diesel tank cleaning

[clueless]

this may be a little off topic for this place but i'm sure there are some of you who will hopefully be able to recommend something.

 

i have a 1992 komatsu 12ton digger and she's starting to struggle a bit under load. i think that there is some crap in the bottom of the tank that may have been stirred up (a lad up the road had her on hire for a couple of weeks so i dont know if he ran her too close to empty (fuel gauge doesnt work see) and this crap has obviously silted up the lines etc. i need to wash the tank out. the tank seems difficult to remove but there is an outlet at the base of it with a tap on. usually i would just take the tank off and spend a few hours on the yard messing about with it but i may have to do this one insitu.

 

my plan at the moment is to drain the tank and then just wash it a few time with the pressure washer, kind of until theres no more minging stuff coming out of it. what i wanted to know was if there are any detergents that can assist me with this and also if there is a substance (something like acetone) that would need to be swilled in the tank after cleaning to remove any water.

 

any help greatly appreciated - cheers

[renewablejohn]

You would be far better cleaning with kerosene and a commercial horticultural sprayer (with sealant rings that dont perish) You can easily get 4 bar pressure for cleaning and when you have finished the kerosene will mix with the diesel and you will not have a water problem.

[clueless]

i've got a knapsack sprayer, or a 3000psi cold washer. if i dislodge the crap and flush it with the cold wash then rinse down with kero in the knapsack will that work?

[Mesterh]

i've got a knapsack sprayer, or a 3000psi cold washer. if i dislodge the crap and flush it with the cold wash then rinse down with kero in the knapsack will that work?

 

If you mean blasting it with water then I would deffo give that a miss! It will probably cause you more hassle trying to get rid of the water than cleaning any gunk out.

 

Prob best to do what renewablejohn says and use kerosene or just more diesel, at least that way you wont introduce any further problems.

[Rupe]

Clean it with more diesel.

 

Just keep pouring the same stuff through the tank, make sure you don't pour any sludge back in, up to you if you seive it out or something. You could use load of kerosene or other special stuff but I would just use the same 10 litres or so of diesel again and again till it comes cleaner and chuck the diesel after.

[Mesterh]

Clean it with more diesel.

 

Just keep pouring the same stuff through the tank, make sure you don't pour any sludge back in, up to you if you seive it out or something. You could use load of kerosene or other special stuff but I would just use the same 10 litres or so of diesel again and again till it comes cleaner and chuck the diesel after.

 

Actually thats exactly what I did, just kept pouring it back in through a funnel with a filter in then sloshing it around the tank then undue the drain plug.

 

 

 

I think you can buy some type of additive that removes!! the water from the diesel.

 

Dunno how or what it does really!

 

It may not even exist and I may have just made the whole thing up, not sure!

[Rupe]

THats the idea, but with two container you can keep the drain plug open and just keep pouring it through.

[garth mc garth]

whenever i have had to leave a tank in situ on a machine i usually take all the fittings out the bottom of tank, cap off all the lines then pressure wash out. once your sure its as clean as u can get it i use a hot air gun that you would use to strip wallpaper, stick it in the filler neck and let it warm the tank thru til it dries. hook all the fuel lines etc up fill her up give it a bleed and away u go

[Billy]

just cange the fuel filter, fuel lines seldom get blocked its always the filter.

[arbwork]

put 'diesel algae' into search engine