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THE tank cleaning procedure per Red-Kote Chemist

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sflem849

Well-known Member
I just got off the phone with the chemist at Red-Kote. Yes, Northern Fuel Tank Liner and Red-Kote are the same thing. One is dyed red and one is dyed blue, that's it.

- If you think you have varnish or heavy rust use a link chain to break it up.
- 1 part Muratic Acid to 3 parts water for 30 min
- Rinse with water 3 times
- Rinse 2 times with Acetone (MEK will work, but acetone is cheaper)
- Dry overnight
- Coat tank per the can

Here's a .pdf file that is more informative than the can.
http://damonq.com/files/Red-Kote.pdf
 
IF, however your tank has a baffle inside as many Farmalls & other tanks have, dilute the RedKote 50/50 with MEK, and do two thin coats with about 1/2hr between coats. Otherwise you will get pooling in the corners which will not dry properly. You want to prevent 'skinning' inside that traps liquid material, and will later peal off or mix with gasoline, plugging your carb.
 
(quoted from post at 09:45:14 02/09/11) IF, however your tank has a baffle inside as many Farmalls & other tanks have, dilute the RedKote 50/50 with MEK, and do two thin coats with about 1/2hr between coats. Otherwise you will get pooling in the corners which will not dry properly. You want to prevent 'skinning' inside that traps liquid material, and will later peal off or mix with gasoline, plugging your carb.
Click to expand...

Good call. I didn't talk to him much about that bc I am just doing a starting tank. They cover that topic really well in the .pdf.
 

1 part muriatic acid to 3 parts water will accomplish nothing. Use the acid straight out of the jug.

You don't need the chain either if you use muriatic acid.
 
(quoted from post at 12:09:08 02/09/11)
1 part muriatic acid to 3 parts water will accomplish nothing. Use the acid straight out of the jug.

You don't need the chain either if you use muriatic acid.
Click to expand...

Hey, just repeating the phone conversation. I know there is always a lot of talk about it on the forum. I would guess they say to dilute it bc it is pretty strong stuff and people are pretty dumb sometimes.
He said the chain is for varnish bc muratic acid will do nothing for varnish. I asked if there was a solvent that would work well and he said to use a chain.
 

I guess my comment came across as rather harsh. I sure didn't mean it that way.

The reason I commented is that I HAVE cleaned gas tanks using muriatic acid, and I was very cautious at first so I diluted the acid 50% with water. I found that the acid DID have some effect at that rate, but even after letting it set for one hour, and then 2 hours, the tank still had big globs of rust, varnish, and other crud stuck to the bottom. I dumped that solution out and went back with straight, not diluted acid, and all that crud dissolved right down to clean and shiny bare metal.

I strongly caution anyone trying the acid to be very, very careful and do wear protective clothing, especially protective eye-wear, and DO NOT inhale the fumes.
 
Lawrence at Farm Country said to use it straight up. He said for the starter tanks he fills them clean full with acid and leaves them sit.

I'm not real sure about doing this outside right now because of the extreme cold. I don't want to have the tank outside and then get super duper cold and then bring it in and have condensation. That would be a flash rust nightmare.
 
This was very helpful. Anyone think we will stop seeing this topic come up every three days now from someone who has a rusty tank? Maybe a permanent link to the procedure on this site might help. Maybe not. It doesn't seem to work for the serial numbers.

Anyway, excellent work sflem849. Your phone conversation and the pdf were good reading. I learned alot. I will switch from POR15 to Red-Kote when I do my next tank. Because reading this and the fact that Red-Kote is supposedly available at O'Rileys. Makes it very available.

I have personally used the muriatic acid mixed with water at an even more diluted mix than this with excellent results. It just took more like four days of soaking. But I completely got the tank clean without needing to keep sloshing or rotating it. I did a Super M tank that was real crusty rusty nasty inside. Came out like new. I then coated it with Por-15.
 
I am in basic agreement with this thread so far, but a quick comment. Muriatic acid will not touch varnish. Acetone will. So, my method is to use acetone before the acid. Other than that, pretty much the same. Muriatic is used full strength.

Also after the acid treatment, rinse with water 3 times, I use the air hose to blow out as much of the water as possible, then I use acetone again. Then let it dry.

In summary:
air then acetone, then muriatic, then water, then air, then acetone then coat.

drying each time between each one.
 
I have used Red Kote many times and have had really good results. It has been in my Farmall A for quite a few years with no problems.
 
A mechanic I know used to rinse them out with baking soda after using the acid. I think that was supposed to neutralize it. Has anyone ever done that?
 
An imporant thing to remember about Muratic Acid is that it is already a 10% solution of Hydrochloric Acid IIRC. Chem 102 was a long time ago. Maybe it is just any dilution of HCl.

I have heard of baking soda, but I don't think it is vital. HCl is VERY water soluble and it should all go away with the triple rinse.
 
(quoted from post at 19:28:39 02/17/11) Where can you purchase Muratic Acid, and MEK?
Click to expand...

Menards, Home Depot, or Lowes are the easiest. Menards had it all by the painting stuff. Word on the street is the muratic is housed by the concrete stuff at HD. Acetone is cheaper than MEK, but you will need MEK to clean up or thin the tank sealer.
 
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