Rusty Fuel Tanks, cleaning rusty fuel tanks Options

[dlestep]

...DO NOT USE CRES (stainless) in this process....

[partwerks]

Is the electrolysis the same concept used in a HHO dry cell?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffc0r1hHqWk...feature=related

[914Mike]

Somebody missed this part from post #1:

"Don't use stainless steel for the electrodes. The results are toxic and illegal to dump out."

[rick 918-S]

I just did this to Sandy's tank. He's a few things that seemed to work for me. I used a piece of 18 ga. sheet metal. I rolled it into a tube shape and bolted a tab to one end. This gave me more surface area than a strip of metal or a piece of rebar which seems to be the generally used sacrificial piece of steel.

I used the reccomended mix of 1 table spoon to 1 gal of water and filled the tank.

Here is my electrode.



I used shrink wrap over the ends to avoid contact inside the tank or at the opening.

I did this for two days. After the first day I poured out the nasty rust water. I could see it was working but not to my satifaction. Here's what it looks like when it's cooking.



The next day I started fresh. I used a grinder to clean my metal elctrode. What I found was, as the metal started to gather too much rust the gauge on my charger would start to drop. I pulled the electrode and cleaned off again with a grinder and started again.

I cleaned off the electrode about every 2-2.5 hours. about the third time I pulled the electrode it was going from orange rust to black. Another thing I did was to take a gallon of the solution and flooded the openings washing out the top of the orange sludge. This seems to work well.

Here's what I ended up with, I am rinsing the tank with a 50/50 solution of metal ready and plan on using some WD-40 or marvel or something to clean the flash rust in preperation of new gas.

[jaxdream]

Rick , that looks great (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) . I wonder if temp would play a role in the length of time you mentioned, seeing the snow on the ground. There was no mention of outside temp , still it might effect the process some . As your pics do show , you had great success with this method , inspite of the outside temps . This is something on my future " to do " list ,as I have a few tanks to chose from for my car's fuel tank.

Jack

[rjames]

The science is cool, but it seems like a lot of hassle to go through for a gas tank when you could just drop it off at a radiator shop and have them dip it in muriatic acid for ~$50.

[rick 918-S]

I've done the radiator shop thing. Around here the shops suck. The tank would come back worse than it went in. It took like 45 minutes to fill the tank a gallon at a time. It's cold here so I had to keep going from the kitchen to the garage like 17 times. Otherwise it's like watching paint dry. I think If I would have cleaned off the electrode several times the first day I may have had faster results. It was a learning curve. I have a second tank to do. I did it outside because The process creates hydrogen gas. My boy and a couple friends were screwing around with their cars trying to make a hydrogen generator to add a free source of fuel to their cars. They were in my garage with the door down and lit off the gas they were collecting. BOOOM!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif) I heard it in my office 70 feet away. Outside is best. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[Drums66]

The science is cool, but it seems like a lot of hassle to go through for a gas tank when you could just drop it off at a radiator shop and have them dip it in muriatic acid for ~$50.

I repeat ...RADIATOR SHOP! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

[Jeffs9146]

It took like 45 minutes to fill the tank a gallon at a time.

You could run a hose from the bottom of the hot water heater! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[rick 918-S]

It took like 45 minutes to fill the tank a gallon at a time.

You could run a hose from the bottom of the hot water heater! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

Ya, but you still need to add the washing soda in the right mix per gallon. So, patiences is a virtue grasshopper... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[charliew]

So why not ss?

[windforfun]

So why not ss?

???

[Katmanken]

Because it makes hexavalent chromium should the stainless corrode. Hexavalent chromium is toxic. See the "Erin Brockovich" movie.

http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Fa...nt_chromium.pdf

But, you can can neutralize the toxic Hex-Chrom to the non-toxic Tri-Chrom with.....

SUGAR..

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/duncan/17578/

Or:

You can also use ferrous sulfate and calcium hydroxide to neutralize the Hex-Chrom to Tri-Chrom

Cr6+ + 3Fe2+ → Cr3+ + 3Fe3+

Cr3+ + 3 OH → Cr(OH)3

Fe3+ + 3 OH → Fe(OH)3


Tri-Chrom is sold in health food stores as a vitamin supplement.