Cleaning Old Tin Fuel Tanks

[Chancey Chorney]

Hi there. I had recently acquired a few older tin fuel tanks and was wondering what the best way to clean these out would be. The outsides are all in decent condition with no rust or such, just the natural age-old oxidation. That would easily be polished or cleaned up. But is the insides of the fuel tanks I would like to know how to clean up properly. I am pretty sure they were used and run many years ago and put away wet. Would I just fill with thinner and let sit then flush out and repeat the process, or is there an easier better way? Thank you.

[Chancey Chorney]

Thanks for the ideas. I especially like the one about the antifreeze. I did not even think of that especially after doing it to many engines to clean! Dumb me! I will probably start with that one and see how they are after a cleaning.
I will fill the tanks up with antifreeze first, put them in my crock pot for a while on low then flush with more antifreeze. Following that, I will use some older fuel to flush till clean. Thank you.

[Dennis Leonhardi]

Been there, done that and found acetone and thinner don't seem to do the job.  I started using fuel, RC stuff I wouldn't use in my CL engines and it seemed to work better. Also have heard of guys filling them with soapy water and putting them in an old stew pot and boiling them and of course there is the submerging them in antifreeze for a few days then flushing them.
Finally I just removed the back and looked inside. This was a good idea and then I could replace the brass tubes with copper tubes, plus I now knew for sure the interior was clean.. .

Well said, Ty.  In my own experience solvents induced rust shortly after use.  Fuel has oil in it - if using fuel, adding some air tool oil (which absorbs water) is probably even better.

Dennis

[Russell]

I agree with opening the tank for cleaning and knowing for sure otherwise myself it would be replaced. Not worth all the issues.