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Cleaning air tank


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I got a bit of water and several ounces of tan goop from my B air tank.I know that shouldn`t be there,but I suspect it had been years since it was last drained.Any good method of cleaning?I was thinking of repeated acetone pours of maybe 8 oz,until it comes out clean.Thanks.

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Yea, you can let it drain... any chance you have a bore scope that you can put in one of the ports just to see inside,,  I mean, if you have a real concern...  other wise, you can just hook shop air to the tank, dial it down to about 20 PSI, and crack the drain valve and wait till it stops pushing the goop out..  dirtymilkman is likely right about this..  jojo

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As said just drain it, back in the day before we were all soft there were no air dryers at all on trucks 

As part of your daily job as a truck driver was to drain all the air tanks at the end of each shift

They used to have taps on them and you left them open over night 

Leaving low air pressure as Joey suggests has never worked for me as the air doesn't seem to pick up the oil at all but rather leaves it behind

You could pull the tank off and put petrol (gas for Yanks) in it and slosh it about, drain and repeat a few times

Only a litre or quart I think you blokes call it at the most of petrol each time

Apparently even in good old Australia we have air dryers on trucks today, I have never seen one fitted to a truck or otherwise 

 

Paul 

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i was only thinking about the oil that is in the tank..  low pressure, allows the sludge to settle rather than stir it up..   and yes  draining tanks is a thing of the past for some reason,,,  hell I was trained to pull air tank cables and let a little fuel out of the fuel water seperator, check oil, and wash windows and mirrors,  while in the fuel island, and too pull the cables at the end of the day to drain the junk out and re-set the unloader valves..  I cant tell you how many truck owners/drivers I had to explain that too...  and i'm no genius....jojo

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At one of the fleets I worked for, I took a quart of AIR LINE alcohol (not from a package store) :drained the wet tank and pour the quart in. with marker wrote date on the tank. tanks were orange = black marker showed easily. every month drained did process over again. this was done yr round. never had a problem with frozen brakes in winter either. the alcohol kept system clean, many people wait till cold weather to add alcohol. this loosens all the crud sends it through lines. union company== drivers never drained tanks. far as this unit; i would suggest the airline alcohol treatment ; the alcohol will mix with the water /oil  make it easy to drain till it's clean. as above stated,  regular drain is best. starts showing up in other tank or goes brown to black that's raw oil not condensation .

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As long as you only get a small amount of oil each time you drain you are fine.. If you continually get a large amount, a cup or so, then you have to start thinking about rebuilding  / replacing the compressor as the rings have lost their tension and are pumping motor oil into the air system.

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Brocky

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