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10 year old petrol

Gentlemen,

A friend, (John Southall for those that know him) has hauled his old Ruston out of the shed after sitting there for 10 years with the idea of getting it running and taking it to he odd Rally. Problem is, when he laid it up it had a full tank of fuel (what is he?) and, as you can imagine it is now thick black tar, so thick that it has clogged the tank, drain c*ck tap and pipe with this seemingly unmovable almost solid muck.

Logic says use a solvent of some sort and commercial cellulose thinners spring to mind but had anyone had the problem before? how did you overcome it?

I would appreciate your thoughts

Thanks in advance.

Reply to
Pete Aldous
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Pete,

How are you, get him to tap the contents of his pipe in there and then repaint it :-))

Reply to
campingstoveman

Martin,

Not bad thanks apart from being forced out of work by the bean counters but maybe I will have some time to update the web site.

I will pass on your comments as, yes, the old pipe still gets stoked up regularly.

Reply to
Pete Aldous

Well as the gunk was orginally in petrol pour some fresh in an wait? Sloshing it about occasionally. I'm assuming that this isn't a solid tank full of muck, just a residue.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Thanks Dave, I will ask him tomorrow how bad it is, and go from there.

Cheers

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Reply to
Pete Aldous

I would go with your suggestion cellulose thinners, petrol doesn't tend to dissolve it's own residue, we used to use cellulose thinners when cleaning carbs - when cars still had carbs. Be warned though, cheap ("Gun-wash") thinners contains a lot of water and can thus cause other issues if left to long, the best thinners (actually used for thinning paint) is far better but costs...

Reply to
Jerry

Thanks Jerry,

I went and looked today, 24hrs of soaking in fresh petrol had shifted some so he is going to leave it for week and if it has still not shifted it all, go down the thinners route.

Reply to
Pete Aldous

Reply to
Charles Hamilton

Acetone. I've used it before in this context & it works well.

Reply to
kimsiddorn

Kim, Charles,

Thanks for the info, I will pass it on and see what works.

Pete Aldous

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Reply to
Pete Aldous

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