Rust inside Jerry gas cans?

[milehi]

I have the chance to buy several Jerry cans for next to nothing. I'd be using them for gas storage. The cans have a slight bit of rust on the inside but for the most part are clean. Is there a way to treat the rust? Do I even need to bother? What about later filtering the gas? Thanks.

[Dogman]

I have used bb's Lots of them and also lead shot to help remove rust out of gas cans. Pore the shot/bb's into the tank and shake like hell with a little water, drain the water and replace and keep doing that until the water starts to clean up, for small tanks it is not so bad but big ones that takes a lot of shaking them. Then I epoxy coat the inside.

If you know someone that has a bead blaster or sandblaster, if you are careful you can knock off the very worst of the rust, then epoxy coat them.

This has worked for me in the past. There may be something that is cheaper for the inside coating available.

You may get away with knocking the really bad stuff out and then coat and not worry much about the rest and let the coating seal the rust in place.

No matter what it will take some work to clean them up enough so they can be used for clean fuel.

This is my dos pesos worth.

[slowbell]

what about taking a pressure washer to the inside of the can? A quick blast with a pressure washer would probably get most of the rust, if not all. As long as the rust is removed, and the can is full of gas, it will not continue to rust.

[palani]

I have never had a problem burning tea colored gas.

Caterpillar experimented with an internal combustion engine that ran on coal dust.

[zap]

How bout using some diesel and BB s to clean the can then they should be clean enough to stor gas in in the can ?

[Dogman]

How bout using some diesel and BB s to clean the can then they should be clean enough to stor gas in in the can ? That would work, the times I cleaned out rust I had no diesel. So used water and then used compressed air to dry them out. Also when I can, I try to avoid getting diesel on my stuff. Good stuff to find hairline cracks in things besides engines.

[zap]

I don"t know much, but I think the oily diesel helps make the can good again. ?

[Dogman]

I don"t know much, but I think the oily diesel helps make the can good again. ? I would think so, but I still would seal the insides with some kind of coating. Micro particles of rust can and will play hell with carbs and injectors.

[hoarder]

I would think so, but I still would seal the insides with some kind of coating. Micro particles of rust can and will play hell with carbs and injectors.Not unless they get past the fuel filter. It's common for gas tanks to have all sorts of crap in the bottom.

[milehi]

I don"t know much, but I think the oily diesel helps make the can good again. ?

Like seasoning cast iron. Ha ha.

[milehi]

I picked up seven cans with the metal tops for 20 bucks. I think I'm going to slosh each tank with diesel, change out the cap seals and fill them with red dye that I can get for barter. Then tape a .5 micron filter to the side of each tank sealed in a zip lok bag and call it a day. Thanks.