Just pulled my fuel tank on my 1401d while I had the rest of it apart for painting. Had alot of muck on the outside of the tank which cleaned off easily with soap and water. Drained it and found some gritty stuff in the bottom of the tank along with the usual dirt. Any suggestions on what to put in the tank to slosh around to clean the junk out? Will gasoline hurt anything, or is there something better?
Oil & Fuel FUEL TANK CLEANING
- Thread starter trentay
- Start date
- Views: 1358
buppy69
Platinum Member
I have used kerosene.
Eugene
Eugene
Beleive it or not I have heard of people filling it with a non-flammable degreaser/cleaner some sand and small pebbles and shaking it like crazy for as long as you can stand it...have read this on some antique tractor restoration manuals so it must be pretty good at getting the loose materials all clean out. After that phase I guess you'd want to really make sure you rinsed it well.
Good luck/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Good luck/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
buppy69
Platinum Member
Kerosene is a little thinner than diesel, however if you don't like that you can get a can of Motor Flush at an auto parts store. It's thin as water.
Eugene
Eugene
Thanks for the responses guys I am about to go out to the shop to finish cleaning the thing and then reinstall it. I had to go to the local tractor dealer to get a piece of hose as the one from the tank to the filter was pretty gummy. While there I saw the mechanic, who I know pretty well, and he said he just sprays brake clean into the plastic tank and then throws in some lintless paper rags, blows them around inside with a air gun and then picks em' out with a pair of long nose pliers. He said all the gunk will adhere to the rags and the brake clean evaporates leaving no residue inside. Sounds like a pretty good idea as were the others that I got here. Thanks again.
JeffRey30747
Gold Member
I used hot, soapy water to clean mine and then rinsed several times with clean hot water, shaking vigorously each time. Give it a day or two to dry out completely and it will look good as new.
roger_scotty
Gold Member
To clean mine I used hot soapy water and a long brush I got from the kitchen dept. of the hardware store. Then dried it out with rags twisted into the end of a piece of baling wire. There was one clear seam in the tank where it didn't have as much of the black pigment in the plastic. By holding a flashlight against that area and peering into the filler neck I was able to see to swab it out nicely.
Well I did it and it worked great, except I did not have any compressed air to blow into the tank to agitate the rags so I used a socket and a handfull of the lint free paper shop towels, put the socket in the middle of them and tied it off with a rubber band, stuffed it in the tank and shook it around after rinsing the inside with brake clean and draining it out. The brake clean really broke all the debris and dirt free. The rags soaked up any remaining brake clean and dirt and now it is completely dry and clean inside. Darn, do I have to put diesel in it again and mess it up??? Sure looks pretty now!!!!
