Boiling out gas tank

[elkat]

Has anyone taken their gas tank to a radiator shop and had it "boiled out"? It seems like a good idea, but don't know how it would affect the paint. I guess if you have rust in your tank, it may out weigh the negatives. If anyone has done it, let me know good or bad.

[creepinghunter]

Nope and aint never heard of it to be honest. when I had rust in my tank and before I coated it. I used muriatic acid with some ball bearings. Shook it up and let it sit for awhile. THat got rid of the rust then used MEK (Methyl ethyl ketone) after I rinsed it out with soap and water to get rid of all moisture then coated it.

But I would be skeptical of getting it boiled unless you are gona repaint it I would hate to see your paint bubble on ya

Good Luck

[The CyberPoet]

I've never heard of boiling out a motorcycle gas tank either.

I do have a webpage on the various methods I am familiar with from years of dealing with bike's rusty gas tanks that might help you:
CyberPoet's "How to deal with rust in your cycle's fuel tank"

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[Astro4x4]

Never done a motorcycle tank, but I can tell ya it will seriously harm your paint if it even stays on the tank.

[arsenic]

just put a K&N in your gas tank, that'll fix it

[SL1D3R]

I used that PQ-12 whatever stuff. Took it to a shop and they cleaned it out for me.

[elkat]

I found an easier alternative to all the acid and such. Wondering if anyone else has used it. It is a product from Rusteco. I read about it in a couple of motorcycle rags, and think that is the way I will go. Seems environmentally friendly, no harmful by-products, and don't have to find any plugs and such. I don't like coatings, because they will fail eventually.

[The CyberPoet]

I found an easier alternative to all the acid and such. Wondering if anyone else has used it. It is a product from Rusteco. I read about it in a couple of motorcycle rags, and think that is the way I will go. Seems environmentally friendly, no harmful by-products, and don't have to find any plugs and such. I don't like coatings, because they will fail eventually.

Never heard of it (as a commercial product) before you mentioned it.

Appears, based on the MSDS sheet info, to be a form of citric acid in a weak dilution (think purified grapefruit juice for example, with water). Straight from the Rusteco MSDS sheet:
The formulation of the RUSTECO R-200-3 is proprietary and cannot be described beyond saying that it contains a food grade acid, as found in cola drinks.

Thus, given the product's Ph, and the fact that cola drinks typically use citric acid as their primary or sole food-grade acid, it leads me to the conclusion that it is simply citric acid. The fact that citric acid is often used as a chelate agent to remove rust and to remove rusty hard-water spots is common knowledge in the detergent & steel industries (see wikipedia's entry on Citric acid for a more detailed explanation).

I don't see anything wrong with using this product for rust-removal, provided the tank's rust isn't particularly thick/deep...

For a tank with a lot of rust (and possible structural weakness as a result), using a converter product (one that converts rust to magnetite) would be wiser, as magnetite is stronger than steel and would reinforce what steel is left behind.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[Rok_Stars_Bars]

just put a K&N in your gas tank, that'll fix it

Well that help I been thinking about the K&N. All my buddy's GSXR have them.:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

[creepinghunter]

LOL leave it to Arsenic