Rust prevention in fuel tank?

I have a couple of antique tractors that only come out of the shed once a year. The UC hasn't given me problems but the tank on my U is a problem every time it sits for a while. Couple of weeks ago I flushed it out the best I could and got about tablespoon of rust out of it but last night the sediment bowl choked up again. I'm going to put a screen in the bowl inlet but that really doesn't fix the rust problem.

Question is should these tractors be stored with the fuel tank completely full? If so, by the time I would get back to it, the gas would be bad. Hate to throw $50 bucks worth of gas away every year. Also don't want to ruin the paint buy taking of to work on it. I don't know if a tank liner would even stick to it.

What do you guys do for storing your oldies?
Leon B ok

Leon, Good question. I will tell what I do and others will chime in (and maybe disagree with me). My tractors have the same problem. When I restore a tractor, I clean the gas tank. I try to remove any corrosion by shaking the tank with some loose items in the tank (steel hex nuts). I will be doing a tank soon and hope to fasten it to the barrel of a small concrete mixer and let 'er spin for a while. After cleaning out the loose rust and flushing out the tank, I coat it with Red Kote liquid tank liner. Takes a quart or two, depending on the tank size. When the liner dries, you should be good to go. When I store a tractor, I siphon out all the gas I can get, let the rest sit and put in fresh gas the next time I start it. This has always worked for me. Hope this helps.
Bob@allisdowneast   

Even a full tank, with ethanol they can still rust as ethanol attracts water. My brother even stored some parts in a pail of diesel fuel and they still rusted as the biofuel in the diesel attracted water. I've witnessed it first hand when he pulled the parts out. Just look at the fuel tank neck on your diesel and you will probably see rust. Especially if your state or your fuel supplier uses a lot of biofuel in the blend.

X 2 on the Avgas and I will not use StaBil again as it gums stuff up over time. A can of Seafoam in about 5-7 gallons of fuel under use occasionally is also good for keeping the old gals clean. Currently messing with a D15 that sat behind some stored round bales under an awning for 10 months and it bit me as I left it only 1/4 full. The initial gas drained out stunk to high heaven and a tray type pan with about 3/4" turned to a gummy type consistency within 48 hrs. of sitting exposed to ambient. Can see what looks like rust trying to form on the inner walls of tank so bunged her up and filled nearly full with diesel and one gallon of Marvel Mystery Oil. Circulate same with an air hose every few days and about ready to drain, rinse with gas a couple of times and see what it looks like. Worth mentioning the carb was caught in time as she runs smooth after some heavy does of Seafoam put through her using a portable gas tank so I guess I got lucky . . . .

I'll second Bob on the red kote. Had my 45 done over 15 years ago and have had absolutely no issues with it. The local radiator shop did it.

Edited by Dans 7080 - 16 Sep 2016 at 6:21am

've wondered if 'Black Baron Epoxy' found in the RC hobby shops would be better than Red Kote ? Seems to me that epoxy must be really tough considereing how powerful RC plane gas is but epoxied plane parts are always pretty !!

Jay

I used electrolysis to clean the inside of a 100 gal transfer tank last fall. It worked good. Took almost 3 weeks though for a tank that big.

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I'll bite the bullet and take it off this winter and line it. I did line a CA tank probably 10 years ago and had no problems. Just didn't want to screw up the paint.
Leon B

Your tank wont rust unless its exposed to air. Keep some fuel in it and use Stabil if leaving set for a long time. I put a couple gallons with Stabil in every fall run the tractor and turn gas off let it run out in the carb. In the spring take off the sediment bowl and drain a couple cups out. the alcohol will absorb the water and it'll be in the bottom of the tank. add fresh fuel with Seafoam before starting and I've never had problems. My CA is the only tractor I coated the tank and it was leaking so I cleaned soldered all the pin holes and coated with Kream tank coating. Kream used to be available at motorcycle shops Now I'd use redcoat since it's more readily available

TimNearFortWorth wrote: X 2 on the Avgas and I will not use StaBil again as it gums stuff up over time. A can of Seafoam in about 5-7 gallons of fuel under use occasionally is also good for keeping the old gals clean. Currently messing with a D15 that sat behind some stored round bales under an awning for 10 months and it bit me as I left it only 1/4 full. The initial gas drained out stunk to high heaven and a tray type pan with about 3/4" turned to a gummy type consistency within 48 hrs. of sitting exposed to ambient. Can see what looks like rust trying to form on the inner walls of tank so bunged her up and filled nearly full with diesel and one gallon of Marvel Mystery Oil. Circulate same with an air hose every few days and about ready to drain, rinse with gas a couple of times and see what it looks like. Worth mentioning the carb was caught in time as she runs smooth after some heavy does of Seafoam put through her using a portable gas tank so I guess I got lucky . . . .

Im with Tim on not using StaBil, tried it for years in my generator, always turned off the shut off ran the gas out of carb and used StaBil in tank.
   Next time I tried to start it would run until it sucked up stuff in the tank and quit I had to take apart the carb every time.
   Now I just use non-ethanol fuel run the carb out of gas as before and has been fine past couple years.

WDDave wrote:   Im with Tim on not using StaBil, tried it for years in my generator, always turned off the shut off ran the gas out of carb and used StaBil in tank.    Next time I tried to start it would run until it sucked up stuff in the tank and quit I had to take apart the carb every time.    Now I just use non-ethanol fuel run the carb out of gas as before and has been fine past couple years.

if they only get used once a year then just leave them totaly drained after the rust problem is taken care of now or totaly full with sta- bil in it and start them once a month for a half hour

alan-nj wrote: had a radiator shop coat a tank for me.  turned my gas red for over a year.  once the red cleared out, tank started leaking.  cleaned it a bit myself and dumped a POR tank product in it.  Stopped leaking, and gas is still normal color.  don't know if the issue was the workmanship of the shop or the product,  but i won't be going back there again.

From what I was told it probably wasn't cleaned up enough before they coated it. My d17 tank was a real mess the radiator shop I went to told me they hadn't seen one that bad in a long time and billed me for a double cleaning because the had to put the chemical cleaner in it twice to get it clean enough the stuff would stick. They also told me they used extra liner stuff. It turned the gas red for a long time but 7 year later I think it is still perfect.   I think cleaning them up enough is tricky business.