Hi, this is my first post, but I’m lucky enough to know a couple of people on here already.
You need to buy 1 litre of Dichloromethane , it’s a simple hydrocarbon and the base ingredient of most paint strippers. First remove the petrol from your tank, bung up all the threaded holes with blank fittings, then add the Dichloromethane. Slosh it around, leave the tank overnight, slosh it around again and leave the tank overnight in a different position. Repeat until every part of the tank has sat overnight in this solution. There will be no paint left stuck to the sides of the tank, guaranteed.
A very clued up friend initially advised me to use the above chemical to remove old tank sealer from my M20 tank, it turned that to tiny weird crystallised particles, no bother!
It’s about £25 a litre and I suspect is a base ingredient, if not the main ingredient of the stuff the petrol sealer companies charge you double that for!
With regards to ethanol, it’s very acidic and very hydrophilic. The acid eats natural rubber and the attracted water rots your fuel tank. I’m sure you’re all only too familiar with these traits. Problems I’ve encountered from messing with petrol cookers have led me to make a de-Ethanising rig. It’s a simple process and you can enjoy having petrol that smells like it used to!
Where did you obtain the Dichloromethane?...Methylene Chloride also does a similar job and was the active ingredient in many paint strippers. I could get that in more or less unlimited quantities from my last job in Pharmaceutical Engineering but I went and retired, cutting off all those sort of perks....Doh!......Ian
Hi Ian,
I bought it off EBay and it came through the post, seems
odd, what happened to COSHH etc lol!?
MEK, which I think has the chemical you mentioned in it is now banned
I believe?
When the EU banned the active ingredient from paint stripper our government said no as the alternative was going back to burning the paint off and the risks of fire. A good paint stripper is not available in your average DIY stores but is online. I get mine through ebay. I hope this isn't censored.
yes paint stripper seems as not as good as it used to be so Going down the acetone route to try and remove the remaining paint inside , hopefully this should work and then deal with the very light rust which developed from using the white vinegar and swilling method
From advice I’d read on t’internet, I started trying to remove the tank sealer with acetone, I wouldn’t touch it. It probably will remove paint, but if you want the job sorting, so you can put it to bed. Dichloromethane would be the substance I would choose. I’ve also been down the Diet Coke/vinegar rust removal, whilst they do have some merits. Using a sodium carbonate solution (Wilkos sell it) and connecting your tank to a battery charger will completely remove any trace of rust. There are plenty of ‘how to’s’ on YouTube. Or I’m happy to show you pics and help if you email me.
I must admit I had a wry laugh the last time I bought 'Nitromors' paint stripper (some time back)....It's so safe now it's not even a threat to paint..:relaxed: ....
'Evostick' glue (is it still available?) was the same...It didn't even smell the same but the customer service department would not admit the formula had been changed when I rang them...It plainly had been as the glue didn't work as well...
It seems that all effective active ingredients are dangerous as well as all the nice food being fattening!!...:laughing: Ian
