Carrerea Oil Tank Flush prior to reinstall of rebuilt engine

[bcheney]

Is it just a good practice to remove the oil tank to fully drain and flush it prior to reinstalling a rebuilt engine? What would you use to flush it? No metal was found in the case upon tear down. Just want to know if this is good insurance. The engine had 200K miles at teardown. I am not sure about oil flow and seem to think that oil could travel back into the tank without passing through the filter. Let me know your thoughts!

[E Sully]

You may want to flush it with mineral spirits. Oil filters have a bypass built into them, so oil can pass through without going through the filter.

[bcheney]

So no need to take it out of the coachwork...just pour some mineral spirits into the tank and let it drain out?

[Steam Driver]

Don't do this too soon before using it. I throroughly cleaned a 914-6 tank once and by the time I got around to using it condensation and residual engine acids had rusted it beyond use. Fortunately I considered this before hooking it up to the engine and checked that out. The tank was toast.

Better to leave things oily until ready for them.