much of the fuel out of the fuel tank as possible in your case being it's a 6 gallon portable you can get rid of all of it. I then allow the remnants to dry over a couple of days, I then use my industrial rated vacuum cleaner to "suck" out the dried up sediment powder rattling around at the bottom of the tank.I am sure any decent home vacuum cleaner will do the same job , use the smallest / thinnest pipe attachment available. The next operation is to blow out the tank with compressed air and repeat the operation once more. when filling up the tank I use a funnel with a fine mesh screen to keep the junk out and I also run in-line clear see through filters in the fuel line, this allows me to keep a eye on what is going through the fuel line to the motor , seems to work for me.

OR.

Dump a handful of Stainless Steel Screws into the bottom of the tank, I have some stainless balls that I use.

Put about 1/2 gallon of gas in the tank (enough gas to have 3 inches of fuel in the tank.)Then shake the dump out of the tank or take the boat out for about 10 minutes and toss it about, hitting wakes and sharp turns, remove the remaining gas and screws and the tank should be pretty clean. The screws act like an abrasive cleaner and will remove the rest of the residue/rust from the tank.

Repeat the process if necessary.

[boxcar]

Thanks for the reply Ill try the screw trick Ill need it next week

BT

[zelek]

I was faced with this same dilemma after realizing that an old OMC tank I had was likely going to perform much better than the new metal tank I had just purchased.

I ran the "screw" trick by my marine mechanic and he didn't like the idea of scratching up the inside of a galvanized tank. He suggested using genuine Evinrude-Johnson engine tuner which, I believe, is just carb cleaner.

So I picked up a couple of 13 oz. cans and gave it a try. Wow! This stuff really works good. I can't imagine anything working better. The old tank was badly tarnished and smelled terrible. Now the inside looks like new.