Gas tank repair experience

This is old hat to a lot of you guys. . .

I had a pinhole leak in the gas tank. It kept the bottom of the tank wet, and pooled on the engine overnight. I got tired of fooling with it and figured I'd try that pour-in liner stuff. I rigged a pressure tester (long story) and found 7 pinholes - three around the outlet fitting and four on top. I lashed the tank to a concrete mixer, put in a pound of nuts and some caustic pressure washer cleaner and let it spin for a couple of hours. (It took the finish off of the nuts) Then spun it four more hours, using first Dawn dish soap and then clear water. A local radiator shop said he'd fool with it after telling him how I'd "cleaned" it. He swore that he was a cautious individual and would take no chances. I took it to him and he sniffed it, lit a torch, and stuck it over the filler neck before I could tell my legs to run. The darn thing didn't say a word. He had it soldered and I was pulling out of his driveway in less than an hour. It was a good experience for me - I was pretty well convinced that I couldn't safely clean a gas tank, but if I ever have another one develop a leak, I think I can fix it myself.

I'm not recommending this, but thought someone might find it interesting. It's a subject that comes up pretty often.

Looks like a good fix. I have successfully fixed two IH truck gas tanks with JB Weld years ago and they still don't leak. We had a car gas tank get a huge hole in it from a piece of leaf spring that went through it on the highway. The welding shop soldered a big patch on it using a hot iron, no flame. It looked and worked just fine too.

Yea, the first time I put a flame to gas tank I put a rag on a 10' stick and stood around the corner of the building. It just made a little poof and I thought good grief I worried about nothing. Ever since then I don't worry about working on a gas tank. It's when you contain gas it gets dangerous.

I like your pressure system and tumbler-looks like some of my projects-good job---Tee

Nice job!

Well planed and good results!

I've used JB Weld on pin holes with good results.

I'll sand the area with Emory cloth, down to bright metal. Then put an oring over a short sheet metal screw, put it in just tight enough to stop the flow. Blow dry the gas away, cover the screw with JB.

Never had one leak, more holes may come around it, but never had the same place leak.

Steve - the radiator guy had a slick little sandblaster about the size of a Binks spray gun. He'd make two or three quick shots with it and it looked like new metal. The gun looked kinda home-made. I wish I had asked him about it. I had already wire brushed it by hand, but there was still paint down in the tiny crevasses.

Thanks Tee - in picture #4 you can see where I screwed up - I made a cushion out of an old piece of heater hose for the rim of the mixer. I had it lashed down and spinning - everything looked fine - and wife called me for breakfast. When I came back out the hose had slipped and it was beating up the bottom of the tank. A little more and I'd have had more holes than I started with. I shouldn't have gone off and left it.

The radiator shop guy used a pressure regulator to pressurize it. In his business he doesn't have time to mickey mouse around like I do. I had a regulator fail many years ago. It rounded the bottom of an old pressure paint gun cup, and I still don't trust them for things like this.

I'm the nervous sort around explosive stuff.

The radiator shop guy said it's usually a non-issue, and he also has used the "reach around the wall" trick, but he said he did have one that jumped two feet off of the floor and stretched the metal tight and round. It didn't rupture the tank, but of course it would no longer fit the tractor, ha.

I don't like surprises . . .

I"ve used the cement mixer for cleaning tanks as well for my AC tractors...I mounted (bolted) an extra gas tank mount to the mixer, then bolt the tank to that.

I have fixed sevaral tanks with the braze method. The key is to purge the tank with a flow of nitrogen or argoninrobthe tank first to displace the oxygen. No oxygen= no fire and no explosions. Most guys already have what they need to do this right in the shop. The mig gun gas and flow meter will don't he trick.

I have used a bike inner tube and 2 clamps for pressurizing a radiator-same thing you did---Tee

Cool Cool Cool... You will get what you put in it... After the repair and 10 min more on the mixer it would have been prepped well for a good liner.. Por-15 and it would be set for several life times... Form that point on every time you looked into the take it would look like new money...

If you're worried about explosive gasses in the tank, simply take a modern emission-controlled car, warm it up and pipe the exhaust into the tank. What comes out that exhaust is about as inert as it gets. I brazed a hole in the top of a 1/2 full tank that way once.

Go visit Harbor Freight and these are around $25. If you regulate the pressure you can go from very gentle to pretty hard. Use sand or ground walnut shell. They use a lot of air but this will most likely do the trick.