Vacuuming out sediment...

Dan Baron

Dan Baron

Senior Member
:confused: Would I be risking a fire if I drained my gas tank compleatly, and then tried to vacuum out the sediment from around the drain of the tank? :confused: The sediment that's in there keeps clogging the gas line. I'm getting tired of having to pull over to the side of the road and taking the gas line apart and blowing the line back.
 
Harbor Freight and many of the tool guys at the swap meets sell a syphon spray gun that has a large size pickup hose. This will suck out the crud without sending any vapors through the electric motor.

Do you have the small stand up screen in the shutoff valve? It's a MUST have, even for a clean tank like mine. That's one of the first things I install when working on an A.
 
Doug in NJ said:
You would probably get only 50% or so.

If you vacuumed fumes out of the tank, they might get ignited in the vacuum cleaner's exhaust, and your vacuum cleaner might look like it was rocket-powered. For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNwq939ienM&feature=fvw

Doug
Click to expand...

The maniacal laughter says it all; too bad those giblets had to pick-on a nice old metal vacuum-cleaner... why couldn't they just use some modern plastic piece of crap ? :mad:

Maybe Steven King will see this video and do a movie involving tortured appliances that exact their revenge on idiots... ( maybe he's already done this ?)
 
Be smart when you work with gas tanks. The fumes are explosive and they can linger in the tank for many years.
 
I was told by an old mechanic to remove the tank, set it in an open space, remove the cap, drain the tank, move it away from all flammables and light the gas at the filler tube. I have since done this several times very successfully. There is never an explosion, just a small whoosh and then a steady flame until all of the fuel is burned. When the fuel burns out you can vacuum the tank or have it cleaned at a radiator shop.
I'm sure there will be some comments about this procedure, but it has worked safely for me several times.
 
I don't want to discourage you from trying anything, but I know my best attempts at cleaning a tank in place were never 100% effective. There are baffles that make it impossible to reach the entire inside surface even though you can reach the 3 regions with small tubing by entering through the filler hole. You can also reach much of the center region through the gas gauge hole, but it is impossible to dislodge all the rust flakes and crud and then get them out with the tank on the car, but it can't hurt anything to try. I have filled them with water and then probed the regions with compressed air through a wand made of brake tubing, but I could do that all day and stuff would keep coming out. ('didn't want to do the labor of removing it, ruin the paint or have to replace the welt. It still makes a big mess.) I hope the word "impossible" and the trouble I've had will make you determined to find a way to prove me wrong.
 
Royal Ryser- 'Next time you do that would you please get a good video and post it? I think it would be fun, but I am not brave enough to try it again. I watched our service manager blow up a Buick tank that he filled with water in 1973. When he got the torch close to the pin hole, the tank made a quiet boom and took on the shape of a marshmallo, instead of a flat tank. I did the same with a motorcycle tank a year later. In both cases the water probably kept the pressure from escaping fast enough, so I'm not doubting your technique. I'd just rather watch you do it!
 
I have just fought that same problem - trash in the tank. What I did was drain the tank and remove the valve. Then pour a gallon of gas into tank where it flowed through it taking debris with it and draining into a can placed under the hole in the tank where the valves screws into. I used a funnel with a cone shaped paint strainer to collect the particles of trash , rust , etc. which came out of the bottom of the tank. I repeated this process about 15 times until I no longer caught 'trash' in the paint strainer. Thusly, flushed most if not all the loose stuff out of the tank. Screwed the valve back in and reinstalled the fuel line. All works great now - no ore running a mile or so and having ti stop up again.
 
What I was contemplating, because sometimes I'm lazy after work, was to put the exhaust end of the shop vac into the top of the tank and let it run for awhile to exhaust any left over fumes that might still be in there. What I think is in the bottom of the tank is residue from a cork that I sprayed with lacquer paint because it lost it's buoyancy. But the gas dissolved the paint and now I see small sheets of paint laying on the bottom of the tank. I thought gas wouldn't do anything to lacquer paint. I was wrong... again! I love this hobby, even if sometimes it frustrates the hell out of me.
 
I have herd that you can pipe the exaust into the tank and replace the O2 when using a torch to repair a small leak. This doesn't clean anything but it could allow you to cut a hole, say 6" or so and clean out the tank then reweld the pattch in. A friend of mine did this successfully.
'
 
I think we need to remember that the straight gas fumes in a fuel tank are "above the upper flamable limit", and will not ignite, until you allow air containing oxygen to enter the tank. At that point, you have completed two sides of the fire/explosive triangle, where all you need from that point, is a very small static electricity spark, or tool strike, causing a spark, to cause a good explosion of the tank, or in the very least a fire at the tank opening.
If a person came up with a air operated eductor, as suggested earlier in this thread, the idea may work successfull, providing the suction hose is large enough.

Again.....the fumes coming out of the eductor discharge, will be highly combustable. Vent outside and away.

Be Carefull......Please !!
 
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Aside from the actual cleaning out of the tank, I have in the past be sucessful in removing fumes from gas tanks. I used exhust fumes from a tailpipe via a hose and let the donor car run for 1 1/2 hours. The tank(s) got quite warm and I proceeded to cut them open and gas weld them together.

The actual cleaning out with Harbor Frt. tool sounds very safe, Snap-On ($$$) makes an air powered vacuum along with other mfg's. As pointed out earlier you probably will not get it totaly clean the first attempt.
 
Dan Baron .................
It wasn't the gas that attacked the lacquer, but the ethonal (alcohol).
I think the original cork floats were covered with shellac. Ethonal will disolve shellac too.
MIKE :)
 
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