How to clean fuel tank of 308gtb

Have you changed hoses and filter as well? Cleaning carbs and tanks won't do any good if your lines are gummed up. Carb cleaner should do the trick otherwise.

 

imho:

I had a non-F car that had that problem. really tough to clean. The best thing I found to break down the tar was gasoline. but what to do with the contaminated gas?? I put in some fresh gas and ran it a short while. It ran terrible, but ran. On a Ferrari, I'd try to let some fresh gas sit in there and see if it starts dissolving it. Then drain and take to a hazardous waste site for disposal. Repeat until clean. Replace all fuel lines and filter.

To do carb tuning, you got to get that squeaky clean to start, or you'll drive yourself nuts trying to tune.

 

Full strength acetone is the best thing that I have found to remove old gasoline that has turned to gummy varnish. You can buy it in gallons at the hardware store. I usually remove the tank and put a few gallons in, plug all of the openings and then let it sit in various positions to let the acetone dissolve the deposits. I then slosh it around, pour it out and inspect inside the tank. You may have to repeat this several times to get all of the varnish out.

 

I doubt that paint thinner will do the job. As Motob said, either Acetone or Lacquer thinner would be better.

 

Is it not possable to hit it with a steam cleaner ? Then just leave it out in the sunshine to dry out.

 

IIRC, there was just one baffle in each of the tanks (85 QV). You can use a small mirror and see into the tank. Don't forget the crossover pipe that connects both tanks, and I would replace all fuel lines before I ever considered having a new tank fabricated. That's an awful lot of expense. After owning a body shop I can tell you there isn't much that lacquer thinner won't take off. I would dump a gallon of it in each tank and agitate it every time I walked by them and let it soak for two or three days. I believe acetone just isn't hot enough. After which I would concentrate on pieces after the tank.

 

Those aluminum tanks were actually carefully designed and made of a very malleable grade to survive crushing in an accident. They can crush like a beer can and not lose a drop. Constructing new tanks from a different material is a bad idea and subjects you and any passenger to the possibility of a catastrophic fire.

Just do a good job cleaning the ones you have.

 

I wonder if there might be a benefit in using a section of chain mail like is used for cast iron cookware cleaning, as something to scrub the inside of the tank while sloshing the cleaner/fuel around in it?

I recently picked up a fiber optic camera to inspect a mortorcycle gas tank, after having to clean a mess out of it. I would suggest use of one to thoroughly examine the tanks before a more expensive decision of replacing them is arrived at.

 

I have seen small round stones put in a motorbike tank with a cleaner and just adjutated around

 

Send them out to a pro and get it done right. Stop messing around.

 

Duh. There you go again. Then he'd have to quit wasting time and spend a few dollars.

Been doing this 40 years and I have yet to clean a gas tank. There are people set up to do that and it's not very expensive. Complete and total waste of my time.