A
AusDave
Well-known member
I recently went around the shed and started up the bits of machinery in there, doors open of course, to give the batteries a bit of a charge. Came back after 15 minutes and the forklift and welder generator had shut down. WTF? Checked the forklift and found I hadn't turned the propane tank on, idiot. That was simple. However when I went to the Shindaiwa welder generator there was plenty of fuel. Tried to start it and it ran briefly and then stopped. This machine is quite a nice piece of gear I picked up secondhand in good condition. It will run 2 x 200 amp welding cable or one 400 amp as well as 3 phase and single phase power. It has a sweet and quiet 3 cylinder Kubota diesel all in a soundproof housing with roll bars and lifting eye. I need to use it more as it is a delight to weld with but had done a lot of sitting with the same fuel in the tank.
I disconnected the fuel line and virtually nothing came out. Hmm blocked. Had a look in the tank, looked a bit rusty around the filler even though it's stored in the shed with a nearly full tank of fuel. Peering further in and poking the inside of the tank with a stick it seemed a bit shitty so I decided to drain the tank and proceed further. Being a well set up bit of gear it had an external fuel tank drain to make life easier, Unscrewed it... nothing but a dribble?? Some serious blockage was going on so the tank had to come out. After removing top shroud/cover and fuel lines the tank was out and drained. It was in a bad way. The fuel to injector pump outlet was completely blocked with rusty gunky stuff as was the bigger fuel drain outlet. With all the diesel drained and the tank dry I could now see inside what appeared to be rust and a sticky scum coating the entire inside of the tank.
Taking a cue from what I had read about rusty fuel tank cleaning I got some Muriatic (Hydrochloric) Acid and carefully made a brew for the tank and put it in to soak, giving it an occasional slosh. When I poured it out some of the rusty material came with it but the sticky gunk was unaffected
Back to the internet. Seems like not an acid but a strong caustic might be the go. So I bought some Caustic Soda and carefully made up a strong brew of a few litres and gave it a soak. Came back the next day to check and with some trepidation peered inside. There was a very dirty solution so I tilted the tank to drain the solution to one end and there was lovely clean steel, no scrubbing required! Turned the tank over and soaked each internal side in turn for a day each and then poured the filthy caustic solution out. Washed the tank with water and then some fuel, it was like new inside now
Now this may not be news to some of you who have used a really strong caustic before, but I was used to the petrochemical solvent approach and it just didn't cut it in this situation. The delightful part of using the caustic was the absolute dissolving of the gunk without scrubbing and scraping. Anything thats good and easy gets top marks from me. I used another small container of caustic to soak some other dirty stinking parts I had lying around, and like magic, take them out and wash under the tap and they were like new!
WARNING: Using a strong alkali like caustic soda can be dangerous. It can dissolve your skin, your eyeballs, most things organic. Don't add water to caustic soda, add the caustic soda to water slowly and carefully. There is a chemical reaction which can create a lot of heat with a strong solution. Take care, wear safety glasses and clothing and have lots of water nearby to wash or dilute any accidents. Check what you want to clean or use as a container as it can attack aluminium, tin, zinc and some other metals.
AusDave
I disconnected the fuel line and virtually nothing came out. Hmm blocked. Had a look in the tank, looked a bit rusty around the filler even though it's stored in the shed with a nearly full tank of fuel. Peering further in and poking the inside of the tank with a stick it seemed a bit shitty so I decided to drain the tank and proceed further. Being a well set up bit of gear it had an external fuel tank drain to make life easier, Unscrewed it... nothing but a dribble?? Some serious blockage was going on so the tank had to come out. After removing top shroud/cover and fuel lines the tank was out and drained. It was in a bad way. The fuel to injector pump outlet was completely blocked with rusty gunky stuff as was the bigger fuel drain outlet. With all the diesel drained and the tank dry I could now see inside what appeared to be rust and a sticky scum coating the entire inside of the tank.
Taking a cue from what I had read about rusty fuel tank cleaning I got some Muriatic (Hydrochloric) Acid and carefully made a brew for the tank and put it in to soak, giving it an occasional slosh. When I poured it out some of the rusty material came with it but the sticky gunk was unaffected
Back to the internet. Seems like not an acid but a strong caustic might be the go. So I bought some Caustic Soda and carefully made up a strong brew of a few litres and gave it a soak. Came back the next day to check and with some trepidation peered inside. There was a very dirty solution so I tilted the tank to drain the solution to one end and there was lovely clean steel, no scrubbing required! Turned the tank over and soaked each internal side in turn for a day each and then poured the filthy caustic solution out. Washed the tank with water and then some fuel, it was like new inside now Now this may not be news to some of you who have used a really strong caustic before, but I was used to the petrochemical solvent approach and it just didn't cut it in this situation. The delightful part of using the caustic was the absolute dissolving of the gunk without scrubbing and scraping. Anything thats good and easy gets top marks from me. I used another small container of caustic to soak some other dirty stinking parts I had lying around, and like magic, take them out and wash under the tap and they were like new!
WARNING: Using a strong alkali like caustic soda can be dangerous. It can dissolve your skin, your eyeballs, most things organic. Don't add water to caustic soda, add the caustic soda to water slowly and carefully. There is a chemical reaction which can create a lot of heat with a strong solution. Take care, wear safety glasses and clothing and have lots of water nearby to wash or dilute any accidents. Check what you want to clean or use as a container as it can attack aluminium, tin, zinc and some other metals.
AusDave
