Well, it’s partly a Kubota. The engine is a 1.3L V1305-EBG.
Time to do some needed generator maintenance. First is the diesel. It's a freebie Amida ex-light tower from where I worked. A few years ago I removed all the old junk lighting and did some rewiring. Added frequency, voltage and amperage meters and used it several times since. It has come in handy for welding away from home (the THD is under 5% so it's safe for the welders I have). The only "servicing" I did was check the oil and antifreeze early on because it had been on our maintenance list at work. Then somehow a couple of years passed by.
Wanting to be thorough, the fuel tank had to be dropped and cleaned. This equipment is decades old and it's hard to say what trash may have been dumped in along with the fuel or if its immunizations are up to date. It was topped off last Fall with fresh treated fuel. I did take it to a neighbor’s place about a month ago and ran it for a day to power her sump pumps during a power outage.
Phase 1 was to pump the fuel out. I pumped several gallons into a clean glass gallon container and observed no water or dirt. There may have been 25 gallons or so in the 32 gallon tank that I reclaimed. It went into my storage for now. Since there's a 10 micron waterblock filter on my dispenser I'm not worried. With the tank almost dry, you could see trash in the bottom. The outside of the tank cleaned up quickly with purple cleaner and a little brushing.
On the first “slosh and dump” with about ½ gallon of diesel onto a clean white rag, it looked like someone tossed a small handful of decomposed leaves from the rain gutter. It became apparent that more serious efforts would need to be made.
Even though there is a wealth of info on cleaning fuel tanks, nothing really stood out as a good approach for this one. After much agonizing, the decision was made to cut an access hole to allow scrubbing the inside. Fortunately there was an 1/8” aluminum plate that was left over from an electrical project many years ago that could serve as a cover plate. It already had a hole in each corner, so it was just a matter of drilling another 16 and buying some sealer.
A series of different cleaning methods were employed. After the slosh-n-dump, it was spraying it down with purple cleaner and scrubbing what could be reached with a long-handled brush. This reached about 80% of the inside walls and bottom. Then the pressure washer came out. Next was more purple cleaner with a couple different hand-held brushes. Before the final cleaning with Dawn and a micro fiber rag the screw holes were drilled so the crumbs would be flushed out in the final rinse.
The tank was then dumped and parked with the one corner down so any water would be in one place. That was mopped out with a micro fiber rag. Finally a small salvaged fan from a gas water heater spent a couple hours blowing into the tank through the fill hole. When it was bone dry, the aluminum cover, 20 screws and the blue schmootz* were brought out to close things up.
The tank was pretty sad inside but is nice now. One odd thing is that at one time (maybe even from when it was built?) the suction and return lines were reversed where they connected to the tank. Two tubes went down into the tank from brass 90° fittings.
*Rhymes with "book" for them what ain't Dutch
