"juiceman" wrote:

CR: I tried household lye to clean my D2 tank and it worked great. Bare metal inside now. It may seem unorthodox to some, but it was fast, effective and inexpensive.
Drilling the inlet of the fuel valve and installing a remnant of copper fuel line or even Synflex air line about an inch helps a lot too. Any heavy stuff in your fuel should settle to the bottom, and not get drawn into the filter. Cheap and easy.

That's a very good suggestion JM, those old pony motor tanks seem to attract rust and after a few days working a old diesel Cat I've found each morning when I go to start the pony motor the gas line inlet is choked with rusty dust.

I just gave 2 of those pony gas tanks a good soak in my citric acid bath for a week followed by a good rinse, then a Redkote treatment, first time I've used it, seems to set like concrete that stuff, it will never come off if done properly.

I used the rocks and ball bearing setup and rolled my tank around from my 40 Chev pu and then used Red Coat on the inside. Works beautiful. catskinner

Electrolysis. It's super easy, very little elbow grease, can use on any size of tank and works super well;

www.acmoc.org/bb/showthread.php?27163-Re...nk-with-electrolysis

Jordan

"Mike wrote:

That's a very good suggestion JM, those old pony motor tanks seem to attract rust and after a few days working a old diesel Cat I've found each morning when I go to start the pony motor the gas line inlet is choked with rusty dust.

I just gave 2 of those pony gas tanks a good soak in my citric acid bath for a week followed by a good rinse, then a Redkote treatment, first time I've used it, seems to set like concrete that stuff, it will never come off if done properly.

Thanks guys.

I have a glass bowl with the raised screen inlet from Steiner tractor www.steinertractor.com/ABC1315?crawlpara...REAQYASABEgKQb_D_BwE
and then an in-line filter and after the trailer ride over all that stuff became suspended in with the gas and made it past the new in-line filter and kept the needle from sealing.

I ended up ordering the red coat liner since that’s what most of the suggestions were pointing towards. We will see how it holds up to the special California gas.

A little update i had a gallon of purple power cleaner laying around so I through that in there with a chain and a box of 1/4” nuts and been sloshing that around every once in a while. What was in the tank turned the purple power to the color of maple syrup.

I drained and filtered that out today and got fine dark flakes some were like little pieces of paper in thickness. None of this was magnetic so I am thinking it was some kind of varnish or sludge that was stuck to the walls and dislodged last summer with a new tank of gas. The tank looked quite clean and the chain made it look like some lightly sanded sheet metal ready for a coat of paint is the best way to describe it. I couldn’t get a picture of this unfortunately.

One solution to the rusty pony fuel tank is to make a new tank out of stainless steel. The neck is 1-1/2 inch straight thread cut on a piece of 1 1/4 inch pipe and welded (with TIG) into the top of the tank. The bottom fitting that the sediment bowl is attached to is a piece of round stainless steel with 1/8 inch pipe threads tapped into it. I have kept gas in these tanks for up to a year with no rust or discoloration. The fuel is just as clean as the day it was put in the tank. I don't know if this tank will clear the hood when it is installed, but if it doesn't I will use an old rusty tank to make one that will match the original. The mounting brackets from the rusty tank can be TIG Welded to the stainless tank and will fit just like the original.

It’s a shame someone out there doesn’t make it supply new pony fuel tanks, or maybe reconditioned ones.
Seems to always be a person with rust or hole issues.

Neil: My tank fitting may be 1/4 NPT with a bushing to 1/8 for the sediment bowl I had. The only thing is it is stainless so it doesn't rust.

juiceman; Stainless is difficult to work. This is about the 3rd or 4th tank I have built. By the time you cut and form the tank with all the fittings and brackets to hold it in place it takes a couple of days to complete. Not real cost effective but it works for me because I'm retired and time is not that critical for projects. If we kept track of the time we spend on these old machines, it would mean we would be working for peanuts. But it is fun and that is what counts. I'm surprised someone hasn't made them out of plastic. Not as durable as steel or stainless but maybe cheaper. bboaz

In my limited experience with rusted tanks, I have very often found that the stuff in the bottom that looks like rust usually has more gasoline varnish than rust, and often a good dose of just plain dust, like in mother earth's soil. I like to suspend them upside down so they drain out the filler neck, and steam clean the inside going up through the same filler port. Hold it in there for quite a while so the tank is as hot as the steam/water from the cleaner. Use a good, fairly severe steam cleaner detergent and shoot it all around, not just the bottom. Then I put the tank back onto it's machine because they looked pretty darned good. A good pour-in liner might be better; I just haven't got any experience with them yet. Point is, heat can melt the gas varnish and the detergent will do the rest.