Anti-ethanol treatment for plastic tanks?

The Other PaulG

The Other PaulG

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Hi - I've put this thread here because although it concerns a Guzzi tank, I suspect the majority of wisdom will be derived from owners of other bikes such as the early R1100GS.

The plastic tank on my 1200 Sport has just started to show the first signs of bubbling.

Is there a chemical treatment that I can apply to the inside of the tank, to protect the plastic from further ethanol attack?

Cheers, Paul
 
Watching with interest.My Ducati tank suffers from ethanol in the fuel,not bubbling but tank has expanded.You can spend many hours reading about it and possible solutions
 
my Paul Smart expands annually. tip i got to help is use super unleaded / higher octane fuel (may not suit older bikes) and if storing for a period fill the tank to the brim.

in the winter i take the tank off the bike and remove the fuel and it typically shrinks 10-15mm over the winter!

Barry
 
Thanks, some good tips on tank expansion. On the question of the bubbling, my current concern, is anyone aware of any kind if treatment?
 
There is a treatment, but I can’t for the life of me find it. It’s used in light aircraft which were built prior to ethanol being introduced, with composite fuel tanks that started to break down internally once ethanol got into them. I’m going to speak to SkyCraft shortly re my little Jabiru about having the tank treated. As far as I’m aware it’s a fluid which goes into the empty, dry tank and gets sloshed around to coat it.
 
Found this :

News - Ethanol Shield FAQ

Shop online in the Official B3C Fuel Solutions Webstore. Test your fuel, prevent damage to your engine due to bad fuel, fix engine issues caused by bad fuel. Products suitable for diesel and petrol engines.
b3cfuel.co.uk b3cfuel.co.uk

not sure if it only protects the engine or if it helps in the tank as well.
 
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Aprilia Mille and Tuono's suffered badly from this and tanks had to be drained and left in dry storage for 3 months or more for the swelling to dissipate. With mine, I used Texaco premium unleaded which despite the 5% moniker, didn't actually contain much, if any ethanol, drained the tank come winter and stored it with high octane race fuel which I first ran through the engine to prevent any gumming up of injectors or damage from the odd tank of E10.

That did the trick up until those companies who were using 2.5% or less in their E5 have apparently started using it. I say "apparently" because one of mine started to swell using the same stuff I'd run it off for several years with no problems. I read now that government legislation is changing the wording from "must contain a maximum of 5%" to "must contain 5%" so those stations where you used to get virtually enthanol free will be forced into line with this bonkers and rather senseless legislation. There's several products on the market for lining tanks including Flowliner Armour coat tank sealer but you also need to check that other plastics and rubber in the fuel supply lines are suceptable to damage. It's a dangerous piece of legislation as failed fuel lines and connectors could lead to more vehicle fire risks.
 
Thanks Morety. A common mod on Guzzis is to replace the OEM plastic in-tank fuel filter with a metal alternative, because the plastic one can fail. Perhaps that's due to the fuel, too.
 
the anwser to the question is NO not possible with plastic tanks.

the issues are caused by the porosity of the plastic, allowing the vapor from within to pass through the plastic, its always been a problem with petrol, but the ethanol just makes it worse.

do all the research you want spend all the money you have but the end result will be ZERO. by the time the vapor is in the plastic it is too late to seal it.

THE ONLY METHOD is the fuloride treatment of the tank and I dont think that can be done once the tank has been used and filled with fuel this is a teatment tank makers can use during the manufacturing process.

I have researched it for years, having plastic tanks on everything i own, some plastics are better than others ie nylon based such as tanks on my 990 and 640 some are worse such as the safari tanks which are just polyeythine the nylon TT tank on the bmw is prettery ressistant as well but ALL plastics will eventualy show the problem to some degree and you cant do a damn thing about it, If you must try then the only option is to empty the tank leave it in airy enviornment to clear vapours out of the tank, leave it days/weeks to clear out and shrink back to size and then to try coating the inside, it will work a bit but not a permanant soloution it will NOT work long term
 
Didn’t consider this when I swapped the metal tank for plastic on the drz
 
bowser said:
the anwser to the question is NO not possible with plastic tanks.

the issues are caused by the porosity of the plastic, allowing the vapor from within to pass through the plastic, its always been a problem with petrol, but the ethanol just makes it worse.

do all the research you want spend all the money you have but the end result will be ZERO. by the time the vapor is in the plastic it is too late to seal it.

THE ONLY METHOD is the fuloride treatment of the tank and I dont think that can be done once the tank has been used and filled with fuel this is a teatment tank makers can use during the manufacturing process.

I have researched it for years, having plastic tanks on everything i own, some plastics are better than others ie nylon based such as tanks on my 990 and 640 some are worse such as the safari tanks which are just polyeythine the nylon TT tank on the bmw is prettery ressistant as well but ALL plastics will eventualy show the problem to some degree and you cant do a damn thing about it, If you must try then the only option is to empty the tank leave it in airy enviornment to clear vapours out of the tank, leave it days/weeks to clear out and shrink back to size and then to try coating the inside, it will work a bit but not a permanant soloution it will NOT work long term
Click to expand...
You said a very accurate reply there! I’ve researched it too and found nothing as I had a couple of MZ Skorpion sports and same expanding tanks. What I did I weighed the tank I removed every two weeks for the absorbed content until it went back to it’s supposed size. I did an experiment with ‘flowliner’ by prepping the tank first with evil plasterboard screws shaken around to key the internals then to poured the flowliner in. It did key and I know it should not have and from that date to when I sold it it never expanded and that was 5years.
So there is a light at the end of the tunnel but ONLY if you know how to do it.
 
Tend to agree with Bowser here.

I have an 1100gs tank that I bought for a project but didn't use. It had badly suffered the bubbling, some real whoppers. I concluded that if I was to use it, then it would be simply stripped of paint and probably not even any decals.

Even if you were to attempt to seal the tank now the solvent will have diffused in to the plastic and would take an indeterminate amount of time to escape, you may yet have the worst yet to come even if you achieve a successful treatment now.

Might there be a way to achieve a good seal, yes but there are a lot of variables to consider the highest being the type of plastic and it's purity.

If you press forward I'd say you need to empty the tank and clean it out, remove outer paint and allow the tank to breathe in a warm environment for quite a while to allow the solvents to migrate out of the plastic before treating and repainting.

But I confess I've never done this....so my opinion is not worth much.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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