cleaning fuel tanks

[Randy88]

By looking at the pictures does anyone know what the stuff might be, we came up with some tar material, like hot tar they use to fill cracks in the road, I"ve never been around the stuff before if that's what it is, how do those people clean their equipment up?? Anyone with knowledge of that type process, please chime in.

When the stuff is hot, it steaks long thin slivers, like human hair strands, off and flows with the fuel till it settles out or gets caught in the filters, we're guessing it was done to the tank years ago and over time it still hasn't gotten it all out and I don't know if we ever will end up getting it all out either. There has to be some product made specially for removing this stuff, just we haven't figured out what that is yet, carb cleaner does work but it helps to scrub it some to remove the film layer on the metal surface.

We thought if we heated the water to scalding should be about the same as a steam cleaner, which did nothing but basically splatter it around, not sure if heating the whole tank would achieve much more, if anything. Just a guess here but we think that the sloshing of the fuel being hot washes slivers off and somewhat stays in suspension with the fuel till it gets stuck somewhere or settles out, like in my float vavle or filter housing and filters. If we let the fuel cool off, we can drain perfectly clean fuel out of the tank, the bottom 1/4 of the inside of the tank and bottom are basically clean, so after almost 25 hours of running it, we haven't gotten enough off the sides or top of the tank for it to settle on the bottom at all, so its not like we'd heat it up and it would settle completley off the top and sides and end up in a layer at the bottom of the tank, we're thinking it took years to wear it off the clean portion of the tank, unless someone can offer another explaination?

Thank you leisureexpress for putting my pictures up for me so people could see what it looks like

 

[Dualie]

A trick i learned years ago to make a hillbilly steam cleaner was to hook your pressure washer up to the outlet of your hot water heater. Turn the tank temp up to melt flesh and try that.

WARN everyone in the house what your up to and remember to turn it back down. If you could find a radiator shop with a big enough hot tank to dip the tank that would work also.

If you could stick a mirror in the tank and shine a light in there to find out exactly where the build up is you might be able to use a weed burner on the outside to heat the crap and get it near an outlet or loosen it to be brought out with fluid.

 

[Plant Fitter]

If you can't find a way to clean it out, either get a second hand tank from a wrecker or make a new tank.

 

[Randy88]

Duallie, we have shined a light inside the tank, there is a layer covering the entire top 2/3rds of the tank, we're not sure how thick it is, guessing maybe 1/4 inch thick, as for the hot dipping it in a radiator shop, does anyone know what they have in the water to clean with besides some debris and anifreeze, is there an actual cleaner chemical in it?

Plant Fitter, we're actually considering making a totally new tank, we could cut the bottom off so we have the mounts and also the bunk and lid off the top and just plain start over, to me its looking like the simplest and cheapest, by the time we cut holes in the tank to gain access to scrape it out even using carb cleaner and the cost of the carb cleaner, its looking cheaper to just make a new one. I wouldn't have to handle the chemicals and have to worry about fumes or exposure to those things.

Does anyone know where to even look for a used tank off a komatsu dozer?? Or then do I need to worry about how to try to get rust out of an old tank? Do you treat the inside of a new tank with anything special to prevent rust? Or is bare metal the way to go, just flush it out when done building it and put it on the machine? I've built plenty of oil tanks over the years, but not fuel tanks before.

Does anyone know why the tops of the older dozer tanks were rounded and not square? Was it reduce sloshing or to reduce the fuel from slamming into a corner of a tank causing stress on the tank over time?? Anyone with experience with this, let me know what you think.

 

[Plant Fitter]

If you make a new tank, it would be a good chance to put a removeable cover plate in the top or side so that you can get in and clean it out in the future. Hopefully you never need to clean out the new one, but it would make it easier if you ever had to.

 

[TheOldMan]

I've seen some oddball shaped tanks fabricated by companys that specialize in building tanks for boats. That might be an option. You could get the old tank to one of them and have them duplicate it.

 

[Tinkerer]

Maybe take the tank off the dozer turn the tank upside down with the lid off. Try a what is called a weed burner propane torch and heat it till the crap runs out.Those torches are commonly used by asphalt paving crews. I have seen them used and they are very effective on asphalt parking lots and roads. If it were mine I would cut a good size hole in the top of the tank first for decent access to the inside.

 

[Randy88]

Chatted with the local radiator guy today, he didn't see the stuff, said he didn't need to, as he put it, been there done that, he told me promptly to throw the tank away, the stuff more than likely is a product used for radiator stop leak, a tar substance that came in balls, small enough to drop in the radiator of anything, it was used years back, he wasn't sure of the name anymore, its been years since he's seen it though, he claimed no chemical really works good on it, if used in a radiator the core is junk, unable to be ever be cleaned again, the tank top and bottom of radiators can be lit on fire with a torch to burn the stuff out.............maybe, it usually melts the metal before the tar is burned up totally. He's tried it to remove it from fuel tanks in the past and said it was never sucessful, it'll burn holes in any tank it get it hot enough to melt it or burn it off the surface, no matter how thick of material the tank is made of. I asked about acid and of some sort and he said, no way, he's tried it, carb cleaner and he said it'll only get about half of it off before the cost of the cleaner will exceed the cost of a new tank.

His opinion was someone either vandalized the tank by dumping it in or was dumb enough to dump a bunch of it in to fix a leaky tank, either way, it would take 50 years and tens of thosands of dollars worth of filters to ever get a fraction of it out of the tank and system. His advice was to build a new tank, replace every hose and clean out the float tank or light it on fire with the float mechanism removed to try to burn it out of that tank, use plenty of diesel to do it, otherwise replace that tank too.

His very next question was, is the dozer running a little hot, I said yes it is and he asked have you looked inside the radiator as well.......................... as my heart sank I told him no not yet and then he said be suprised as to what you find in there as well, some guys just loved that stuff for some reason. He then added beyond its counterproductive traits it did stop leaks quite well, I'll bet the fuel sytem didn't leak anywhere.................nor the radiator either for that matter. I called him because I wanted to know if he could boil my fuel tank out and when I got the radiator out of that dozer when he'd have time to work on it, as they say, somedays you just gotta wonder why you get out of bed.

By the photos does anyone think it could be a form of stop leak for a radiator? Has anyone ever seen or used a stop leak that was actually tar balls you dumped into the radiator? I've never dumped anything in for stopping leaks before, I figured if it leaked, we needed to fix the problem not compound it. I'm taking my sample along with me to him when I get the radiator out, maybe next week, so he can see it first hand to verify if it is indeed a form of stop leak. I'll admit this is new one for me, no matter how it turns out.

 

[RobVG]

...Has anyone ever seen or used a stop leak that was actually tar balls you dumped into the radiator?

Bars Leak.

Looks like black gooey wood stove pellets- at least it did

 

[Randy88]

Update, we found some stuff to take it off, acetone I think is how its spelled, comes in gallon cans, we poured in four gallons, and let it sit in one postition for 24 hours, rolled the tank over and repeated the process, did the ends and redid the back and bottom, poured out seven gallons of stuff, shined a light inside it now looks clean, pressure rinsed it with some new clean acetone and then with diesel fuel a few times, looks pretty good inside and now to put back on the dozer, am going to give it a try anyhow, we're replacing all the lines in the fuel system, took the injector pump out along with the injectors, waiting to get those back yet and tomorrow we're putting acetone into the float tank again and recleaning that along with the float mechanism. Not sure we've got the problem cured but we got a lot of the gunk out, we're figuring about 3 gallons worth at least, not to mention what we scraped out with a stick, maybe a gallon cans worth, worst stuff I've even seen anywhere, whatever it is, I hope I never see it again in my lifetime.

 

[Dualie]

Im amazed acetone would cut that stuff when the other chemicals couldn't.

upside is acetone dosent leave a residue and its actually beneficial when mixed in very low quantity's of diesel fuel.

 

[oregon96pd]

Looks like tack we use to spray before paving. Maybe someone filled the dozer out of the wrong truck, about two thirds of a tank. We use a citrus cleaner to clean our equipment (and hands for that matter). I cant think of the name right off hand but it cuts the stuff like brake cleaner does with oil. But if the acetone is working then run with it.

 

[Birken Vogt]

For what it's worth, I don't buy the asphalt/tack theory of this stuff because that is quickly dissolved or cut by regular diesel fuel into a thin, brown liquid that washes off easily.

Acetone is nasty on plastics but good for stuff like this.

 

[Garrie Denny]

Bars stop leak had a can of rariaror stop leak a few years ago that had what looked like chopped up liquorice pieces in what was like a thin oil substance, the pieces were about 5mm in diamater and about 12mm long, could be that.

 

[Greg]

If you can find someone that makes biodiesel from recycled vegetabe oil by reprocessing it with methanol alcohol there is your answer. Put bio in the tank and it break down the sludge in fairly short order.

 

[mikemartin1979]

That sounds like a really nasty tank you've got there. I know spending money on a professional diesel fuel cleaning service isn't always viable, but it may be worth it to get over the headache. Since it's such a deeply ingrained problem, it's possible you need biocides or anti-gels, some kind of additives to clean the whole system out, or it's just going to continue to fester. The cost of filters is quickly going to outweigh the cost of professional help.

 

[Randy88]

We put the tank back in, new hoses on everything, the injection pumps been done along with the injectors, seems to have helped, but we haven't run it long enough to know for sure, haven't replaced any more fuel filters thought, so thats a good sign for now, the only places we couldn't get clean with the acetone were the baffles in the tank, not sure but maybe time will take care of them with a few filter replacements, we'll have to wait to see. Thanks for all the input everyone had, still not exactly sure what it was, but if I never see it again ever, I'll be really happy.

 

[wheezy]

Seen on Texas car wars baking soda or vinegar they might mix them did not try yet or look up on net.

 

[Mr Goodwrench]

I went through this EXACT problem this summer on my ford backhoe that had been setting for years, all the research I came up with pointed to BIO diesel. I too used acetone to loosen the gunk up and then steamed the tank as clean as I could, so far no problems. you guys are correct the stuff looks like road tar. On another note I only buy my fuel off the delivery truck so I can get pure red diesel.... None of that bio CRAP for me.