Rinsing an oil tank

Hi there,

Any suggestions for getting the ancient dark goo out of my oil tank. It comes from a mystery bike and for some reason I gave it a lovely paint job before cleaning it out?!
There is a lovely mixture of gold and silver flakes mixed in a gritty sludge!
Gas? dunk degreaser? Foaming engine cleaner....?

Not a major tech question, but I thought I'd run it past you guys.

Thanks,

had the same problem. used kerosine first to clean the tank then palmolive dish soap. squirt some in add a little hot water, let it sit for a few minutes then hose it out. the dish soap took care of the gunk best of all.

Thanks, what they sell up here as dunk degreaser is basically kerosene...

So I've got a jug ready to go.

I was amazed at how truly nasty and gritty (feels like sand) the contents of the tank were - I would hate to think what happened to that engine - an ebay special no doubt.

Phil

I ended up placing a hand full of nuts in my Trident oil tank and GENTLY swirling them around with diesel, to eliminate the "concrete " sludge that had settled in the oil tank! I then flushed it out several times..

I recently pullled the oil tank out of the Commando and was amazed to find that so much sediment had settled in the tank, as it has only some 3000 miles on it since rebuilding the bike some time back ..

I used the same method !

Hi Stuart,

The oil tank should not have accumulated “sediment” in only 3,000 miles. Was the crankshaft disassembled and the sludge trap cleaned out during the rebuild?

Jason

Hi Jason

I would not say ~ or perhaps use the word sediment in this case.. as compared to the Trident ...

I was surprised at the amount of "sludge' ~ well .. not even .. heavy deposit buildups..

The Trident was a right bit of horror , but then it had 12,000 on it at the time and I would not be surprised as to whether the tank had never been checked..

As for the Commando after <3,000 mls> .. I could not say whether the crank was serviced as it were.. but then being a cynic thru personal experiences .. as I "farmed ' the engine rebuild out.. and ~ Nothing would surprise me about trade ethics..