Probably a dumb gas tank question but....

Ok I searched the formums and can't find anything so I'll ask you guys.
I have an '80 xj650. I want to COMPLETLY empty the gas so I can clean and coat the tank. I've removed the petcock and poured the gas out of the fill opening as well. I just can't get that last bit of gas out! Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

Take it outdoors, put your shop-vac hose on the EXHAUST output of the vac, and the other end of the hose in the tank filler and let it run for awhile.....

OR - throw a match in and run like H*** LOL!!

 

Oh - and by the way - there are no dumb questions. This site is here to answer all your questions and none of them are considered dumb. How else would you learn or know??

Good luck with the tank!

 

Gas evaporates really quickly. I usually let it sit overnight and it's dry in the morning.

Oh and nedder is absolutely correct. No dumb questions -- especially when there's something as explosive as gas involved. Remember that a gallon of it has enough potential energy in it to move a two ton car 30 miles!

 

If your gonna do the vacum thing, which isn't a bad idea, rinse the gas out of the tank with water, dump as much water out as possible and then suck the rest of that out with the vacum. This way you vacum isn't sucking and blowing gas fumes around which belive it or not is actually pretty dangerous.

 

I agree with geebake set it outside in the sun with the cap open and it should evaporate fairly quick, or if you have a compressor and an airhose blow into it until it evaporates blowing with air leaves no danger of explosions

 

Thanks for the input guys. That should work out pretty well... the match throwing part anyway! LOL

 

We would dry (after we depuddled) our fuel cells on the aircraft by venting with pressurized air for 24 hours. Noisy but non-destructive and no ignition sources.

 

I recently coated the tank on the Seca.

I drained out has much gas as I could and then ran water through the tank for about ten minutes until the gas smell was gone. After that I drained out the water as best I could and set it in the sun for a day. The next day I made sure it was completely dry by blowing hot air into the tank with a blow dryer.

That tank was bone dry when I was done.