Oil Tank Cleaning

hot66 · Post by **hot66** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:06 pm

Anyone recommend the best way of cleaning out a 911 oil tank? ( it is removed from the car )

stuby · Post by **stuby** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:26 pm

I gave mine a good long soak in parts cleaning solution, totally immersed for a couple of days... appeared to do the trick, should have seen the colour of the solution when it was swilled out..... (incidentally the tank I bought was supposed to have been cleaned already !!)

HTH
Stu

Alan @ CanfordClassics · Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:12 am

Hi James,

In the past I have had mine stripped and e-coated.

HTH

Alan

58A - 71E · Post by **58A - 71E** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:44 am

Funnily enough mine is out of the car at the moment too (along with everything else

) - I've had my 71 tank stripped and powder coated (brilliant refernce pic Alan, I have that in my favourites)

I pick it up (and the engine oil cooler) from the ultrasonic cleaners tomorrow - the guy assures me it will rinse and clean everything out, they aren't exactly around the corner from you (Dewsbury) but this is their website http://www.sonicsolutionsltd.com/ will post results tomorrow once I've had a look at it, BTW he quoted no more than £70 to do both

It came up quite well after a lick of powder

58A - 71E · Post by **58A - 71E** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:07 pm

I picked the oil cooler and tank up today, charged £50 to do both

Cant believe how clean everything is, the oil cooler was really bad, black infact - and that was jus the outside - the guy who cleaned them (Andrew) said there was loads of sh*tty crud in the cooler, but no metal

Tried to show inside but my camera skills arent up to much

Best result though was the oil tank

It is spotless inside

(the little black bits are overspray) Quite a lot of swarf-like metal shards came out - bits of piston and timing gear no doubt - but I feel a lot more reassured about putting it back into the car following my valve failure (and ensuing carnage) - excuse the poor quality pic, for some reason everything has a red glow but it is actually nice and shiny black
The reason I chose ultrasonic as there is continuous flow through the tank, whilst agitating at the same time, gets rid of the crud better than just a parts washer i reckon

hot66 · Post by **hot66** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:29 pm

very nice James

it didn't remove the paint or any coatings did it ? Eg I just want the internals washing out without damage to the copper coating

MdR · Post by **MdR** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:36 pm

I used brake cleaner, a hot wash pressure washed with detergent, hot wash pressure washed without detergent then left it in the airing cupboard for about a week.
Sonja was most pleased but it worked well ...

58A - 71E · Post by **58A - 71E** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:40 pm

hot66 wrote:very nice James

it didn't remove the paint or any coatings did it ? Eg I just want the internals washing out without damage to the copper coating

I had just had the oil tank powder coated and its still perfect

Andrew did say that he's done a few porsche parts before, he uses what he calls a "gentle" detergent for such applications, nothing removed except the crud

hot66 · Post by **hot66** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:47 pm

my new tank really just needs a 'rinse' as its come straight off an immaculate car ( the only reason was a 'correct' '73 tank was being fitted) .

My Old tank though is starting to rust on the inside

so could do with a good clean & an internal re-plate

gav p · Post by **gav p** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:31 am

hot66 wrote: My Old tank though is starting to rust on the inside so could do with a good clean & an internal re-plate

I have this problem, internal tank flaking. James - have you investigated how/where the internal surfaces could be restored? I know Alan D has used e-coating. Any other ideas?

Cheers..
Gav

hot66 · Post by **hot66** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:52 am

I have my oil tank out of the car at the moment but I have not really looked as to where the rusty areas are. It appears the inner end of the filler neck is rusty & I imagine the inside of the top of the tank is to.

I think it looks like the copper coating has been eroded over time.

I'm fitting a later tank for the time being but plan on getting mine restored.

My plans are to try & restore using the original finish, which I gather is a copper plated finish on top of the mild steel tank. Maybe some 'radiator' specialist might be suitable for this??

I've been told NOT to use anything like the POR 15 tank sealant etc etc.

No idea about e-coating .... is it resistant enough ?

I'll be posting a How-to on the removal / replacement of the tank when I've completed the job

Alan @ CanfordClassics · Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:55 pm

Hi,

I have several fuel and oil tanks in use that have been e-coated all with no problems.

Thanks

Alan

gav p · Post by **gav p** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:35 pm

I have pics of my internal tank corrosion on Pelican just now (can't post pics on DDK as photobucket is blocked at work!!)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthre ... ost3839272

Also, if anyone's ever wondered what's inside a 911 oil tank, there's some good pictures here:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?t=393526

This definitely puts me off the idea of some types of internal coatings! Maybe E-coating is the safe alternative then.

I approached a platers regarding acid stripping and re-plating in copper, but they were not happy that they could flush out any debris from the cleaning/plating process to a reliable enough degree for use in an oil circulation system. Copper plating would still be my favoured solution though. They suggested that the tank parts may originally have been plated before assembly.

If anyone has a later tank for sale then let me know. I'm looking for a spare to use on the car for now.

hot66 · Post by **hot66** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 11:20 pm

Gav, my Tank rusted in the same place .. the filler neck. Rest of the tank seems fine,