How to Clean your LJ-10/20 Fuel tank and recoat it

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nickademusss
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How to Clean your LJ-10/20 Fuel tank and recoat it

Post by nickademusss »

I thought I would write this out wile it was still fresh in my memory.
My fuel tank like allot of LJ's was rusty inside. So bad that after some ruff driving the flakes of rust would stop up the fuel intake. This problem was made worse by the fact that their was a dent in my tank right under the fuel intake, further reducing the opening.

First lets remove the tank, drain the tank by removing the drain plug, or pump it out if the drain is stuck.

you will need to remove the filler neck bolts and the small bracket that also holds part of the right rear mudflap on.
you may want to soak these screws with penetrating oil as they will have seen some rust.

Then you can loosen the band clamp on the rubber hose from the gas lid to the filler spout. After that take out the three bolts that hold the tank itself on and as the tank is lowered you can unplug the fuel sending unit wire and the vent hoses.

That all their is to removing the tank!

Next remove the fuel sending unit by taking out the Philips head screws, you will want to soak these in penetrating oil as well.

I chose the POR-15 tank cleaning kit, it came with a cleaner, a acid bath, and a tank sealer. Your kit may differ so read its instructions carefully. The first step with POR-15 is to flush the tank with water. After doing this I looked inside and saw how bad the rust was.

The instructions say to use duck tape to seal the holes up on the tank, but because I was going to add a step of putting small gravels inside the tank to shake and knock the rust loose, I made a plastic cover for the sending unit hole.
I also used zip ties and rubber gloves to cover up the the other holes.
After putting in a couple of pounds of small 1/4" to 1/2" gravel I began shaking the tank from side to side and up and down in all directions, its a good workout and very noisy. This got allot of the scale out, and after pouring out as much as I could I used my shop vac to do the rest. Follow this by more water to flush the dust out.

The POR-15 cleaner was added and the tank sealed again, this step is only 20 min, of sloshing it around with some warm water.

Next you rinse out the tank again, getting all of the cleaner out, next its time to add the tank rust treatment and a little warm water. seal the tank up again and slosh for a little bit, then let it rest for 30 minutes on each side. Then you pour it out and rinse again.

The next step is very important you must dry the inside of the tank, TOTALLY.
I done his by sitting the tank on top of a space heater and when it was hot, I used my shop vac hooked up to the spout and pulled air thew it for a few minutes. It was bone dry now.

I would take the time now to make sure your fuel inlet inside the tank is clear and has at least 1/16" clearance in-between it and the fuel tank, mine didn't because of the dent. I hammered the dent out and blew air threw the lines to make sure they are clear.

The last step is to coat the inside of the tank, the POR-15 sealer was poured in and the tank was sealed again. it was sloshed around and was allowed to settle on each side for 20 min. Then it was poured out and allowed to drain over a cardboard box. I also used my air compressor to blow all the smaller lines down to make sure they didn't have any sealer in them.

After it cures, about 4 days for POR-15 you can reassemble. I also took the opportunity to repaint the outside of the tank. If your tank was rusted threw the POR-15 kit came with some fiber cloth to patch the holes. using the tank sealer as a glue. If your tank was in that bad of shape be sure to leak test it fully before installing. I would hook it up to an air source and spray it with soapy water and look for bubbles.
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Re: How to Clean your LJ-10/20 Fuel tank and recoat it

Post by zukimoo »

you were lucky you had enough tank left.....both my LJ and my 413K had nothing left and I ran gas jugs in both. Used a stock 413 tank for the 413K but had to get a custom tank for the LJ80. didn't make the vent big enough so it's hard to fill.
81 LJ80, 3500lbs winch, 1.0 HO, 1000cc's of pure power....brap...listen to her go

Mods 2 come
-Lockrite in the back, -spring over done right and complete,-cross over steering,-seats,-6000lbs +- winch on front,-3500lbs winch ,moved to back,-highlift jack
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Re: How to Clean your LJ-10/20 Fuel tank and recoat it

Post by SuzukiTom »

Great job!

You can use a piece of speedometer cable to run through the fuel pickup line to knock anything loose that may be plugging that up too.

Sounds like the instructions are pretty much the same as the ones that came with the KBS coating I used.

Tom
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nickademusss
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Re: How to Clean your LJ-10/20 Fuel tank and recoat it

Post by nickademusss »

Thanks Tom, I has some flex tubing left over from the choke replacement that would work well for cleaning out the tubes as well.

The KBS stuff sounds just like this, Hopefully we wont have to do it again :)
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Re: How to Clean your LJ-10/20 Fuel tank and recoat it

Post by lj20Colorado »

:cool: great work man and never say never u never know how many more suzukis u may get?? :beer: and or have to work on :hammer:
I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I require the same from them. "john wayne 1976"
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Re: How to Clean your LJ-10/20 Fuel tank and recoat it

Post by nickademusss »

lj20Colorado wrote::cool: great work man and never say never u never know how many more Suzuki u may get?? :beer: and or have to work on :hammer:
True, I am scouting for a Samurai as well 8), my welder friend has more than a few of them ready for the trail, a very serious trail, he is looking for one for me. Parts are a little easier to come by, and their are like three shops near me that specialize in hop-ups for them.
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Re: How to Clean your LJ-10/20 Fuel tank and recoat it

Post by Ruby »

nickademusss wrote:
lj20Colorado wrote::cool: great work man and never say never u never know how many more Suzuki u may get?? :beer: and or have to work on :hammer:
True, I am scouting for a Samurai as well 8), my welder friend has more than a few of them ready for the trail, a very serious trail, he is looking for one for me. Parts are a little easier to come by, and their are like three shops near me that specialize in hop-ups for them.
Yes, low range offroad is a great place to deal with, I bought stuff from here.
Revolving door of LJ's, currently down to one LJ 81
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nickademusss
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Re: How to Clean your LJ-10/20 Fuel tank and recoat it

Post by nickademusss »

My friend seems to like them and he is a hard person to please, I will keep an eye out for a samy, One that needs some TLC
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Re: How to Clean your LJ-10/20 Fuel tank and recoat it

Post by Tommy g »

Used Bill Hirsch Gas tank sealer on my lj20 gas tank. It worked good, there was a lot of pooling and some places and it didn't look pretty but once it dried it was not peeling off, and no one looks inside a gas tank anyways! I have read a lot of bad reviews on the Kreem brand, I even have an old yamaha dt175 that someone used kreem on, and its peeling of like nothing. Another brand that works well is red kote, my buddy used it on his minibike gas tank and it looks great, i read on some forums that for some people it has already lasted 20 years.
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