Use of molasses to kill rust yes it works !

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 7:00 am

The use of molasses to remove rust goes
Way back..

I decided to trial a few things before adding
It to the fuel tank to remove what rust is living in there at the
present time .

Using a one to five ratio (one part molasses five parts warm water)
I proceeded to add some parts of the bike and some other items to test it out
Such as a pair of Australian ww2 wire cutters and the lid of my wife's
Chinese candle holder..

I'll post daily results

The good things about molasses is..

It's safe
It's cheap .. Cost me $2.50 for two litres
It's able to be thrown on the garden or tipped
Down the sink afterwards .

Here's some before shots .. Stay tuned.

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 9:47 am

You make me curious Mike,and I am looking forward to see the picture`s

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:34 pm

I have been using molasses to derust parts for years. It takes time, but it works. As an example:

Before Molasses:

During Molasses:

After Molasses:

Steve

Twinstar Joined: Jul 24, 2012 Posts: 97 Location: uk

Presumably there is no harm to paint? How long to leave it?
Thanks

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 3:02 pm

How do you stop it from rusting afterwards?

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 4:19 pm

No harm to paint, but DO NOT USE ON ALUMINUM!!! Remove petcock first! Length of time depends on thickness of rust, percentage of molasses vs. water (no hard and fast rules), temperature..... The tank in the pictures took about 2 months. Not a weekend project.

As far as stopping continued rust, I flushed with water til clean. This actually takes quite a bit of flushing. I then threw some baking soda in and rinsed again, drained, dried, and coated with motor oil. I now keep the tank filled with gas. Going on 4 years and no further rust.

Steve

Twinstar Joined: Jul 24, 2012 Posts: 97 Location: uk

Thanks Steve I'll try it out. I did the POR 15 about a year ago and it was a real pain in the butt. I'm quite surprised about the lack of subsequent rust, I thought that was the whole issue with the modern fuel, that it allowed moisture collection and hence rust. Will give it a go cheers

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 7:46 pm

The ethanol brings up another point with this - I religiously use the non-ethanol 91 octane, which has become readily available around here. If I am away from home and can't find it, then no big deal, because by the time I get back the tank is close enough to empty and I refill here with the non-ethanol. Those couple of hours/days won't matter.

Back to molasses!!

Steve

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 7:16 pm

molasses? that's new to me. I'll have to write that down next to using Pine-Sol to clean carbs.

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 7:58 pm

Hi Kiwi. Love your posts and contribution to the forum, but unfortunately I find your posts difficult to read as you seem to have a habit or a setting that causes your sentence to stop mid sentence and restart with a capital on the next line. No biggie but it spoils the continuity of your sentences and like I said makes it difficult to read. Your obviously no dummy going by your great work you've done on your bikes but I your post don't help give that impression.

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 8:52 pm

Chooky wrote:

Hi Kiwi. Love your posts and contribution to the forum, but unfortunately I find your posts difficult to read as you seem to have a habit or a setting that causes your sentence to stop mid sentence and restart with a capital on the next line. No biggie but it spoils the continuity of your sentences and like I said makes it difficult to read. Your obviously no dummy going by your great work you've done on your bikes but I your post don't help give that impression.

Thanks Chooky

Thanks for pointing that out.most of my posts
are made on my phone and as you can imagine the text is very small and I just realised that what I have been doing is as the screen is only 40mm wide when I get to the end I hit return.that is why the sentences are cut short .. also the phone automatically goes to capitals when you hit return,maybe I can change that in settings.also as I read the forum in my phone my own posts look ok because of the screen size thing.

So thank you for letting me know !

Mike

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:00 pm

There you go, a perfectly reasonable explanation. Your better than I am, I'd never look at the forum if I only had a phone. It drives me nuts! I suppose I'll just have to be glad you have auto correct disabled, now that would screw things up.

Cheers.

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:48 am

I used 3 gallons of water with 1 gallon of molasses that i got at the Farm Supply and Feed store on a gas tank.
In a week it removed rust, sludge and the top half of the petcock. Tried it later on a Kreem lined tank and it did not have any affect on removing the liner.
Used it all summer on a number of parts and then dumped it in the garden compost.

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:54 am

A day and a half later it's already looking promising.without wiping off the dirty layer completely I can see great results already .I used one litre of molasses to about five litres of water which has a temperature of about 25 degrees centigrade In Fahrenheit 77.

I used one litre of molasses to about five litres of water which has a temperature of about 25 degrees centigrade . In Fahrenheit 77

More results coming up soon

ps: now im back on the home computer ill be able to do a better job on my posts and get the before and after shots side by side.

Mike

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 6:46 am

It works very well if you have the patience to give it time to work. I purchased a 5 gallon pail at the local horse feed store. I still have lots left Smile

Best,
Phil

Twinstar Joined: Jul 24, 2012 Posts: 97 Location: uk

All looks great. I'm interested in this technique as I've gone down the route of painting the outside first without removing the rust inside first. I was rather worried about damaging the fresh paint with the more aggresive systems so now I don't need to worry!
Thanks everyone.

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 3:17 am

One day after the last photos posted and the results are getting better.this method works well if your not in a hurry and plan ahead.
I easily cleaned of what residue was on the brace with a plastic polypad like you would use in your kitchen.

Mike

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 3:29 am

slightly more results after a gentle hosing

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 5:47 am

Amazing stuff Mike, that pineapple came out like new Razz

I never gave that a thought when doing my tanks. I guess I still would have had to line them though?

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 6:43 am

Dobbo wrote:

Amazing stuff Mike, that pineapple came out like new Razz

I never gave that a thought when doing my tanks. I guess I still would have had to line them though?

G'day Dobbo
Yeah it used to be in a rusty can !
That's just one in the garden that didn't get enough water.
Not sure about lining ranks as I havnt got into that part yet.keen to find out though.

Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2014 5:57 am

Well after an extra five days and nine in total (seven was likely enough) i finally pulled out the fender brace-bracket and it looks pretty good to me ! also a light treatment of lanotec to prevent the surface rust kicking in.
i probably didnt need the ultrasonics after all but it was a bit of an experiment and the basket had spare room in it anyway so it didnt cost any extra.

Being that im not in a hurry for certain parts to be treated this method works out cheap and effective as well as non toxic..too bad the molasses didnt get turned into rum !

thanks for everyones interest.

Mike

Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2014 4:18 am

If anyone in the So.Cal area wants to try it out, I have about 4 gallons left Smile

Best,
Phil

Twinstar Joined: Jul 24, 2012 Posts: 97 Location: uk

Just about to order my molasses(they don't sell them locally) and I find there are various sorts. Sugar cane and sugar beet to name but two. Which are the sort to look for to clean my tank
Many thanks

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 9:08 pm

G'day Jonathan
I used the cane variety as cane sugar is grown in our region. I'm not sure about the sugar beet molasses but it might be worth trying both .

Mike

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 9:15 pm

After a bit more time in the bucket my wife's Chinese lantern thing which was in the too hard basket has now been coated with penetrol and two top coats of vht caliper paint..