Oil tank burn off ?

[dadtkm]

Just opened up my oil tank , lots of crap laying in the bottom . Scraped the solids out but there is still an oil residue left on the inside of the tank . Question is should the burn out be a Sunday newspapers worth or a real wood fire . Don't want the oil smell ending up an oil taste in my syrup. Thanks for any and all ideas,
Tim

[psparr]

Throw some gas or kerosene in with it. The oil itself won't burn right by itself.

[Bucket Head]

I'd go with the real wood fire. Believe it or not, you know how they get rid of oil build up in mufflers that are on two-stroke engines that have a lot of use on them and are plugged? They call it a muffler barbeque. You get a good wood fire going and then you put the muffler in the fire. The excess/waste oil catches fire and burns off. I did this to a old Yamaha golf cart muffler and it ran like a champ after doing that. And I guess from an environmental veiwpoint, the wood smoke won't be as objectionable as all the black smoke from your oil residue and the additional gas or oil burning off. And your downwind neighbors won't like the black smoke either...

Steve

[sugarmangraham]

We just burned the old oil and sludge out of ours. We threw a little gas and some old dry brush in it and that got it going good. It helps get rid of the old paint on the outside of the tank too.