Alcohol or paint thinner?

[MikeZcar]

Going to trailer my new (to me) Black Pearl home on Saturday, dormant since '87. When it was stored the tank was topped off and of course it's all evaporated now. Thinking of throwing either a gallon of denatured alcohol or a gallon of paint thinner in the tank with 2 or 3 gallons of gas for the bouncy trailer ride home to help get the "goo" broken up. Thoughts on which one to pick?

Mike

[Nissanman]

Click me, click me:nervous:

[Bonzi Lon]

I tried the gasoline first but it wouldn't cut the varnish like the gallon of laquer thinner did. It was suggested to use MEK (meythel-ethel-keetone) but none was available on short notice. I poured everthing in a can and let the thinner evaporate to come up with about a cup of goo, took to car wash 3 times, between applications of thinner, then relined the tank, as per instructions.

Bonzi Lon

[xray]

I would suggest doing nothing until the car is home. Gas tank work can be dangerous, especially when mixing a bunch of flammable stuff together as you suggested. MEK is what my radiator/gas tank repair shop said they used to clean the inside of my tank. It may cost some $ to let pros handle the job, but it's better than dying, or worse suffering severe burns/injury and the debilitation that comes with it.

Be careful.

[sblake01]

Besides, once you shake up the 'goo', it's still 'goo' and it's not comming out of the tank that easily, not all of it. Sure, the stuff that will reach the drain hole or the filler neck/sender holes when you turn it upside down will come out but the stuff that stays inside the baffles, nooks/crannies won't. BTDT. It will still have to be professionally cleaned and those guys, or at least, the one I took mine too, know what they're doing. My car had sat for five years and the tank was toast. I tried pouring different things in it to clean it out but it didn't really work. I had that thing off 3 or 4 times attempting to clean and rinse it out. I finally bought a tank from a running 77 but I still had it profesionally cleaned. No probs since. That was over ten years ago.

[MikeZcar]

Sometimes the best action is no action, I'll just wait till I can pull the tank and take it to someone who really enjoys that kind of stuff. Thanks for the replies, Mike