71 911 E oil tank..how to clean?

[mhurwitz]

I’m going to be cleaning 40+ years of muck off my oil tank. What is the best way to thoroughly clean inside and out. I would prefer to do it at home.

[manbridge 74]

Since nothing is really fragile about these maybe consider a radiator shop to do a light boil out. Here, I would clean it in a parts washer, then steam pressure wash, then into the ultrasonic tank. The rubber gasket piece is easily replaced.

[Targalid]

I have used diesel fuel in a spray bottle to loosen the gunk on the outside of the tank, then steam clean with my home steam cleaner. I think a pressure washer would work equally well. For the inside I slosh gasoline, a quart or so at a time, then pour it out into a container. When it comes out clear I am done. Then air dry in the sun outside. To finish, I sanded off any loose paint to bare metal and painted with trusty Rustoleum Black.

[Trackrash]

I used a short length of chain inside my tank with the gas. When sloshing it around it loosened a bunch of crud.

[Solamar]

Just keep in mind that the oil in the tank, and any unwanted debris, goes straight to your main bearings un-filtered. The filtering is done on the return trip to the oil tank.

You want the inside of that tank to be very clean...

[mhurwitz]

Thank you so much for all the suggestions

[mhurwitz]

The chain and gasoline worked great!