How to de-rust your tank
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 11:26 am
Been meaning to post this up for ages, did this almost a year ago!
First time I filled up the tank on my ZXR I noticed it had some surface rust on the inside, the bike had been stood a while with no petrol in it so this wouldn't have helped. When I took it off the road last year for winter I stripped the carbs and they were full of rust residue! I thought it couldn't be doing the bike any good so I set about clearing the tank out.
First off you need to degrease and clean your tank of petrol residue with this stuff: http://www.bilthamber.com/cleaning-and- ... /surfex-hd
Basically just mix it up with warm water and pour it in your tank and allow it to sit (think I left it a couple of hours). I can't remember what concentration I used but they recommend anywhere between 1:200 for light stuff and neat for heavy stuff. Then drain it out - I used a hose and gravity first to get the majority of the stuff out then took the fuel tap off for the rest - makes it much easier to control than trying to get the whole lot out of the tap hole.
Then the rust remover: http://www.bilthamber.com/corrosion-treatments/deox-c
Mix the powder with warm water and pour it in your tank. I mixed up 15ltrs of the stuff with 750g of deox-c. I supposed you can do just half a tank and flip it up side down but it'll leak slowly from the petrol cap as I found out. I left it for a day and agitated it a couple of times with a toilet style brush that I use on stuff like the backs of car wheels, although it isn't necessary. Then drain it again using hose first then tap. This is what it looks like after just the hose:
And then after removing the fuel tap and draining the rest out this sh*t fell out!
After this I thoroughly rinsed the tank with water, then with petrol a couple of times, aired it for a bit to let it dry and then it was good to go! Here are the before and afters:
Completely rust free! The good thing about this stuff is that it isn't acidic or toxic and you don't have to worry about neutralising the inside of the tank with baking soda or anything, just pour it down the drain and rinse the tank. As I said I did this about a year ago and when I look inside the tank the metal is still clean, and when I drained the carbs this year there was no residue. I hope this helps some people!
First time I filled up the tank on my ZXR I noticed it had some surface rust on the inside, the bike had been stood a while with no petrol in it so this wouldn't have helped. When I took it off the road last year for winter I stripped the carbs and they were full of rust residue! I thought it couldn't be doing the bike any good so I set about clearing the tank out.
First off you need to degrease and clean your tank of petrol residue with this stuff: http://www.bilthamber.com/cleaning-and- ... /surfex-hd
Basically just mix it up with warm water and pour it in your tank and allow it to sit (think I left it a couple of hours). I can't remember what concentration I used but they recommend anywhere between 1:200 for light stuff and neat for heavy stuff. Then drain it out - I used a hose and gravity first to get the majority of the stuff out then took the fuel tap off for the rest - makes it much easier to control than trying to get the whole lot out of the tap hole.
Then the rust remover: http://www.bilthamber.com/corrosion-treatments/deox-c
Mix the powder with warm water and pour it in your tank. I mixed up 15ltrs of the stuff with 750g of deox-c. I supposed you can do just half a tank and flip it up side down but it'll leak slowly from the petrol cap as I found out. I left it for a day and agitated it a couple of times with a toilet style brush that I use on stuff like the backs of car wheels, although it isn't necessary. Then drain it again using hose first then tap. This is what it looks like after just the hose:
And then after removing the fuel tap and draining the rest out this sh*t fell out!
After this I thoroughly rinsed the tank with water, then with petrol a couple of times, aired it for a bit to let it dry and then it was good to go! Here are the before and afters:
Completely rust free! The good thing about this stuff is that it isn't acidic or toxic and you don't have to worry about neutralising the inside of the tank with baking soda or anything, just pour it down the drain and rinse the tank. As I said I did this about a year ago and when I look inside the tank the metal is still clean, and when I drained the carbs this year there was no residue. I hope this helps some people!