Sacrificial metal in the gas tank ?

[The Buddha]

OK so they keep steel ships from rusting by using a sacrificial metal and it wont work on most anything in the bike or on a car cos there is not a conductive medium between the base metal and sacrificial metal ...

But in a gas tank we would, now that there is alcohol in fuel, which will take in water ... essentially we have a conductor so we could use a hunk of zinc and it will be protecting the tank, once in a while we may need to replace it, so we should probably suspend it making contact with the tank and have the means to pull it out.

Anyone thought of this ?

Cool.
Buddha.

[Yuri.]

As it will become corroded if it's inside the tank it will contaminate the gas.
And on the outside it shouldn't be conductive unless the protective layer is already gone somewhere.

[The Buddha]

Inside is what I thought, it will contaminate gas but every once in a while we fish it out and rinse it off and put it back, it sould be some type of labrynth type material, like a radiator core wrapped in a fine mesh, the goal is to keep the steel from rusting, if it starts to get the carbs dirty take it off and clean it.
See I am sick of dealing with all the fools selling coating products ... apply over rust, remove rust but flash rust is fine, rotate the tank and drain the excess and toss it, what garbage, have these people ever removed and looked @ a motorcycle gas tank. I have so far come across 2 gas tanks that drain 100%, 1 eas a GS tank I put a drain tube in on the top, the second was a 1981 xs650 tank. That was it, some idiotic honda tanks keep over a quart in there. The tanks with huge holes for fuel level guages = disaster. Worthless all of the products IMHO. Make 1 mistake and you're a dead duck removing the coating.

BTW they also put the same sacrificial metal inside the ships hull that works too ... that means we could put on the underside ... how does that work. I know we have to scrape the paint off, it needs electrical contact.

Cool.
Buddha.

[ben2go]

The sacrificial anodes do not stop rust.They stop galvanic corrosion due to electrolysis caused by dissimilar metals and stray electrical currents in water,mainly salt water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_anode

[reload]

forget that, just strip it down to bare metal and get it electroplated zinc. i wonder why manufacturers don't do this by default, it would certainly be a great benefit to the owners.

[The Buddha]

forget that, just strip it down to bare metal and get it electroplated zinc. i wonder why manufacturers don't do this by default, it would certainly be a great benefit to the owners.

This wont work, they do electro galvanise it, but it can and will wear through.
Cool.
Buddha.

[reload]

hmm....interesting. guess its not tough enough.

they should just make it out of stainless steel. too expensive though

[The Buddha]

I'd frankly settle for a nice big pipe fitting for fuel and a tank that drains completely in the right position. Atleast that will allow me to coat it right.
Cool.
Buddha.

[reload]

completely agree. draining that sob was unnecessary waste of time while coating the rust bucket. lol