Cleaning out a varnished tank.

[Homelite_Red]

What are some ways to clean out a varnished tank?

There seems to be many different ways to do this but I wanted to see how you guys did it.

I recently bought a 150 Automatic. It runs great but I am concerned that the varnish in the tank is going to gum up the carb eventually.

[Homelite_Red]

Here is what the inside of the tank and the fuel filter look like:

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[edju1958]

There are many different ways to clean out the tank.Probably the most common & cheapest way that I know of is to put a cup or 2 of white vinegar in the tank with some clean (new) ball bearings or nuts & shake the heck out of it periodically.It wouldn't hurt to change the line & filter after you're finised.That tank look nasty & I'm surprised the saw ran as good as you said it did.Change out the vinegar as needed & shake the saw several times a day.Let us know how it turns out.

                                                    Ed

[Homelite_Red]

Aug 30, 2019 9:00:02 GMT -5 edju1958 said:

There are many different ways to clean out the tank.Probably the most common & cheapest way that I know of is to put a cup or 2 of white vinegar in the tank with some clean (new) ball bearings or nuts & shake the heck out of it periodically.It wouldn't hurt to change the line & filter after you're finised.That tank look nasty & I'm surprised the saw ran as good as you said it did.Change out the vinegar as needed & shake the saw several times a day.Let us know how it turns out.

                                                    Ed

I think I'll give that a try ASAP. Thanks Ed. 

[jclark]

Ditto with Ed. Only I use nuts, the square edges seem to do better than the smooth round surfaces of ball bearings.
Good luck. Let us know how you make out.

Jon

[Homelite_Red]

I ordered 5' of Tygon .211" OD (never hurts to have a little extra) and filter A-29923. Should be here next week. I think this evening I'll take the whole engine cover off and remove the fuel line from the tank and start cleaning it. I've read about the process of taking the engine cover off on here and watched a few videos, I'll try my best to emulate these methods.

Hopefully, by the time the fuel line and filter get here next week, it will be ready to go. I add some nuts to the mix too.

[undee70ss]

Just don’t try to split the tank, the tank is not meant to come apart.

[Homelite_Red]

After taking the engine cover off, I added about half a tank of vinegar, BBs and nuts. The vinegar bubbled up a lot and I had to dump some out because I was trying to keep it off of the paint. I let it sit outside for a while and decided to change out the vinegar and ended up with some really nasty black junk. I used my air compressor and cleaned it out really good before adding some more vinegar. going to let it sit for a few days on its side so I can get the junk on the top of the tank. It is probably OK at this point but I want to get it really clean and plus I am already waiting on replacement parts anyways.

Thanks, Ed and Jon for the ideas.


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[5terrysupersaws]

Looking at the last photo of the cleaned tank.. the process went well.
A note of CAUTION when using vinegar, it's an acid and reacts with magnesium, left for an extended period of 
time it will dissolve magnesium...(hence the bubbling).. Suggest flushing well and perhaps neutralizing.

[Homelite_Red]

Aug 30, 2019 14:27:50 GMT -5 5terrysupersaws said:

Looking at the last photo of the cleaned tank.. the process went well.
A note of CAUTION when using vinegar, it's an acid and reacts with magnesium, left for an extended period of 
time it will dissolve magnesium...(hence the bubbling).. Suggest flushing well and perhaps neutralizing.

Thanks for the tip!

I think I will empty it out and flush it with water and light baking soda mix and do a final rinse and use the air gun before I let it dry.



For anyone reading this and wanting to try this I think a 1:2 or maybe even a 1:1 ratio of water and vinegar would have been effective. 




  

[edju1958]

Sorry about that,I had no idea that would happen.I hope no damage was done.It does look like the tank is nice & clean compared to the original pic.

                                                       Ed

[Homelite_Red]

No problem Ed, it worked great and there is no damage.

If someone were to do this they should take care to keep the vinegar off the paint, I put some shop towels around the opening, used a funnel and I kept and eye on it. It will bubble up and out of the tank if you don't watch it.

I used about a quarter cup of baking soda in a quart jar of water to flush it out, then I ran water directly through it and blew most of it out with an air gun. I let it dry for a few hours in the sun and put it back in its case. 

[Homelite_Red]

Thanks for the advice Ed, Jon, Undee70ss and Terry.

I hope this helps somebody in the future, I'll definitely be using this method in the future.