gas tank rust

[phill_mi]

Greetings; Thanks for the good advice and encouragement that I have and will receive from you good folks!
I have a 48 Cub, no hydraulics, that I got last fall from a neighbor, who had just brought it home from a auction as a non-running 'barn find'. He did just enough to get it going and hook me on the sale. I drove it to my place and have not had it running since last fall, as I work through several issues. My workspace, tools and experience are limited. I have been hoping to get it running (and I did briefly yesterday) as I can't get to other equipment in the barn until I get this tractor moving. However after working on it and getting it started using the crank, I found that the sediment bowl is leaking, so I shut it down. The sediment bowl is not original and appears a bit hacked up. There was no screen and when I bought one and a gasket locally they are ever so slightly bigger in diameter than the original damaged gasket. I read many posts here about assembling the sediment bowl and stopping shutoff valve packing leaks, and they were helpful, but it still leeks. So for now, I removed the sediment bowl and am considering installing a ball valve and an in-line filter, leaving the steal line in place and using 1/2-20 adapters to insert the filter. I also took the following pictures of the inside of my tank, since I found about a 1/4" of crude in the sediment bowl. I am interested in putting this tractor to work and not so concerned about appearance or originality. I have read up on the tank cleaning process, which seems a bit daunting for my space and limitations. I have also read where some POs coated a tank and ended up with a bigger mess latter on. So I am debating 1) Installing an inline filter and given the tank condition plan to change the filter frequently OR pull the tank and try to coat it (which frankly I would rather not do). But I am looking for advice on how serious these picks look. Externally the tractor was repainted (with the wrong decals for the period) at some point and which there are a few rusty areas (around the coolant fill port) most of the paint is still shiny.
So my questions are:
How can I clean this tank on the tractor if I plan to use a filter to catch the crap?
OR Do you strongly recommend I take the time pull the hood, clean and coat the tank?
AND I recently figured out how to use electrolysis to clean the final drive oil pans (thanks for the info) If I built an electrolysis tank big enough for the hood would that do any good on the inside of the tank?

[john2189]

Tank doesn’t look that bad.let the tank dry out . Then you could get some of the loose rust with a shop vac. Or a magnet will pick up some of the rust. Or even shove an air hose in it to blow the stuff around and it will help dry it too. Then flush it out.

[staninlowerAL]

Vacuum the tank risks an explosion if gasoline vapor is present in the right amount. Don't risk it.

[Dale Finch]

Your tank really doesn't look that bad. If you can just "wash" any loose debris out while the sediment bowl is off (kerosene or gasoline?), an inline filter (or the repaired sediment bowl) should collect any residual.

[ricky racer]

:Dito:
Your tank really doesn't look that bad. If you can just "wash" any loose debris out while the sediment bowl is off (kerosene or gasoline?), an inline filter (or the repaired sediment bowl) should collect any residual.

[phill_mi]

Thanks folks for the advice. I had thought about running a couple of gallons of kerosene through it, but wondered if I needed to do something more complicated. Thanks for the advice.

[Eugene]

An other opinion. More rust than I like. Suggest using a sealant such as POR-15 or Red Kote to encapsulate the rust.
Search function for more information on the two suggested products.

[Clemsonfor]

Tank looks good! But if it's too bad the extra filter is good but the screen in the bottom of the tank would probably plug up before the filter and cause issues with flow. But that doesn't look bad .

Another suggestion is to let it dry. Get you like a paint stir sick or doubled over cost hanger and rubber band a heavy duty paper towel or rag to it and smear grease on it the wipe it around trying to get as much crud to stick to it as possible, getting a new one each time it was dirty. Last pas try to get as much grease residue up as possible, but any left is not a big deal. Gas will dissolve it eventually and it will all burn up as fuel.

[phill_mi]

Thanks for the suggestions. Yesterday I used a pipe clamp to attach a steal wool scrub ball on the end of a long screwdriver and tried to scrub as much stuff as I could get out. Then I attached some shop rags to the screw driver and was able to mop up a lot of the stuff. I followed that by running several passes of kerosene and then some gasoline to rinse the tank. There is no screen inside the tank in the pictures. The picture was taken with the base of the old sediment bowl. Someone had cut all the screens out of the sediment bowl/tank. I suspect I will have to pull and clean the carburetor since there were no screens or filters on the fuel line. The new 3/8 npt adapter has a much larger ID than is shown in the picture. Since I need to get this tractor moving to get at other equipment in the barn, I'm going to reassemble the fuel line with an inline gravity feed filter for now. I may still pull the hood and work on the 'since the hood is off' list, which may include trying to clean and coat the tank, repaint the hood, and try the sediment bowl approach again later. Thanks for the help!