Redkote tank lining weird thing happened...

QWERTYMage

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I'm wondering if anyone's seen or heard anything happen like this before.

UPDATE: Apparently, this is a common problem. Dang dang.

So... my garage-kept bike was out of commission for a few months and I finally got it put back together and rolled her out into the street to test my work.

I turned on the petcocks and the fuel was coming out of the carbs like a faucet... I figured out the gas cap wasn't venting properly, so the pressure was forcing all the fuel out under pressure.

Now the weird part:

The fuel that came out looked as if it was full of oil. Dark brown. Dirty. Made no sense.. After I depressurized the tank, I kicked the bike on and besides backfiring like a motherfucker (blew one of my pod filters clean off), so at least I know she runs, but clearly whatever was in the fuel was causing problems. So I looked in the tank again and noticed rust... but no Redkote. I put a flashlight in the tank and did a quick finger check, and it seems like all the Redkote dissolved and was settled in the bottom of the tank... and now I also have a lot of rust too (just surface rust. No holes. It's a newish Lowbrow peanut. I coated the tank about 2 years ago. It was holding up great, but whenever the bike would sit a while, it would require me to pull the carbs every time to clean them out. I never noticed odd color in the gas or in the carbs. The filters look clear visually. Has anyone heard of this happening before. I know tank coating is a hot topic with lots of opinions, but I've never heard of such a situation.

I really liked how the Redkote layed down, and all seemed fine. Has anyone else used Redkote with bad results?

(Sidenote, I'm gonna clean and re-coat the tank and I might as well give it a new paint job. It's just raw metal with a layer of Eastwood clearcoat right now. Looks great bit I'm bored with it.)

What gives?
 
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Ha. Indeed. It seems this is not too weird after all... just very unfortunate.

I'm perplexed. I don't know what sealer to use next (definitely not using Kreem).
 
I had a local radiator shop (they also do motorcycle tanks) Redkote my tank. They hot dip the tank to remove all rust, varnish, gunk and paint, then do the Redkote. Was told that I may see a red tint to the first tank of gas from the Redkote, but didn't notice any. The tank did sit for a couple months without seeing fuel, maybe this helped, I don't know. It has held up well for the last couple years, no issues at all. Personally I think all these coating systems are only as good as the cleaning.
 
I think this could be an important part of the RedKote failure phenomenon...….I have a couple of dogs in this fight, so I'd like to know. Did you use ANY fuel additives/stabilizers in that tank after coating the tank? Did you use Lucas fuel treatment or Marvel Mystery Oil?

Anyone else with failures, what additives did you use?

Scott
 
I think this could be an important part of the RedKote failure phenomenon...….I have a couple of dogs in this fight, so I'd like to know. Did you use ANY fuel additives/stabilizers in that tank after coating the tank? Did you use Lucas fuel treatment or Marvel Mystery Oil?

Anyone else with failures, what additives did you use?

Scott
Only whatever shit they put in the gas from the pump (Ethanol)

I never use Stabilizer, additives etc. because the tank is only 1.8 gallons and fuel rarely sits in it that long... but I think this has been a silent issue unknown to me for a while because my carbs always ran like shit if the bike sat for more than a month.
 
As far as cleaning the tank goes, I did as recommended on the can: Cleaned with degreaser, rinsed it out very thoroughly with distilled water, did another pass with Acetone to get the surface really clean/dry. let that evaporate for a few long hours, then hit it with Redkote. They stuff never flaked off, cracked or bubbled. It dissolved slowly and completely. It's even gone from the top of the tank. The only thing left is what was on the lip of the filler bung.
 
As far as cleaning the tank goes, I did as recommended on the can: Cleaned with degreaser, rinsed it out very thoroughly with distilled water, did another pass with Acetone to get the surface really clean/dry. let that evaporate for a few long hours, then hit it with Redkote. They stuff never flaked off, cracked or bubbled. It dissolved slowly and completely. It's even gone from the top of the tank. The only thing left is what was on the lip of the filler bung.
Same here. And mine was professionally applied by a radiator guy after the tank was boiled out.
I have been using Caswell and so far it seems to be working pretty well.
 
Okay. Newb question. If you get a brand new tank, why would you have to coat it? If it flunks a pressure test, wouldn't it be a defective tank, covered by the manufacturer/seller? :umm: I thought Redkote/Creem/etc., whatever, coatings were for old, rusty, holey (or unholy) p.o.s. tanks used for their cool lines or vintage paint jobs... :doh:
 
mrtwowheel, I have used no additives, stabilizers or octane boosters, nothing. However it may be important to note, that I use ethanol free gas, and I mean free, none of this up to 10% stuff. Only problem with ethanol free is that I can only get 87 octane. Also, I would be happy to send pics looking down into the filler cap, but don't know what purpose this would serve.
 
I've done several tanks with Caswell's, never had any problems. One was a fiberglass, had to be Caswelled in order to handle ethanol. All the others were done because the tanks leaked and/or were badly rusted and/or had failed non-Caswell liners. With Caswell's the tank does NOT need to be pristine. Just get rid of the loose junk in the tank and apply. Says so on the instructions, as I recall.
 
My "Northern" liner would dissolve and gum-up my carbs. Switched over to ethanol free, and it slowed the dissolving. Failed anyway. I wonder about mysterious fuel additives (like Techron) designed to keep injectors clean.

Another member of the "Caswells" crowd...
 
Okay. Newb question. If you get a brand new tank, why would you have to coat it? If it flunks a pressure test, wouldn't it be a defective tank, covered by the manufacturer/seller? :umm: I thought Redkote/Creem/etc., whatever, coatings were for old, rusty, holey (or unholy) p.o.s. tanks used for their cool lines or vintage paint jobs... :doh:
To prevent them from becoming rusty, holey p.o.s. Tanks. They will rust without either being constantly and completely full or coated in some way.
 
Yes, see if there's any way to thin the mix. It's so thick, that it takes awhile, slowly flipping/rotating the tank, to get it to flow all over. Also, tape over the tank openings with some really sticky tape. You can get a plastic mixing tub from Walmart. The mix is 750cc, so get the 1/2 gallon tub...
 
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