Reconditioning vintage gas tank

Hi. I just fixed up my father in law's old Clinton J9 outboard. We brought the original steel fuel tank home to drain and mix some fresh fuel and I ran into a few problems.

1. What was supposed to be fuel was brown, no "gasoline burn" on the skin, and the smell won't wash away.
2. The hose and primer bulb were full of chunks of hard stuff, varnish or rust?
3. The bottom of the tank has about an inch of brown, chunky stuff.

I removed the fuel line and primer, removed the fuel pump connector, removed the cap and cleaned all those bits. I know I need to pull the pickup tube out of the tank and clean it, but the bigger issue is how to clean the sludge from the tank and then remove all traces of whatever I use to clean it before adding some fuel.

What is a safe and effective way to clean a steel fuel tank?

I would REPLACE all of the soft parts, clean the hard parts, and then reassemble the hose portion after the tank is cleaned...

How to do it - I'd be inclined to flush it out as best as you can and then get it hot tanked (machine shop or radiator shop locally).

IF thats not viable, you tube is probably a good place to start...in the old days, we would use a solvent and some pebbles with some agitation and then purge....and repeat a few time...but that would be frowned upon nowadays...

You could also check with a local fuel cleaning (fuel polisher) outfit.

IF thats not viable, you tube is probably a good place to start...in the old days, we would use a solvent and some pebbles with some agitation and then purge....and repeat a few time...but that would be frowned upon nowadays...

Click to expand...

Ayuh,..... That's the one good thing ethanol is great for,.... dissolving old gas deposits,....

I've done this with a handful of nuts/ bolts, 'n dump the residue into waste oil containers,....