Pressurized fuel tank questions

[jarheaddoc]

I purchased two pressure tanks today at a yard sale, both with connectors. Both tanks are in the usual barn find ‘they worked when they were stored’ condition. My questions are:

1) How to clean the inside using an anode and Borax. I did this once per instructions from this site but that was many, many moons ago.

2) How to pressure test them: no sense doing anything else to them until I know they don’t leak.

3) Guesstimate on age: both have the metal priming mechanism, not the plastic push button. The 6 gal. has ‘Rude logo Cruise-A-Day markings and the 4 gal. is a Johnson Milemaster.

Thanks in advance.

[aquasonic]

Both tanks have aluminum primer buttons so that makes them 1956 or earlier. Evinrude had the same six gallon tank from 1953-1956, and there are lots of them around. The four gallon Johnson tank could be a 1953-1955, or a 1956. The main difference between them being that the 1953-1955 has the words “Mile Master” in white, whereas the 1956 has the words “Mile Master” in red with a white backround.

Here’s a website to see exactly what they look like: http://www.nymarine.ca/index.html

All of these tanks need to be rebuilt, and especially if they got stored with fuel mix in them for years or decades. The tank could be perfect, and still not hold pressure because of a leaky o-ring, top gasket, crack in the hose, or leaky top mounting screw seals. I would rather focus on getting the tops off and the tanks clean, so you can really assess the condition. Probably more important to pressure test after the rebuild.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by aquasonic.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by aquasonic.

[jarheaddoc]

I did not have much of a chance to look them over yesterday beyond seeing them for the connectors.

I don’t want to be throwing good money after a bad tank and I have to invest a certain amount in the tank to find out if it’s good. One of the tanks has fuel mix in it. I look at these tanks the same way I look at a barn find OMC with old coils: a certain amount of work is going to be needed to get things up and running.

I am open to any advice/input/suggestions on how to go about rebuilding these tanks. It has been quite some time since I did one.

Thanks

[outbdnut2]

The O-rings just inside the connectors are likely hardened too much to adequately seal when plugged into the motor. One of our members makes a tool for $30 that works super-slick for taking these apart to replace the O-rings. Here’s a link to it:
Dave

https://richardsoutboardtools.com/fuel-connector-repair

[seakaye12]

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