Dave,
Hope you don't mind but I shared your write up on tank cleaning in the tech section with a guy on the Volusia forum. He picked up a 72 Suzuki 125 and was thinking about using hydrochloric acid. Nice write up and thanks.

Good hunting

Phosphoric turns iron oxide into iron phosphate, It only works on a single layer of rust. If the rust is a flake, sitting in a pit, the upper level will react & shield the lower part from the acid.So, if the rust is more developed than a single layer, gotsta rattle something around in there to beat it down, then slosh the juice in it,.It Used to be called Ospho ( dont get the gel)but now, the name is changed, same jug,. same stuff & LO & Be Hold,, it actually costs LESS! Get it at Kelley Moore for around $6.00 a quart. REad the destructions, slosh it, dump it, let it sit, the rinse, but I cant remember how many hours,

another product that works well is The Works toilet bowl cleaner, though it will hurt paint

one fellow I know did this:
put a buch of nuts in the gas tanks and sealed it
put it in the clothes dryer wrapped in a blanket  (use no heat cycle and DON'T do it when your SO is home)
then hit the tank with The Works, then rinse several times, then use the ospho

ToesNose wrote on 01/22/14 at 06:29:08:


Reminds me of the time I snuck a transmission mount into the oven to cure some epoxy rubber I had added (while the wife was away).  At the time I didn't have a heated garage and the rubber epoxy would not cure in the cold garage.  The factory mount was a bit too loose and would go "bump,bump" when the transmission shifted.  Filling up the open areas in the mount snugged it up a bit and solved that problem and made the noise go away.....anyhow.....I had put the mount in the oven at a low temperature and turned the oven off after it reached 200 degrees.....I figured the cool down period was just long enough to cure the rubber well.

My wife came home, and proceeded to cook some Tofu in the oven.....and never even noticed the transmission mount or the strange rubber smell in the house.....and she never commented about the Tofu tasting strange.  I guess she just shoved the tray into the oven and it pushed the mount to the back of the oven.....and she never saw it.

Eck tofu.....I'll take the rubber