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POR-15 How-To/How-Not-To Write Up
I did the POR-15 tank seal last week, and I took lots of pictures for everyone. I hope this helps some who are apprehensive about getting it done. I did this using the fuel tank repair kit from POR-15, but I made a few mistakes and I hope anyone following this can learn from them. Please read this through to the end before
Preparation:
In order to do this you must remove and drain your tank, and remove all accessories. In case you haven't done it, here's how I did it on my Pre 750:
- Do this with a nearly empty tank
- Make sure petcock is set to ON (Not PRI!)
- Remove seat
- Disconnect battery
- Remove two 10mm bolts on rear of tank
- Lift tank about 6 inches and find fuel sender wire on the right side of the tank
- Follow fuel sender wire to the connector (not on the tank, go the other way), and disconnect
- Disconnect drain hose on fuel sender if attached
- Disconnect drain hose on bottom of tank if attached
- Disconnect vacuum hose on right of petcock
- Disconnect fuel line(s) with a rag nearby, prepare for fuel to leak on bike
- If fuel leaks from petcock, turn tank on the sender side and buy a petcock rebuild kit
- Use a hose to siphon the majority of the fuel from the tank into a safe container
- Remove the petcock, fuel drain, and sending unit (petcock filter is very delicate, be careful! and be careful while removing the fuel level sender as well)
- Drain remaining fuel through petcock hole
- Leave tank to dry in a well ventilated place for a few days
Ingredients:
Now, a list of what you need:
A) Fuel Tank
B) Bucket
C) POR-15 Metal Prep
D) POR-15 Marine Clean
E) POR-15 Sealer
F) POR-15 Instructions
G) White Lithium Grease / Vaseline
H) Screws From Petcock (no sender screws needed)
I) Masking / Painter's Tape (no duct tape needed)
J) Hair Drier
K) Gloves
L) Respirator(s) and Mask(s)
M) Soft rags
Not pictured: Aluminum foil.
Not pictured: Flathead screwdriver.
I bought everything pictured new except the hair drier, aluminum foil, the rag, and the tank (of course), and I bought two pairs of goggles, masks, and gloves. All of this came in under $100, including the POR-15 kit, for which I got charged sales tax because I'm in NY. If you have most of these things around, you can probably get away with paying only for the cost of the kit.
Procedure Overview:
Okay, so it helps to go over the instructions a few times before you begin. Here's the short of it:
- Plug all holes except one
- Rinse with water
- Full bottle of marine clean and a quart of warm (not hot) water
- Turn on all sides
- Rinse out with lots of cold water
- Full bottle of metal ready
- Turn on all sides
- Rinse out with very warm water
- Air dry quickly
- POR-15 the tank
- Turn on all sides
- Drain POR-15 excess
Be ready for this process to consume an entire day. It took me 13 hours. I took some breaks and helped my uncle with a couple things.
Number one thing to be ready for: taping the container will not work well unless you listen. Use LOTS of tape, lots of layers, all masking tape, don't screw around. The main reason for the pics is so you know how much to use.
Number two, have someone help you. I had my cousin give me a hand, and it was worth it to have someone to share the work with. 13 hours of this will get boring, so bring music, movies, whatever.
Finally, wear your protection. The labels for these chemicals are riddles with fun buzzwords like "cancer," "affects brain or nervous system," "targeted organ damage," and other things.
Let's go over sealing the holes before we get started.
Making Seals:
I read about this numerous times, and it as suggested by forum members and in every post. I just never got the point until I tried it, so I hope to help you skip the frustration and avoid chemical leaks altogether by posting the following information on how to stop leaks.
1) The top can be covered with just a rag and some aluminum foil, but you need to fold the foil over several times. I suggest at least 3-4 layers of foil. Cover the fill hole on top of the tank, and then push a rag into it. Rip the excess from around the sides. You should be able to rest the tank on the fill cap and none of the contents will leak. When you pick up the tank, always pick it up by the fill cap. Make sure whatever you rest your tank on, that the fill cap is securely pressing against the top. I used milk crates. The tank balanced well on the fill cap. Here's how I did mine:
2) Use lots of masking tape to cover the petcock and fuel sender holes. The following did not work:
The following did work: Place aluminum foil in the two rings around the fuel sender area. Liquids can certainly get through there, and once they get through, the rest of your tape job is useless.
Now place duct tape over both the fuel sender and the petcock holes. Start with small pieces and go larger and larger, covering the areas in a star pattern. Keep going until you have a large area covered.
This should suffice for keeping liquids inside your tank. If you do have a leak, turn the tank on the side that's not leaking, usually rest it upside down and against the fill cap. Remove the tape that's there, scrub down the area with a rag until very dry, and then re-apply lots of tape.
The paint on my tank was old, and some of the paint came up when I pulled the tape. If you have old paint, pull very gently. Also, try not to tape on the top parts of your tank. Pulling tape from there won't do you any favors. Instead, use your hands to keep the fill cap shut.
Let's Get Started
Okay, so you're ready to begin? You have all the ingredients, you understand how to seal the holes (you will need to do this a few times), and you have about 13 hours to kill? Let's get started.
1) Seal the top of the tank and the petcock hole as shown above.
2) Heat up about a quart of water, but don't boil it. Pour it into your tank.
3) Pour in the entire quart of Marine Clean
4) Tape up the fuel sender hole as shown above.
5) Turn over slowly on either the left or right side and see if it leaks. If all is well, turn it to the other side.
6) Once you're sure there are no leaks, turn it over and over for about 20 minutes to make sure you coat every interior surface really well.
7) Leave the tank to rest on one side for about two hours. Repeat this process for all sides. I only did this for the bottom, but I probably should have done the rest too.
8) Once done, remove all the tape and rinse out the inside several times with warm water. The stuff is very foamy, so just keep rinsing until only water comes out. I ran out of hot water, so I used cold.
9) Cover all the holes except the sending unit hole again, and now pour in the Metal Ready (phosphoric acid).
10) Seal up all the holes, and shake the tank for half an hour.
11) Turn the tank over on each side for 30 minutes. Now, the instructions say don't do this for more than two hours total. However, members of this forum say you can't do it too much. I did it for 3-4 hours with 30 minutes per side, and hardly any rust came out, but I my tank wasn't too rusty to begin with.
If you're using a milk crate like me, you can lay the tank flat and upside down quite easily, as well as lean it against something while pitched all the way forward or all the way back. On its side, the tank will not stay balanced, so use a rag to support it.
12) Add a gallon or so of water to the tank, and rinse it out. Do this 5 more times at least. You want to get more than just the acid out. You want to also get rid of the salty residue that's left behind.
13) Use the hair drier to run air through the tank's fuel sender hole. Don't go on full heat for more than a minute or two, but do this until the tank is completely dry.
14) Now that you think the tank is completely dry, turn it around and do it all over again. This part was easier for me as the hair drier stayed there on its own.
15) Let the tank cool down for about 3 minutes. Stick your hand in there. Is it still wet? Keep drying it. This is the most important part. No matter how badly you screw up the rest of this, leaving moisture in your tank will ruin your POR-15 job the most. Keep drying it until it is COMPLETELY DRY!
Now, immediately after drying the tank, you should apply the POR-15. Otherwise, flash rust may form. I have no idea if it does because I applied the POR-15 immediately. Well, first the lithium grease.
16) Apply lithium grease to the following:
- Threads and bottom of petcock screws (this is to keep POR15 out of the threaded holes)
- Bottom of all the aluminum foil including the one covering the petcock hole, the fuel sender hole, and the fill hole.
17) Screw in the petcock screws until they protrude slightly inside the tank. Estimate this, but err on the side of screws being in the tank. Apply the greased up aluminum foil. Tape over it until fully secured.
18) Plug the fill hole with the greased up aluminum foil and rag again. Rest tank upside down.
19) Now, open the can of POR-15 with a flat head screw driver. If you expected me to tell you again to wear your protection, you're in luck. This stuff is pretty powerful, so goggles and mask are probably a good idea.
20) Stir the POR-15. Now, the directions tell you to stir until it's a uniform color. Ignore that entirely. There will never be a uniform color. Instead, stir it for about 10 minutes. Seriously, 10 minutes. If you're in doubt about how it turned out, check your clock. If you've been stirring for 10 minutes, go to the next step. If you don't remember if you've been stirring for 10 minutes, put your mask on, stir for 10 more minutes, and proceed to the next step. I called POR-15, and they said 10 minutes should do. I did it for an hour. This was the result, and an example of what NOT to do.
21) Now, pour all the POR-15 in to the tank through the fuel sender hole. Plug it with the aluminum foil with vaseline on it and secure it with tape.
22) Turn the tank over slowly and evenly on all sides for about 2-2.5 hours. Do it slowly and make sure you get every side. I did a slow forward pitch while slowly doing a roll with it, and after about 3 hours I decided to check inside.
23) For me there was no excess because I mixed for too long and maybe rolled it for too long. I did about an hour of mixing and 3+ hours of rolling. This is wrong. If there is excess, remove the tape over the petcock hole, but not the screws. Leaving the screws in makes sure no POR-15 gets in the threaded screw holes. Drain through here. The POR-15 will be pretty solid already, so expect about half an hour of draining.
24) Remove all tape. Remove the petcock screws/bolts. Leave tank to dry for several days and use a hair drier on it every once in a while. Always on low or no heat, as the idea is to circulate air. Heat could be damaging during the curing stages.
Results and Curing
If you went all the way through with this, you will find that the tank now has an even coat of POR-15 on the inside. I suppose I could have done a better job of making sure the area around the fill hole got covered, but everything else in my tank is very evenly coated. I even got the drain from the fill hole to the bottom of the tank coated entirely.
Here's one from the next day.
I've been going back to it every other day for about a week and blow drying it for about an hour. Always on low or no heat because the idea is airflow not temperature. Heating the POR15 could affect the curing. I am really confident that it turned out well. When you use the hair drier, also thread the petcock screws in through the respective holes.
I hope this helped you do this to your tank. Although I don't know this, the results supposedly last a lifetime.
-notten
Preparation:
In order to do this you must remove and drain your tank, and remove all accessories. In case you haven't done it, here's how I did it on my Pre 750:
- Do this with a nearly empty tank
- Make sure petcock is set to ON (Not PRI!)
- Remove seat
- Disconnect battery
- Remove two 10mm bolts on rear of tank
- Lift tank about 6 inches and find fuel sender wire on the right side of the tank
- Follow fuel sender wire to the connector (not on the tank, go the other way), and disconnect
- Disconnect drain hose on fuel sender if attached
- Disconnect drain hose on bottom of tank if attached
- Disconnect vacuum hose on right of petcock
- Disconnect fuel line(s) with a rag nearby, prepare for fuel to leak on bike
- If fuel leaks from petcock, turn tank on the sender side and buy a petcock rebuild kit
- Use a hose to siphon the majority of the fuel from the tank into a safe container
- Remove the petcock, fuel drain, and sending unit (petcock filter is very delicate, be careful! and be careful while removing the fuel level sender as well)
- Drain remaining fuel through petcock hole
- Leave tank to dry in a well ventilated place for a few days
Ingredients:
Now, a list of what you need:
A) Fuel Tank
B) Bucket
C) POR-15 Metal Prep
D) POR-15 Marine Clean
E) POR-15 Sealer
F) POR-15 Instructions
G) White Lithium Grease / Vaseline
H) Screws From Petcock (no sender screws needed)
I) Masking / Painter's Tape (no duct tape needed)
J) Hair Drier
K) Gloves
L) Respirator(s) and Mask(s)
M) Soft rags
Not pictured: Aluminum foil.
Not pictured: Flathead screwdriver.
I bought everything pictured new except the hair drier, aluminum foil, the rag, and the tank (of course), and I bought two pairs of goggles, masks, and gloves. All of this came in under $100, including the POR-15 kit, for which I got charged sales tax because I'm in NY. If you have most of these things around, you can probably get away with paying only for the cost of the kit.
Procedure Overview:
Okay, so it helps to go over the instructions a few times before you begin. Here's the short of it:
- Plug all holes except one
- Rinse with water
- Full bottle of marine clean and a quart of warm (not hot) water
- Turn on all sides
- Rinse out with lots of cold water
- Full bottle of metal ready
- Turn on all sides
- Rinse out with very warm water
- Air dry quickly
- POR-15 the tank
- Turn on all sides
- Drain POR-15 excess
Be ready for this process to consume an entire day. It took me 13 hours. I took some breaks and helped my uncle with a couple things.
Number one thing to be ready for: taping the container will not work well unless you listen. Use LOTS of tape, lots of layers, all masking tape, don't screw around. The main reason for the pics is so you know how much to use.
Number two, have someone help you. I had my cousin give me a hand, and it was worth it to have someone to share the work with. 13 hours of this will get boring, so bring music, movies, whatever.
Finally, wear your protection. The labels for these chemicals are riddles with fun buzzwords like "cancer," "affects brain or nervous system," "targeted organ damage," and other things.
Let's go over sealing the holes before we get started.
Making Seals:
I read about this numerous times, and it as suggested by forum members and in every post. I just never got the point until I tried it, so I hope to help you skip the frustration and avoid chemical leaks altogether by posting the following information on how to stop leaks.
1) The top can be covered with just a rag and some aluminum foil, but you need to fold the foil over several times. I suggest at least 3-4 layers of foil. Cover the fill hole on top of the tank, and then push a rag into it. Rip the excess from around the sides. You should be able to rest the tank on the fill cap and none of the contents will leak. When you pick up the tank, always pick it up by the fill cap. Make sure whatever you rest your tank on, that the fill cap is securely pressing against the top. I used milk crates. The tank balanced well on the fill cap. Here's how I did mine:
2) Use lots of masking tape to cover the petcock and fuel sender holes. The following did not work:
The following did work: Place aluminum foil in the two rings around the fuel sender area. Liquids can certainly get through there, and once they get through, the rest of your tape job is useless.
Now place duct tape over both the fuel sender and the petcock holes. Start with small pieces and go larger and larger, covering the areas in a star pattern. Keep going until you have a large area covered.
This should suffice for keeping liquids inside your tank. If you do have a leak, turn the tank on the side that's not leaking, usually rest it upside down and against the fill cap. Remove the tape that's there, scrub down the area with a rag until very dry, and then re-apply lots of tape.
The paint on my tank was old, and some of the paint came up when I pulled the tape. If you have old paint, pull very gently. Also, try not to tape on the top parts of your tank. Pulling tape from there won't do you any favors. Instead, use your hands to keep the fill cap shut.
Let's Get Started
Okay, so you're ready to begin? You have all the ingredients, you understand how to seal the holes (you will need to do this a few times), and you have about 13 hours to kill? Let's get started.
1) Seal the top of the tank and the petcock hole as shown above.
2) Heat up about a quart of water, but don't boil it. Pour it into your tank.
3) Pour in the entire quart of Marine Clean
4) Tape up the fuel sender hole as shown above.
5) Turn over slowly on either the left or right side and see if it leaks. If all is well, turn it to the other side.
6) Once you're sure there are no leaks, turn it over and over for about 20 minutes to make sure you coat every interior surface really well.
7) Leave the tank to rest on one side for about two hours. Repeat this process for all sides. I only did this for the bottom, but I probably should have done the rest too.
8) Once done, remove all the tape and rinse out the inside several times with warm water. The stuff is very foamy, so just keep rinsing until only water comes out. I ran out of hot water, so I used cold.
9) Cover all the holes except the sending unit hole again, and now pour in the Metal Ready (phosphoric acid).
10) Seal up all the holes, and shake the tank for half an hour.
11) Turn the tank over on each side for 30 minutes. Now, the instructions say don't do this for more than two hours total. However, members of this forum say you can't do it too much. I did it for 3-4 hours with 30 minutes per side, and hardly any rust came out, but I my tank wasn't too rusty to begin with.
If you're using a milk crate like me, you can lay the tank flat and upside down quite easily, as well as lean it against something while pitched all the way forward or all the way back. On its side, the tank will not stay balanced, so use a rag to support it.
12) Add a gallon or so of water to the tank, and rinse it out. Do this 5 more times at least. You want to get more than just the acid out. You want to also get rid of the salty residue that's left behind.
13) Use the hair drier to run air through the tank's fuel sender hole. Don't go on full heat for more than a minute or two, but do this until the tank is completely dry.
14) Now that you think the tank is completely dry, turn it around and do it all over again. This part was easier for me as the hair drier stayed there on its own.
15) Let the tank cool down for about 3 minutes. Stick your hand in there. Is it still wet? Keep drying it. This is the most important part. No matter how badly you screw up the rest of this, leaving moisture in your tank will ruin your POR-15 job the most. Keep drying it until it is COMPLETELY DRY!
Now, immediately after drying the tank, you should apply the POR-15. Otherwise, flash rust may form. I have no idea if it does because I applied the POR-15 immediately. Well, first the lithium grease.
16) Apply lithium grease to the following:
- Threads and bottom of petcock screws (this is to keep POR15 out of the threaded holes)
- Bottom of all the aluminum foil including the one covering the petcock hole, the fuel sender hole, and the fill hole.
17) Screw in the petcock screws until they protrude slightly inside the tank. Estimate this, but err on the side of screws being in the tank. Apply the greased up aluminum foil. Tape over it until fully secured.
18) Plug the fill hole with the greased up aluminum foil and rag again. Rest tank upside down.
19) Now, open the can of POR-15 with a flat head screw driver. If you expected me to tell you again to wear your protection, you're in luck. This stuff is pretty powerful, so goggles and mask are probably a good idea.
20) Stir the POR-15. Now, the directions tell you to stir until it's a uniform color. Ignore that entirely. There will never be a uniform color. Instead, stir it for about 10 minutes. Seriously, 10 minutes. If you're in doubt about how it turned out, check your clock. If you've been stirring for 10 minutes, go to the next step. If you don't remember if you've been stirring for 10 minutes, put your mask on, stir for 10 more minutes, and proceed to the next step. I called POR-15, and they said 10 minutes should do. I did it for an hour. This was the result, and an example of what NOT to do.
21) Now, pour all the POR-15 in to the tank through the fuel sender hole. Plug it with the aluminum foil with vaseline on it and secure it with tape.
22) Turn the tank over slowly and evenly on all sides for about 2-2.5 hours. Do it slowly and make sure you get every side. I did a slow forward pitch while slowly doing a roll with it, and after about 3 hours I decided to check inside.
23) For me there was no excess because I mixed for too long and maybe rolled it for too long. I did about an hour of mixing and 3+ hours of rolling. This is wrong. If there is excess, remove the tape over the petcock hole, but not the screws. Leaving the screws in makes sure no POR-15 gets in the threaded screw holes. Drain through here. The POR-15 will be pretty solid already, so expect about half an hour of draining.
24) Remove all tape. Remove the petcock screws/bolts. Leave tank to dry for several days and use a hair drier on it every once in a while. Always on low or no heat, as the idea is to circulate air. Heat could be damaging during the curing stages.
Results and Curing
If you went all the way through with this, you will find that the tank now has an even coat of POR-15 on the inside. I suppose I could have done a better job of making sure the area around the fill hole got covered, but everything else in my tank is very evenly coated. I even got the drain from the fill hole to the bottom of the tank coated entirely.
Here's one from the next day.
I've been going back to it every other day for about a week and blow drying it for about an hour. Always on low or no heat because the idea is airflow not temperature. Heating the POR15 could affect the curing. I am really confident that it turned out well. When you use the hair drier, also thread the petcock screws in through the respective holes.
I hope this helped you do this to your tank. Although I don't know this, the results supposedly last a lifetime.
-notten
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