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varnish and rust...

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    varnish and rust...

    OK, so lots of people have had problems with KREEM, but not having any serious corrosion in my tank, I went down to the local bike shop. The main problem was varnish in the tank, and I asked if I could just install a good inline filter and let the new gas slowly dissolve the varnish. He suggested using the KREEM tank prep, without putting a liner in after ($15). I used it, and lo and behold, watched varnish disappear before my eyes. While waiting for it to sit (I let it go overnight, just in case), I looked at the package and realized that KREEM tank prep is simply a medium jug of rather concentrated phosphoric acid and a small bottle of "methyl ethyl ketone," which for non-chem buffs is just a molecule with one more carbon atom than acetone. So, having messed up the first time (when it says rinse with the ketone immediately after rinsing out the acid, do it within a minute, I got some flash rust right away) I'm now going out to the garage to open up a bottle I already have of muriatic acid (rather concentrated hydrochloric acid.. will do the same thing), dilute 1/10 or so, let that sit in the tank for a little bit, rinse it quickly with water, and rinse with actone to draw out the water and stop any rust from forming. Knowing chemistry often helps avoid paying $15 for simple chemicals with a brand name.

    #2
    Other sources of useful acids lik ethis:

    Phosphoric Acid: Procelin cleaners from plumbing supply stores. (Also Boric Acid in some brands. read the active ingredient) Good tank cleaners, should also be excellent for etching metal for painting. Rinse with Acetone or MEK-P(Methyl-Ethyl-Ketone-Peroxide, used to set fiberglass resin) after washing.

    Flouric Acid: Glass etcher found in big hobby stores or glass specialty stores. (Very good for frosting the edges of a glass windcreen. Also, neat trick: Tape off a section of glass, and make a negative image of whatever you want with crayon, I did a stencil of Kawasaki on my KZ's old Harley screen. Brush with the Flouric acid and let sit a while. Wash it off, removing tape and crayon and you now have a frosted design. I have not tried, but suspect it would not be good to use on Plexiglass.

    Sulfuric Acid: Industrial pipe clog remover, plumbing supply stores. (Very very strong, be extra special careful witht is!!)

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