V11 Steel fuel Tank Replacement?

[Fred in the shed]

This is my first posting on the site I have had 2 V11s for about 6 years a couple of months back I noticed the nearest I can describe as Measles on my 2004 Rosso Corsa petrol tank. when the pustles were pricked petrol fluid came out ,after much trawling the internet Ethanol seemed to be the most likely cause as nothing had fallen on the exterior of the tank, So and here goes I intend to build a steel tank to sit inside the old tank and keep the bike looking original the old unit has been shot blasted and the bottom cut out , I wish to replace the bulk of the air box for added fuel tank size and maybe run on K & N units on each injector ? I would be more than happy if any one out there has done this or has experience with K & Ns or other filtration ideas and also advice on what to do with the MAF switch? , I know many of you will say just buy another tank but with the increasing amount of this evil stuff in petrol we will soon run out of replacement tanks so there may be room for a steel tank conversion kit as the long term fix?

[dale-j]

Seems to me that using steel would be simply trading one problem for another.  Any thought as to using aluminum (or aluminium to those of you on that side of the pond)?  An interesting idea though, especially for the IBA types and road warriors out there.  Personally I'm usually thankful for the break at the end of a tank on mine, raised clipons and Rich Maund seat notwithstanding.

 

Steve

[Fred in the shed]

Thanks for a reply Steve, cant see the problem with steel though unless you mean rust of course (excluding stainie steel) alloy is a nice option and there is a guy in Scotland who is supposed to be the dogs privates for making repro tanks but its about a 2 year wait I understand, I have managed to get hold of a 2nd hand tank but  this will  likely share the same fate in a couple of years with Ethanol content increasing to 10% and I can see original items becoming like hens teeth to get hold of in the not to distant future hence my cunning plan as the old tank is knackered as a petrol carrier anyway . Whats an "IBA"?

 

Fred

[SCole]

The guy in Scotland, The Tank Shop, has the jig and should be able to produce one quicker than that.  He has done quite a few now.

[Fred in the shed]

If thats the case I will give him a call it will be interesting to see what sort of time table/ cost is involved ? but I was told admittedly by a third party it was a long wait as he has an over flowing order book, also a very good engineer friend of mine considered it would be a bugger to get close to an original look given the tanks curves

Fred

[GuzziMoto]

The aluminum tanks he makes are art.

If you want a cheaper option take your tank, or second hand tank, dry it out thoroughly and seal it with epoxy tank sealer.

Another option would be to adapt a tank from a Sport or Daytona. That would/could require the removal of the airbox as you mentioned, but as they are metal (at least the older ones are, not sure if they all are) it should be possible with a bit of fab to make one fit.

[dale-j]

Thanks for a reply Steve, cant see the problem with steel though unless you mean rust of course (excluding stainie steel) alloy is a nice option and there is a guy in Scotland who is supposed to be the dogs privates for making repro tanks but its about a 2 year wait I understand, I have managed to get hold of a 2nd hand tank but  this will  likely share the same fate in a couple of years with Ethanol content increasing to 10% and I can see original items becoming like hens teeth to get hold of in the not to distant future hence my cunning plan as the old tank is knackered as a petrol carrier anyway . Whats an "IBA"?

 

Fred

IBA = Iron Butt Association.

 

From what I've been told locally, if you can source Ethanol free gas (petrol) you may be OK for the new tank.   There are still additives in the fuel that were never intended or foreseen by Acerbis when Guzzi had them mould the tanks, but I have had good results locally in Canada inquiring with the retailers, and have found that Chevron 94 is Ethanol free in Western Canada, as is Shell V-Power (91 octane).  Everything else has varying amounts of ethanol up to 10%.  There is a site at http://www.pure-gas.org that can help for people in Canada and the US.

 

I had read a couple years back that The Tank Shop was for sale - business, equipment and apprenticeship included.  Hopefully that they are still around will mean than someone has picked up the torch.

 

Cheers.

 

Steve

[SCole]

If thats the case I will give him a call it will be interesting to see what sort of time table/ cost is involved ? but I was told admittedly by a third party it was a long wait as he has an over flowing order book, also a very good engineer friend of mine considered it would be a bugger to get close to an original look given the tanks curves

Fred

Search the forum here.  He has got it nailed!  The price a year or so ago was around $1,000 US

[Skeeve]

This is my first posting on the site ...So and here goes I intend to build a steel tank to sit inside the old tank and keep the bike looking original the old unit has been shot blasted and the bottom cut out , I wish to replace the bulk of the air box for added fuel tank size ...with the increasing amount of this evil stuff in petrol we will soon run out of replacement tanks so there may be room for a steel tank conversion kit as the long term fix?

 

Congrats on de-lurking & making your 1st post! Hopefully the 1st of many...

 

You'd be better off making a tank that fills the airbox location & converting the old tank to an airbox: this would have 2 advantages: lowering the ctr. of gravity by carrying the weight of the fuel lower, and increasing the airbox volume for better performance [one of the V11s impediments to free breathing is inadequate airbox volume.] [0]

 

While I long ago wondered if it would be possible to recreate the sexy curves of the stock tank in steel, it wasn't because of any premonition about the problems w/ alcohol in the fuel affecting the nylon from which the tanks are made, it was simply out of a desire for convenience of use w/ magnetic tank bags.

 

Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to resort to maintaining a "pretreated" fuel supply, where the pretreatment consists of buying my fuel in a gas can, taking it back to my workspace, adding 10% of the volume of fuel in distilled water, shaking vigorously to have the water pull the alcohol out of the fuel, then allowing the water/alcohol mix to settle out & drain it off the bottom for use in water injection system I'll add on my truck. Meanwhile, I'll have a supply of real gas [spiked with fuel stabilizer and 100LL avgas while that vanishing species is still around] for use in my bike. Long trips will require dilution w/ pump swill, but once returned home, the tank can be topped up w/ the good stuff [& hopefully, I'll be able to time the fill ups nicely so that when I get home I'll be

 

[0] One of the technological achievements of the MGS-01 that led to it having as much power as it did was the expansion of airbox volume over the Daytona RS: while working on development, Ghezzi & Brian discovered that no matter how much bigger they made the airbox, there wasn't any point at which the power gains plateaued [eg: stopped increasing] - so the final size was arrived at by deciding how much volume they could stand losing from the fuel capacity. If you've ever seen the fuel tank lifted on an MGS-01, you'd see that virtually all of what looks like fuel tank is actually just a shell covering the airbox. Sorry, I don't have a link to the photo I saw on the web years ago, but it was really quite startling...

[Bjor]

I had read a couple years back that The Tank Shop was for sale - business, equipment and apprenticeship included.  Hopefully that they are still around will mean than someone has picked up the torch.

 

Cheers.

 

Steve

John and his shop is still around and active. I'm at the moment waiting for a parcel with a new alu-tank for my old tonti LeMans.

[Fred in the shed]

Thanks for your thoughts Skeeve and Bjor yes I got in touch with the tank shop and I have to send him some pictures of bike and tank and could be the route to go with my V11 that I use for touring funnily enough this bike is a 2001 and as yet damage to this tank is only 2 small bubbles yet the Rosso Corsa is 2004 and was plastered!, Re the experiment with the steel tank as I said the old tank is now been shot blasted and the bottom cut out, my mate and I ( a pucker engineer unlike myself!) are starting on Monday first to make a cardboard mock up to get the idea of shape fit etc ,It currently looks like the bulk of the air box will be removed so as to retain a decent fuel capacity re Skeeves idea for using part of the old tank as an air box although has merit I think this again would reduce fuel capacity so the favoured option at the moment would be a K&N type filters I Know there have been some adverse comments on the site about these and "only stopping small rocks" etc but I think this pretty much depends on the climate where you operate I can see this point in dry dusty states of the US but "Dry & Dusty" are words very little used in England!,    

[GuzziMoto]

Actually, my biggest fear with gauze K&N style filters IS water (rain).

They are commonly used by dirt bikers in dry climates and avoided by dirt bikers in wet climates because water tends to carry whatever dirt is on them through them and into the motor.

If you are going to use K&N style pods I recommend you look into the water resistant sleeves they sell to help keep that from happening.

The other reason to avoid the pods is the loss in power that comes with loosing the airbox. That can be reduced by adapting some form of velocity stack between the pods and the throttle bodies, but it is hard to beat an airbox.

[docc]

Here is ponti_33609's aluminum tank shown in the thread New Fuel Tank.

[AndyH]

I haven't seen any problems with the plastic tank on my 2000 V11 as yet.

 

Didn't think we had problems with ethanol content yet in the UK, but it sounds ominous so will keep an eye open. If it looks like being a problem, I'll try epoxy sealer to keep the original look - it's worked well on other tanks for me although it's a pain sloshing it around to get complete and even coverage.

 

Mind you, those alloy tanks do look rather nice...

 

AndyH

[Skeeve]

I haven't seen any problems with the plastic tank on my 2000 V11 as yet.

 

Didn't think we had problems with ethanol content yet in the UK, but it sounds ominous so will keep an eye open.

 

I don't think it's an issue in countries where there's not enough land to grow food as it is, and the fine upstanding citizens are already clear that it's better to drink ethanol than adulterate your fuel with it!