The OP never said this was a metal gas tank. It could very well be a
plastic gas tank, even in 1980.


Highly unlikely, especially for a generator tank, and irrelevant to
his situation, where the gravel is needed to scour the gunk out once
the solvent softens it.

I appreciate the ideas from everyone!

It's a metal tank. It says USMC on the bottom and it looks like
something you'd see strapped to the bumper of a Land Rover in a movie.
I was about to try whatever solvent I have with either clean gravel or a
handful of nuts and bolts when I found out that the one radiator shop
that does this kind of work was open and willing to squeeze me in.
Apparently this guy does a lot of this and the others just send everyone
to him. He got every bit of gunk and rust out of it. He showed me a
motorcycle tank in the same condition.

Still on generator power here. Most of the neighborhood is up but if I
follow our line I quickly come to a pole that is down with the wires
laying on a chain link fence. They are working on things that affect
the most people first. With 250,00 still out as of last night I'm
thinking I shouldn't hold my breath.

I probably should start a new thread for this but I'm really surprised
that this old machine is standing up to this much usage. My father let
it sit for 28 years, then I changed the oil and rebuilt the carb.,
started it once, and let it sit for 2 more years. It has a pneumatic
valve that feeds oil from a large external tank when it gets low and is
labeled an 'extended service' unit - 'Sears Best'. I do want to find
out if modern generators burn less fuel - 3500 watts/ half a gallon per
hour - and how much quieter they are these days. The neighbors probably
have a contract out on me from the noise this sucker makes. And so help
me, when things get back to normal I am going to figure a way to extract
fuel from my old vehicle - 96 explorer, gets driven once a week and has
a full tank. When the whole area goes dark is a damn bad time to start
wishing you had taken a few minutes to fill all your fuel cans! If I
had money to burn this would be the week I commit to a full solar array
on the roof.