rehabilitating fuel tank

[rockcrawler31]

my fuel tank has been out of the car and sitting outside (with all the pipes sealed up) for at least six months with only a couple of litres in it. Before it goes into the car i'd like to clean out any gunk, algae and water content. can anyone recommend a process to do this? is there a particular algacide i should use or will plain ol bleach kill it all.

i was going to drain the remaining fuel, then chuck in a litre or two of bleach and swish it round, then drain it then fill with 4 litres or so of metho and do the same to get rid of the condensation and bleach, then fill with 10 litres of diesel and drain again before refilling properly. Any reason this wont work or will damage anything?

[chimpboy]

Bleach may adversely affect the metal. So I wouldn't do that.

Surely algae is not going to survive putting fuel in there, so I would be more inclined to swish that around inside.

[rockcrawler31]

i'm only going on the comments made in other thread (particularly biodiesel threads) regarding algae that can build up in diesel tanks, as well as particulates, rust, grit etc.

[RockyF75]

I'd put a few liters of petrol in it, and swish it around, drain, and repeat. The on the first tank of diesel used I'd throw in some of that fuel conditioner, helps get rid of any remaining traces of algae, water, and possibly some other stuff IIRC.

Thats just what I'd do. No scientific reasons to back it up, but petrol's pretty good at cleaning crap and a little bit left over wont hurt a diesel.

Bleach on the other hand, sounds risky

[want33s]

I'd drain it, add 5 or so litres of diesel and several handfuls of sharp blue metal gravel 5-8mm screened and shake vigorously.
Rinse with more diesel.
This will remove any scale or rust and gravel is easy enough to remove (and won't clog anything if you don't quite get it all out) .
Works brilliantly on motorcycle fuel tanks that are a bit rusty inside.

[Wish I had coils]

I'd drain it, add 5 or so litres of diesel and several handfuls of sharp blue metal gravel 5-8mm screened and shake vigorously.
Rinse with more diesel.
This will remove any scale or rust and gravel is easy enough to remove (and won't clog anything if you don't quite get it all out) .
Works brilliantly on motorcycle fuel tanks that are a bit rusty inside.

i'm liking that idea, Sounds like it works a treat