Gas tank question

Got the Oliver 77 running on a
temporary gas tank. The tractor
tank has off white flakes in the
bottom. Very minor rust. It hasn't
had gas in it for at least 5
years. And no fuel line on it for
that long either. So.........why
can't I stick a shop vac hose in
there and clean out the flakey
crap? Should be zero chance of
blowing anything up? No gas smell
at all. Opinions?

I do not think vacuum cleaners and fuel tanks are compatible. if there is only whitish flakes in there take it off and blow them out, or rinse them out. Jim

If it pasted the sniff test as you say, i would give it a try. Outside in the yard.

Add soap and water. You can wash and rinse it then put a shopvac on blow. If you can find it Slorol wrote a story about fuel ⛽️ tanks and vacuum cleaners.

Support the tank upside down, jab a "straight through" airgun into the airhose coupler, and stick it up in the tank and let it whip around a bit.

Probably should wear a mask/avoid the (potentially lead) dust.

I've done that often, even with residual gasoline in the tank.

Vacuuming a gas tank is a good way to burn down your vacuum.

You're probably alright but I would remove the gas cap for a couple days before you do it to be sure.

U CAN HAVE VICTORY...BUT...GROUND LIP IF TANK TO EARTH, AS AIR IN HOSE WILL BUILD STATIC CHARGE...SAFEST...BE BLESSED, GRATEFUL, PREPARED...

save the vacuum for the mrs. remove and rinse.

Do not use a vacuum. BTDT!!!!!! If you are lucky it will sound like your vacuum is Farting. If too much fumes your vacuum will self destruct !!! Take the tank out and stick a pressure washer hose in it. You will not believe how much crap will come out. Did my CUB that way. You an also buy a few gallon of E-85 ethanol fuel. That will dissolve anything in there. Let it soak a couple of days.

My Jubilee had white flakes. I bought a new tank from YT instead of trying to coat tank.

My tank on my Ferguson TO -30 was like that I filled it with water and White vinegar 50/50 mix left it sit overnight
drained and flushed turned out good .

Has the tap with no line on it been open or closed for the five years ? If it has been open and vented for five years I would go ahead.

After you blow out as much of the stuff in the tank as you can here is what I have done on several tractors that has worked for me.Instead of the sediment bowl assembly put in a 3/8 pipe nipple,then a
'T' then another nipple on the bottom of the T,put a brass shut off on the T,run the gas line out of the horizontal hole in the T to the carb,put in a large,clear in line filter.95%
of the particles that come out of the tank will fall down into the bottom T just open the cut off valve to dump them out plus water will settle there too.In line filter will then catch the rest and it being clear you will be able to see what comes into it and can change it out when needed.And those that that only want to put in a half gallon of gas at a time in their tanks will tell you inline filters won't let gas thru.I can show you 8 or 10 tractors with in line filters that work just fine just have to have a little gas in the tank,personally I rarely ever let a fuel tank in a tractor ever get below 1/2 full whether it be gas or diesel a lot better in every way fuller the tank is kept the better it is.Also I put one of those plastic cut offs in the fuel line between the tank and the filter so I can stop the gas flow to change the filter and whatever.

It's been open.

i wouldnt use a shop vac for fuel anything, think about it, a shop vac has brushes in its electric motor, which produce a small spark, it has a impeller wheel which produces the "suck" in the shop vac, it all takes place in a confined area, now, if you add any kind of fuel to the equation, you have just made a crude jet engine, the vac will take that and since there is no way to regulate it, it will spin up to self destruct, usually throwing fire pieces all over the area, many can testify, that does not end well

(quoted from post at 08:37:07 02/04/19) i wouldnt use a shop vac for fuel anything, think about it, a shop vac has brushes in its electric motor, which produce a small spark, it has a impeller wheel which produces the "suck" in the shop vac, it all takes place in a confined area, now, if you add any kind of fuel to the equation, you have just made a crude jet engine, the vac will take that and since there is no way to regulate it, it will spin up to self destruct, usually throwing fire pieces all over the area, many can testify, that does not end well

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Ericlb, it looks like you along with most of the others are completely missing grandpa loves question. He is not asking "is it a good idea to vacuum gasoline fumes with a shop vac?" He is asking would there be any ignitable gasoline fumes left in a gasoline tank that has been left open to the atmosphere for five years.