Cleaning gas tank on Farmall M

I have a 1947 M I got for Christmas. My cousin and I tired to flush the tank out because it had bad gas in it. The sediment bowl didn't have much rust in it, but when the bowl was emptied, the fuel would only drop and sometimes trickle out. The carburetor is barely getting any fuel. The guy who owned it before me told me that it has a liner in it. I'd like to clean it out and hopefully not have to replace the fuel line, although it's also rough. How would i clean the tank out. the gas is coming out a golden color right now after being flushed through somewhat. I'm an amateur with tractors so any advice helps!

I think a bad liner job is much worse than no liner, good people here to help out.

if I understand you correctly and it has had an epoxy coating applied to the inside of the tank and it is letting loose or peeling off your going to have find another tank.

I agree, a bad lineing material inside would be a nightmare in the future. It would be plugging up all the time.

Old timer way for a non lined tank is to strap it to the wheel of another tractor, throw in a couple of quarts of diesel and a handfull of half inch nuts. Then go mow hay or something for a few hours.

Gene

There is nothing wrong with coating a gas tank if it is done properly. Tank has to be clean and dry to get a good coating job. You also need to let it cure before you put fuel in it. I have an F-20 that I lined the tank back in the mid 70s and has yet to peal or flake.

I agree with D Beatty, a good coat in your tank is not a bad thing, but a bad one is a mess. First things first, you have some disassembly and cleaning to do to determine where your fuel restriction is. If you determine the tank coating is bad or gone bad, acetone will dissolve the Kreme coating. I cleaned out a motorcycle tank using acetone and a box of tacks. The tacks served as the abrasive and agitator. Put both in your tank slosh it around, let it sit for an hour, slosh and shake more until you have it clean. Rinse and repeat as necessary until satisfactorily clean. Then, it's probably very likely you need to re coat it. I like redcote personally.

Muriatic acid will remove all the crud from a gas tank. Including the liner. A properly cleaned gas tank needs no liner.

Before you go crazy dumping chemicals in there that may ruin your liner, try loosening the bowl with the fuel on and see what happens.

A properly cleaned gas tank needs no
liner.....unless you use muraitic acid to clean it,
then you either have to keep full to the filler neck
all the time or us a liner coating .

Take the cap off, shine a light down in and LOOK.

It will be obvious if the liner is peeling and causing the problems, as you will see bits of liner pooled around the sediment bowl inlet at the bottom of the tank.

You can also remove the sediment bowl from the fuel tank. It screws out lefty-loosey.

I have taken them to a radiator shop that has a caustic tank and had them cook it in the acid. Then put the liner in. I like the Red Cote brand.

(quoted from post at 13:10:44 01/19/15) A properly cleaned gas tank needs no
liner.....unless you use muraitic acid to clean it,
then you either have to keep full to the filler neck
all the time or us a liner coating .

Click to expand...

No. That statement is false. I own a 1940 M that is proof.

when i have problem tanks i take them off rig up a bungee cord from one end of the tank to my workbench, dump in a quart of gas and a pound of B.B.s grab a beer and start shaking. repeat a few times and your tank will be good to go.

I strap my gas tank to my cement mixer with nuts and letter run.

Bet that hurts.

Put some E85 in your tank.

Fill it full with about a pound of gravel... you don't need any chemicals... do this and then add about a 1/2 gallon of gas and shake the crap out of it...this will remove any loose liner and/or rust.

Remove the fuel cap, shine the brightest flashlight you own down towards the sediment bowl inside the fuel tank & tell us what you see.
1. Sediment bowl should have a short "stand pipe" sticking up inside the tank.
2. If the liner is peeling you will see bare spots on the bottom or sides of the tank. There is a large baffle you will not be able to see behind.
3. If you see rust and sediment collected around where the sediment bowl inlet is inside the tank.
Any of the above & it is time to drain what gas is in the tank, and place into a container. Then remove the fuel line(s) & sediment bowl completely from the gas tank & drain what gas is left in the bottom, rinse with hot water, paying particular attention to the narrow opening at the bottom of the large baffle, until the water comes out crystal clear. Check the opening in the bottom of the tank where the sediment bowl screws in, this opening must be completely open, the pipe threads should be visible.
Dry thoroughly with compressed air, let it sit overnight to completely dry. The next morning install a short 1 in piece of copper tubing in the sediment bowl inlet, install the new fine mesh screen, new gasket & glass bowl, then re-install the sediment bowl and fuel lines. With the fuel turned off at the sediment bowl, place around three to five gallons of fresh new gasoline in the tank. Leave the glass bowl a bit loose, turn the fuel on and watch the bowl fill quickly, when the bowl is full then tighten the bowl until it stops leaking, this will release any trapped air in the bowl.

I have tried everything above and a few more tricks to clean a gas tank. Some work most don't. Try one and if it doesn't work take the tank off. Any further tricks probably won't work either. Cut the tank in half at the seam. Now you can see why the tricks didn't work. Sand blast the tank.
Weld the seam back together and do a pressure leak test. Now coat the tank. I use Red Coat. No sense whipping a dead 'tank'.

Do folks actually attempt to clean a gas tank without first removing it from the tractor? That will never work.

Oh, and if you want to add to your woes, go ahead and put a bunch of sand and gravel in there, or even assorted nuts, bolts, or other hardware, and then do your best to get all of that stuff back out. Won't happen. Quite a bit of it will be in there forever.