V11 Steel fuel Tank Replacement?

[GuzziMoto]

TTS has made tanks for people including people in the US. I doubt they sent their bikes over there at all, certainly not for a year.

It might take him a while to get yours done but you should not have to give him your bike for an extended time.

[Fred in the shed]

Tikkenen, Thanks, I have just sent an email to kaffee mashine on your recommendation so will see what comes back from them?, I have now gutted the underside of my old tank and made a cardboard tank to fit (not the intended long term solution!) but I can now get some idea of how easy or otherwise it will to construct in steel,The airbox will be junked if I go ahead and brackets made to support the side panels and injectors with conical K & Ns semi hidden by the side panels so externally every thing will look pretty standard but lets see how it works out ? I do have a plan "B" and "C" if it comes to it, I have got hold of a 2nd hand as yet undamaged original tank to put back on, the air box could go back on but I think it just kicks the can down the road a bit even if treated with some of these anti Ethanol sealers I have doubts about how good they will be as you cannot prep the inside of your tank I think to the standard to be effective, Plan "C" is the alloy route but as already mentioned its just the problem of getting someone to make it within a reasonable time frame or giving them the bike for a year!

A week in Sunny Italy sounds good to me just change the wine to beer!   

[Fred in the shed]

To all who may have been following the saga of ethenol ate my tank /steel replacement ? things have moved on ! slight change of plan as you may recall I was going to make a steel tank to sit inside the old plastic tank well this has now been done but have used alloy instead and I now have an approx 20L or 4 gallon tank that sits inside the old un quite snug, have had to do away with the airbox with K&Ns and also the standard fuel filler cap replaced with a nice alloy external that looks rather classic , next stage is to get painted, fingers crossed this will be the long term answer to the plastic tank problem, I will try and post photos when completed

[AndyH]

Will be interested to see the pics Fred - can't quite envisage what's been done there! 20L for the internal liner is damn good going, I'd say - it must be snug indeed and can't have been cheap.

Andy

[Fred in the shed]

Andy , Just took a picture to send to Moto Mecca infact, if you let me have your email I will send you one, cost wise my mate made it for me but I have to repaint it and the grahics are a 100 quid so it looks to be about £500 ish time Ive finished, not cheap but what is these days.....as they say If its got Tits or Wheels it"ll cost you Money!!

 

Fred

[AndyH]

500 quid is not bad going: you were lucky. Would have added up to much more, were it not for mates rates.

I'll PM you,

 

Andy

[Fred in the shed]

To all who may still be interested or now have a buggered up tank due to Ethanol I adopted two separate options my Rosso Corsa I shot blasted the tank and had

a box alloy tank built that now fits inside the original the down side with this is Im down to 4.4 Imperial Gallons and you loose the air box

but as it my Sunday afternoon bike no big sacrifice. My other le man which I use for Touring I ve now had an alloy tank made, the difficulty in getting someone to make a Tank in the UK now is unbelievable all the people I spoke to who make Tanks just want to make

what they have always made and are a waste of time however if you wish to get a new alloy tank for your V11 try Lee Cary at

MCS Engineering (Colchester) info@mcs-engineering.co.uk a very talented guy and the the template frame is ready to make further

tanks 

 

[rossi46]

or here

http://www.thetankshop.com/

[Fred in the shed]

Yep I did make contact with the Tank Shop some time back and I have seen his tanks which are top notch, However it was a year wait at the time and you had to

get the bike up to Scotland so  for anyone in England (Wales)  going to Essex would be better option and a quicker delivery 8 -10 weeks  

[Trevini]

To all who may still be interested or now have a buggered up tank due to Ethanol I adopted two separate options my Rosso Corsa I shot blasted the tank and had

a box alloy tank built that now fits inside the original the down side with this is Im down to 4.4 Imperial Gallons and you loose the air box

but as it my Sunday afternoon bike no big sacrifice. My other le man which I use for Touring I ve now had an alloy tank made, the difficulty in getting someone to make a Tank in the UK now is unbelievable all the people I spoke to who make Tanks just want to make

what they have always made and are a waste of time however if you wish to get a new alloy tank for your V11 try Lee Cary at

MCS Engineering (Colchester) info@mcs-engineering.co.uk a very talented guy and the the template frame is ready to make further

tanks 

 

Thanks for the info - my tank has just started to bubble, so I've dropped them an email. Do you have any photos of yours?

[Fred in the shed]

 

To all who may still be interested or now have a buggered up tank due to Ethanol I adopted two separate options my Rosso Corsa I shot blasted the tank and had

a box alloy tank built that now fits inside the original the down side with this is Im down to 4.4 Imperial Gallons and you loose the air box

but as it my Sunday afternoon bike no big sacrifice. My other le man which I use for Touring I ve now had an alloy tank made, the difficulty in getting someone to make a Tank in the UK now is unbelievable all the people I spoke to who make Tanks just want to make

what they have always made and are a waste of time however if you wish to get a new alloy tank for your V11 try Lee Cary at

MCS Engineering (Colchester) info@mcs-engineering.co.uk a very talented guy and the the template frame is ready to make further

tanks 

 

Thanks for the info - my tank has just started to bubble, so I've dropped them an email. Do you have any photos of yours?

 

Hello Trevini , these tanks start with a bit of distortion if you have found the tank becomes a bit of a pig to get on and off? then out of the blue the bubbles

                      as the tank becomes pourous pop the bubbles and theres petrol, sort of fuel tank measles! I have tried to post some pics on site but must

                      be doing something wrong but if if you ping me an email j.nicholas849@btinternet.com I am quite happy to send you some, I originally

                      thought about replacing with an other Plastic tank but if your going to keep the bike its only going to come back and bite you again in a year or so

                      anyway , there are so called treatments for the insides of the plastic tanks but consensus on the net is mostly they eventually fall off turn to sludge

                      and block your injectors! lastly the Ethanol content that has done this to our tanks is currently 5% and it going up to 10%, I have spoken to a dealer

                      who mentioned that even steel tanks are being affected because if you dont use your bike much during the winter for instance the higher water        

                      content in the new ethanol fuels separates over a few months sits on the bottom of the tank and rots the bottom out of the steel tanks!

 

                      Regards Fred

[Trevini]

Yeah, I've had the tank swelling for a little while now and have just started getting measles.  email sent, thanks again.

[chamberlin]

Fred, just for clarification: Intially, there is no 'water content' in the ethanol tainted gasoline/petrol. The problem is that the 5-10% ethanol component is hygroscopic, and will bond with ANY atmospheric water vapor. The resultant nasty binary azeotrope will allow moisture to penetrate PA-6 polymer based tanks (i.e. Acerbis pre-rotomolded plastic motorcycle tanks for Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Ducati, KTM etc.) and cause them to swell in all directions. The longer the tank, the more stretching in the length dimension (as a percentage of length).

 

The sludge you refer to that is bad even for steel tanks and other fuel system components, is also a related issue, but it is more of a side effect to the tank swelling (ex. diarrhea in addition to your measles LOL).

 

I've made my own 'pure' gasoline by adding distilled water, then separating out the pure gas from the azeotrope, and then adding back in a strong octane booster called RaceGas (http://race-gas.com/). I bought a brand new virgin tank from Italy, and I refuse to put ethanol in it, and I also do not want to muck up the interior with Caswell.

As complete and effective as the phase-separation method is however, it's not exactly a safe 'at home type' process, and I've since decided to just buy K100 for future fill-ups (http://k-100.com/).

 

The only current alternative, is just to keep your tanks dead empty, or 100% full, so no atmospheric water vapor can contact the ethanol 'laced' gasoline. Of course, the best alternative is to petition our governments to stop subsidizing corn ethanol in our fuels!!! Yea right!

[docc]

"binary azeotrope." I have got to find a way to work that into a conversion in the next 24 hours.

[chamberlin]

"binary azeotrope." I have got to find a way to work that into a conversion in the next 24 hours.

 

Let me know how that goes docc! I've been jonzing to use it for so long myself, I had to jump in on this thread!

 

Being that this is the holiday season, you could theoretically work in a binary azeotrope comment within the bounds of a 'spirited' conversation about your favorite Christmas time elixir!