Re: Brew for cleaning filthy gas tanks

[amuller]

Depends on what’s in the tank. If organic stuff–dried up fuel, etc. you need a solvent. Acetone is probably the quickest and most aggressive. E85 will work over time.

If what you have to remove is inorganic–rust and corrosion–regular solvents won’t help much and you need acid cleaners and maybe agitation with stones or screws. Be careful with aluminum tanks–alkaline cleaners eat aluminum.

If you have both you will need both approaches in sequence. I’ve cleaned up 6 gallon tanks with a sequence of about six steps, which produces a good tank but is a lot of bother.