Diesel Tank Rust & Scale

[Kobe130]

After draining down my SK130's fuel tank to replace fuel lines I discovered a ton of rusty scale on the bottom and sides of it's innards. Guess the OEM does not treat the inside of the tank at the factory. I want to put a better locking cap and filler neck on it anyway so my thought now is to remove the tank, invert it, fill it 95% with water and cut out a foot square hole in the bottom to allow sandblasting the scale out (there really is quite a bit). Then I'll weld the hole up and use some sealer to coat the insides of the tank. So that I don't try to reinvent the wheel has anybody had a similar experience and can anybody recommend a good liquid tank sealer/coater which is impervious to diesel? I see there are a few advertised out there. :Banghead:Banghead

Thanks in advance.

 

[SE-Ia Cowman]

Red Kote has worked well for me in the past I have used it on old tractor tanks that have set for 20 years and never had any problems after words. You dont have to sandblast I put logchains in the tank and roled it around on the ground so get the big stuff loose then powerwash and use some laquer thinner to help disolve the water then coat the tank and let it dry. Red kote has the viscosity of corn syrup and will cover any small rust patches. I have on some realy bad ones used citric acid or muratic acid and let it set for a day then rinse well with water, They usualy have a dull bare metal look inside with no rust left. Aluminum britener would probably work well also. Good Luck

 

[inthedirt]

At work we had a dozer with the same problem in our rental fleet. We used Sherwin Williams Macropoxy 646. It set up very hard and covered well. We even cut it with a little methylethylketone and thinned it so we could roll the tank around and let it flow into all the corners and crevises. Let us know what you use and how it works!

 

[roadrunner81]

I had good results using KBS coatings tank sealer. comes as a kit, I bought a kit for a 25 gallon tank and used it in a 50 transfer tank. I had to keep rolling it around to get full coverage but was just enough for the job. Dried super hard and smooth.

 

[Dualie]

I always just had luck with throwing rare earth magnets into the bottom of the tank through the filler hole. captures all the free floating rust particles and keeps them outta the filters.

 

[lgammon]

this is why you fill your tanks every night before you leave, can't rust with diesel in them!!!

 

[Kobe130]

This SK130 tank had a fair bit of rust in it mainly on the bottom. I removed it, flushed it well and then refilled it with water so I could weld on a new stout filler neck with better locking. To get the rust out I found it needed full strength fresh muriatic acid, about 2 or 3 liters, uncut. Diluted acid just didn't work. Suspended the tank from my 580's bucket so I could swing it around and keep it moving for a couple of hours. That did the trick, the acid came out pretty dirty and the tank, once flushed was pretty clean. Used POR-15 to coat the inside so it doesn't rust again. Seemed to fill and coat everything pretty well from what I could see. They say to discard what Por-15 you drain out but there was so much left I'm going to do a couple of other tanks also. Had to stir the crap out of it to get it consistent at the start. No problems with this stuff and as long as you don't get silly with the acid it worked pretty well. However, they were a little wary when I took the spent acid over to the dump. Tank's going back on today.

 

[Nige]

this is why you fill your tanks every night before you leave, can't rust with diesel in them!!!

Hear, hear ..........

 

[norite]

this is why you fill your tanks every night before you leave, can't rust with diesel in them!!!

What about the water in the bottom of the tank?