Integral Tank Cleaning With Ammonia

[jw-in-dixie]

Saw a picture once of a 5-gallon tank strapped to the rear wheel of an old car. Jacked the wheel off the ground, put it in gear and let it idle. Suppose they had put a cleaner and scrap iron in the tank to hurry the process. Whatever works. Pays to remove the suction tube first.

JW in Dixie

[beerman57]

Yeah, I’ve made a cover for the pick up hole so I don’t have to use the fuel pick up.

[Goman]

Then after you do all the for mentioned get the rest out with electrolysis.

[chris-p]

I once tried Release All. I left it in the tank for too long though, and it ate pin holes through it! It is very strong stuff. The same stuff took the coating off of my parts washing machine. Im not sure what the coating is made of, but it definitely doesn’t look like it would be easy to strip, until you leave Release All in it. Im not recommending it, as it works too well, and will damage what you are using it on. I stick with Ammonia now as well.

[mogems-yahoo-com]

Back in the day, I did my ’55 Harley tank.
1st step: Store bought Purple Heavy Duty cleaner w/H2O, handfull of small 1/4 to 5/16 junk bolts & nuts, wrapped tank in a blanket & duct taped (previous owner had foolishly had it professionally painted w/o cleaning the tank!), put it in the back of my pickup and let it roll around for about a week. It did a "fair" job.
2nd step: Bought the old stand-by: "CREME" three step system. Repeated step 1 above. Flushed as per instructions, dried & sealed.
Step 2 worked. I’m curious to try the ammonia deal. George

[beerman57]

How should I dispose of the ammonia? I thought about pouring it on the driveway on a hot, sunny day and let it evaporate.

[mr-asa]

quote mogems@yahoo.com:

Back in the day, I did my ’55 Harley tank.
1st step: Store bought Purple Heavy Duty cleaner w/H2O, handfull of small 1/4 to 5/16 junk bolts & nuts, wrapped tank in a blanket & duct taped (previous owner had foolishly had it professionally painted w/o cleaning the tank!), put it in the back of my pickup and let it roll around for about a week. It did a “fair” job.
2nd step: Bought the old stand-by: “CREME” three step system. Repeated step 1 above. Flushed as per instructions, dried & sealed.
Step 2 worked. I’m curious to try the ammonia deal. George

All of those "Purple Power" and "Purple Blast" and "Super Clean" and the rest usually contain ethylene glycol monobutyl. It is caustic. It will eat away aluminum and copper. If you have enough of the stuff and put it into a bucket with a part and leave it long enough you will no longer have a part.
A small amount for a short amount of time can be oko, but if you leave it to soak for a week or so I would expect to start seeing microfractures and pitting consistent with the metal being eaten away.

I would not use any of those cleaners for more than a quick spray down and wash.

quote beerman57:

How should I dispose of the ammonia? I thought about pouring it on the driveway on a hot, sunny day and let it evaporate.

You can dilute it with water and pour it down the sink. A large amount of household cleaners have it as the most active cleaning agent.
It is also what makes urine smell like it does, so your local sewage treatment place should be equipped to handle it. If you have a septic tank I’d dilute it to about .5-1 cup per gallon of water and pour it down the drain over the course of a couple of days.
Or you could always keep it in a container and use it to clean stuff until it gets black with grease and the like.

[jim-moffatt]

Ammonia is a great tank cleaner and I use it all the time. However it attacks brass fairly quickly. It may eat away a brass or copper screen in a day or so.

Muncie/Nwptune tanks from the 30s have a thin brass tank neck and 3 days of ammonia in the tank caused it to be unusable. THe 30s omc tanks do not do this but I would limit the time its used to 1 to 2 days.

[mr-asa]

Jim – Ammonia actually eats away at the copper in brass, however it generally takes a fairly high concentration to do that. Were you using household ammonia, or did you get something stronger?

If anyone wants to look it up, ammonia attacking copper is called Stress Corrosion Cracking, and the material generally fails due to tensile forces once it has been weakened

Actually, that reminds me, don’t soak brass or copper carb parts in ammonia.

[1946zephyr]

To remove rust, I use vinegar

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