Gas looks like red wine after red kote

[Caleb Hurst]

Hey everyone,

I am wrapping up my 1981 xs650 cafe racer restoration currently. I used red kote tank liner after I got rid of my rust on the tank. Let it sit in a air conditioned building for 3 weeks. Put it back in and my gas still looks like red wine!!

I just took it off again and am going to let it sit for a while. Does anyone have any advice on any ways I can get this tank to dry? It sat for 3 weeks and still didn't dry all the way. And I was careful to make sure there wasn't too much of liner building up in the baffles on the bottom.

I'll include a photo image of some of the gas I poured from the tank below.

thanks!

- Caleb

 

[timbeck]

 

[gggGary]

Heat speeds chemical reactions. Sunlight, hot car, make a solar box out of visqueen or old windows, hair dryer.

 

[Brassneck]

If you're using ethanol mixed gas (as in pump gas), I've heard it does a good job of pulling out the pigment from the redkote. A guy I race with relined his tank with redkote last season, and his fuel was red for a few months...but by the end of the race season the red colored fuel went away, and the redkote seems to have held up in the tank without issue--meaning, no issues with running red fuel in the bike and the tank liner didn't come off/get soft, etc. that I could tell. He also switched up to 100LL mixed with ethanol free gas, so that could have been part of the reason.

Hope that helps with some perspective

 

[The Tin Man]

hows it taste?

 

[ThatXS650Guy]

Not a fan of Redkote. This was professionally applied and "cured" for months. Lasted a couple of years before it failed and gummed up everything.

 

[Ipa62]

During rebuild of my bike I had the tank professionally redkoted, first boiled out (completely stripped inside and out) and then coated. The shop said it was normal to see a red tint in the gas when first put in service. The tank did not see gas for maybe 6 months while I completed rebuild and paint. When I did finally put fuel in it there was no red color to the gas at all and it has had gas in it now for a couple years. The redkote looks as good as day one. I can only guess that dry curing time is your friend. I’ve read up a bit on tank coating products and they all seem to have mixed reviews, one guy loves this and hates that, the next guy loves that and hates this. At this point I’m satisfied with redkote, I just hope it lasts a good long time.

 

[yamamunn]

I used caswell epoxy tank sealer 6-7 years ago still looks like the day I did it

 

[MrBultaco]

I bought a fiberglass tank from Omars that was sealed with a blue coating. The gas was light blue after I drained it. Contacted Omars and
they said that was normal. Tim said the gas was still good. Red Kote might be the same.

 

[gggGary]

On the other hand, there are some not so good liners...

 

[xjwmx]

I didn't know the Red Cross supplied typing paper.