Petrol Tank Sealant - ethanol fuel

[beezermacc]

This has probably featured on the forum before. If so, could somebody point me in the direction of anything relevant. I have used 'Flowliner' sold by Wyldes in Leeds. I went out to use the A10 plunger last night and found the Flowliner going all soft and flakey in the tank. Being aware of the ethanol situation I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. What have forum members done successfully to remove old sealant and replace with a product with a guarantee to withstand present and future ethanol quantities in fuel? Thanks in anticipation. Recommendations from personal experience please.

[bikerbob]

Hi there. I have removed the existing sealant from both my bikes an A10 and an A65 using the products from www.tankcareproducts.co.uk they supply a kit to remove existing sealants and replace with an ethanol proof sealant. It does take some time, I think about a week from start to finish but it works very well but you must follow the instructions carefully. If you type tank sealant into the search box you will get more info.

[muskrat]

 I recently did 2 tanks, both had previous liners. One 250ml can of paint stripper (normal every day) in each and left for two days. Add a bit of water and a dozen nuts & bolts. Do the rumba with the tank till you get tired and flush the tank with water. LOTS of water. Inspect tank. If any liner remains do it again.
 I used POR15 to re-line. But we can still get non-ethanol fuel here. I'm sure that it is ethanol proof as I tried it with METHANOL with no probs.
Cheers

[cotterpinkid]

I've done two tanks, as per bikerbob, with tank care products stuff. The A10 tank has just finished 'curing'.

[KiwiGF]

This is sort of related but what is the main reason for lining tanks? To fix leaks? Is it not required unless there is a leak?

Would it be better given the ethanol issue to fix leaks using something other than sealants?

Sorry if this is a dum question but my tank has not been lined but does have a small leak which has been bodged with soft solder, at the back in the underneath arch bit where it fits over the frame tube. I've been wondering how to fix it, obviously I could get it welded or try to weld it myself, but using a sealant would be easier and maybe cheaper I guess.

[cotterpinkid]

In my case the reason for lining was a little bit of 'belt and braces'. Prior to restoring the tank a number of leaks were welded, in addition to this the internal surface was suffering from a coating of 'powdery rust'. Hopefully the lining will keep the fuel clean and prevent further 'weeps'.

[Goldy]

I have never found a welder that is prepeared to take on a petrol tank, one because of the dangers and two because the steel is so thin.

[cotterpinkid]

Goldy,

The welding repairs date back quite a number of years and at the time I was also surprised when they said "no problem". Mind you they are a specialist welding company I used, tackling all sorts of welding (tooling, dies, gears etc). They also did a cracking job of my barrel fins. I recently needed to remove the old tank liner so I thought I'd re-line it whilst it was off the bike.

[wilko]

Nothing dodgy about soldering tanks. Most tanks were soldered together in the twenties were'nt they. I always use solder to repair leaks.

[BSA_54A10]

Just remember if you decide to solder your tank to use Plumbers solder, Tinmans solder or Radiator solder.
All of these are high tin content and much much much stronger than 50:50.
Also be careful buying solder.
In the "good old days" the tin content was always listed first ie 60:40 = 60% tin : 40 % lead.
now days I have seen a lot of solder marked 60 :40 & 70 : 30  where the first number was the lead content.

As for welding tanks get a Dillion oxy welder ( now sold as Henrob 2000 ).
This is a very low pressure gun that can weld steel cans together because the gun is designed to be thermally efficient rather than to use as much gas as possible which is not suprising considering the mob who sell gas own the patents for the gun that uses it.

[Butch (cb)]

I have previously soft soldered pin holes in tanks with normal electricians solder - whatever that is. Ran them fine for years with no problems. Don't need structural strength for smaller holes after all. Bigger holes you can use small pieces of bean can as patches.

[beezermacc]

All the info about soldering is very interesting but.........

I've just had a conversation with Wyldes who now supply an improved 'Flowliner' which withstands ethanol. They recommended cleaning the tank out with methylene chloride (paint stripper) then using the improved Flowliner. Watch this space. Thanks for the info about tankcareproducts. I phoned the guy and left him a message but, as yet, he hasn't got back to me.

[bikerbob]

Hi there. I find it particularly annoying when you contact suppliers about their products and they don't reply it makes me very suspicious of them, I recently contacted Frost about a product that they supply as an additive that is supposed to combat some of the effects of Ethanol but did not recieve a reply to my email so I tend to then ignore these companies if at all possible.

[beezermacc]

Hi there. I find it particularly annoying when you contact suppliers about their products and they don't reply it makes me very suspicious of them, I recently contacted Frost about a product that they supply as an additive that is supposed to combat some of the effects of Ethanol but did not recieve a reply to my email so I tend to then ignore these companies if at all possible.

I agree but thanks for the recommendation anyway.

[LJ.]

This is a bit of a hot subject on the BSA WM20 forum, the thread goes under the name of "Crappy Petseal, how do I get it out?".....

http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=3155626639&frmid=16&msgid=1208649&cmd=show