Oil & Fuel Crap in fuel tank. Help!

[TractorGuy]

Yeah it is probably time to pull the tank and have it soaked at a radiator shop.

 

[sawtooth]

Thought about pouring some clean diesel in the tank just to see what happens.

 

[Wagtail]

How do I remove the greasy stuff without taking off fuel tank?

I just went through this process last month... fortunately I didn't have to remove the tank to clean out the gunk. That brown greasy stuff is the biological crap that's been slowly growing in your tank. If you were to have looked in there with an inspection camera at the beginning of your investigation, the gunk would've looked like fairy-floss (cotton candy?) mixed with phlegm. :thumbdown:

I didn't remove the tank. I pumped & drained it out, then used a long, mechanical, grabber with CHUX cloths (J-cloth?) to wipe out as much of the dead brown stuff as possible.

My tank isn't metal so I put a litre of that (previously mentioned) Fuel Doctors treatment in and then filled the tank up with fresh diesel. The Fuel Doctors breaks down and suspends the biological stuff in the fuel itself. My tractor runs great now and I didn't have to even change out my fuel filter! ath: I'll do a couple more 1 litre full tank treatments just to get any residual crap that may be hiding within the fuel system, then I'll reduce the treatment to 50ml when I fill up.

There has to be something similar to "Fuel Doctors" in N.A.

 

[sawtooth]

Yeah that sounds exactly like what I see. It's a greasy / muddy looking gunky mess. You know gasoline breaks up oil and grease. I just wonder what that would do?

 

[Egon]

Fill the tank with hot water, add some bleach and dish soap and stir up with mixer on the drill. After setting??? Hr. Flush out the tank with clean water. Overflow all the gunk out and then dry the tank with air.

Bleach may kill the bacteria. The dish soap will form an emulsion that can carry out the gunk.

 

[Coyote machine]

WOW! The fitting you hold in your hand in the pic sorta' tells all. YOU GOT RUST! And rust can easily destroy anything like your injection pump if it gets past your filter(s).
If it were me I'd pull the tank and burn it out, possibly by using gasoline, CAREFULLY! or diesel fuel or a combo of both until there is no evidence of anything but clean bare metal in your tank.
If you can't get it damnn near perfectly clean yourself, including trying the sharp rocks trick, it maybe time to hire a pro who has the tools/experience to do it right. Think about it - without correct clean fuel you have no tractor to use. What is it worth to you to have a reliable tractor?

I had an '87 Izuzu Pup truck which I owned since new. At one point it started running weird. Turned out the fuel tank was rusted. I took it to a guy who had the tank lined and guaranteed it would NEVER rust again. Way less $$$ than a new tank. Never had any more problems with it after that. Rust, combined with biological agents can drive one nutz!

 

[sawtooth]

I agree but am determined now to not pull the tank. I know probably stupid but I have 3-4K in the paint job and figure something will get damaged in the tear down. On a positive note I looked the tank over again today and I'm seeing improvement. Then I bought a bottle of clean diesel to try. It says us 32oz per 50 gallons but I went stronger. More like 32oz to 10 gallons. Lol. It almost instantly starting attacking the gunk and I could see some bare metal. Put a small grill brush in the tank and started moving around and scrubbing what I could and diesel fluid turned instantly dark brown. May eat a hole in tank but guess we will see. Lol. Definitely starting doing more than anything else I tried to date.

 

[sawtooth]

Well it got about 1/2 more of what was left in dissolved it out. Changed fuel filters and ran it all day with no issues. I have dual filters so will just keep using it for a bit then change out the filters again to see what I have going. Definitely way better than it was and hope it keeps improving.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Good to hear. Luck with it