fuel tank

[M-100]

I have a 69 with the in cab fuel tank.The tank does not leak but does have rust in it.Has anyone had good or bad results with the tank seal kits?

[two-bit]

I have never used a seal kit.
i did however clean out my rust spotted tank with the help of marbles.

Remove tank from truck, empty as good as you can, pull sending unit. Bribe someone with beer or a Hershey bar to help you with the next step.
Insert A LOT of marbles into the tank. You get on one end, helper on the other. ROCK AND ROLL
By the time your arms get tired twice sloshing all of that back and forth, rinse the tank out with a garden hose, try to drain it out the sender hole, you'll get more of the small stuff that way.
Also the best way i found to get the marbles out.
Inspect with flashlight, look in sender hole, flashlight in filler hole, then reverse for a different perspective.
Like what you see???

If so, proceed to number 6.

If not, get more beer, or hershey bars, reinsert marbles. Sucker someone else into helping you. (Odds are the original helper is long gone)
Rock and roll some more, or until dark, which ever comes first. Rinse, drain, get out most of the marbles. Inspect.

6) If you like what you see, cool! Fight to get the last three or four pesky marbles out of there. Rinse once more, then air dry with filler neck pointing down.

After its dry would probably be a good time to apply the sealer compound.
I didn't do that because i only had two "rusty" spots i wanted to clean up in mine. They are very close to the bottom and only open to air when i have less than 5 gallons in the tank.

I'm sure some one else here has used it. They will chime in, no doubt.
Good luck, and remember not many beers or it will get really hard to get that last marble out!!!

Two-bit

[fordman]

two bit has to win the award as one of the funniest people on the board. its just the way he describes most things.

[68swb]

i did kinda the same thing that two-bit did but i used a chain, i have also used nuts and bolts in place of the marbles, but i liked the chain better, since you can pull the chain out, the chain i used was like 3 or 4 ft long, it is what we use to pull motors with.. hope this helps....

[two-bit]

Thank-you Fordman.
I resemble that remark.

seriously though, has anyone used the tank sealer so this member can get the info he's looking for?

Two-bit

[BobbyFord]

A good tank is $25 at the local boneyard, why hassle cleaning one out???

[Dragon]

No 67 to 72 parts are available here. Way too many on the road. I saw two more new ones on the road since Saturday. The MVD says 108 registered in Albuquerque alone.

I used the Por tank kit to clean and seal my aux tank.

[BobbyFord]

Wow, Pacific Truck in Sun Valley has shelves of Bump parts.

[Dragon]

These lazy people won't search even into Texas or Arizona.

[71F100-390]

Don't seal it if you can avoid it. Cut rate sealers will peel and plug up everything in my experience, went through this with a '56 ford truck. Previous owner applied some kind of sealant to the tank because of some surface rust. After ending up on the side of the road a few times I figured out the the sealer was peeling off the inside of the tank and was plugging up my fuel lines. Had to have the tank boiled out at the radiator shop. Then I had to blow out all the fuel lines. Major pain in the butt. And, when all was said and done, the tank didn't leak and didn't require any repairs other than the boil out.

I have used molasses (yes, that's right) to clean out motorcycle tanks before, just made a mixture (maybe 2/3 molasses?) with some hot water and let it sit for a week. Pretty incredible, but it removes rust! Works really well on flash and light scale. Unfortunately, for a 18 gallon tank I think this would be a real PITA (that's a lot of molasses!)

Same goes for the marbles. If you've got scale and big chucks they can be removed by dumping some nuts/bolts in the tank and shaking it around until its all knocked off (advantage of using nuts/bolts is they're magnetic!), which is also a little time consuming for a big tank like this as mentioned above.

I'd probably go buy a few gallons of phosphoric acid and make a 50/50 mixture with water and rinse it out really well. The phosphoric acid will neutralize the rust and shouldn't eat holes in anything either as its not super aggressive. Just be sure to air it our really well, use some wd-40 to drive out the rest of the moisture and get fuel in it before it flash rusts. Or just take it to the local radiator shop and have it hot tanked (boiled out). They should also let you know if they find any holes during this process.

[BobbyFord]

If you use water, follow up with alcohol (isopropyl or otherwise) flush it will help get any remaining water out.

[Dragon]

The Por 15 comes with eh Phosphoric acid solution and then you really flush the tank and pour the Por 15 sealer in. It won't come loose ever even if you don't get the tank real clean.

I got excess on my tail gate and we can't peel it or sand it or dissolve it now that it is set.

[MadMaxetc]

The Por 15 comes with eh Phosphoric acid solution and then you really flush the tank and pour the Por 15 sealer in. It won't come loose ever even if you don't get the tank real clean.

I got excess on my tail gate and we can't peel it or sand it or dissolve it now that it is set.

Remember that the POR products ABSORB water and it makes it HARDER.

I have heard bad things about the eastwood kit and others like it, but nothing but good about the POR kit. The POR kit cost more, but you get what you pay for.

[DuckRyder]

I've used the POR kit. It works...

[Dragon]

Por fuel tank sealer is not the water absorbing Polyurethane of there other paints. Water in small amounts accelerates polyurethane drying time by adding to the heat of the reaction.