por -15 treatment starts tomorrow . any tips??

[gazoo]

yes i've read most all the posts regarding kreem , the yamaha cure , electrolysis , tank renu , and of course por 15 . seems everyone has had good luck with this . and it's cyberpoet approved ! my tank is rusty in spots , not a solid layer but spot rusted all over . i just got the kit and i'll start this off tomorrow morning after breakfast . i just wanted to know if anyone here has any advice or tips to make this go easier . i've got the hairdryer and duct tape ready . anything else i'm missing . oh by the way i'm in an apartment so no water hose but the laundry room has a large sink to do the tank rinse . thanks and looks like i'm going to become very familiar with my gas tank !

[steves]

Take your time, and pay attention to the directions.

I put a bunch of BBs and some distilled water in before I started, and used that to knock down any flakes.

[gazoo]

gotcha steve , yeah all the posts said " take your time !" so i plan on this being an all day thing . hopefully by dinner the tank will be drying out with the hair dryer .

[Cheriff]

I did mine a couple weeks ago. From start to complete finish it took about 7 hours.

Here are some tips/hints:
1- Before you seal off the openings with the duct tape, wipe the area with isopropyl alcohol everytime. Some off those solutions are going to make things slippery, and if you don't wipe off what you are about to tape EVERYTIME it will not hold and you will leak a lot.
2- A lot of time will be taken after you get to the actualy coating step. You want to roll it around slowly in all directions (obviously). But you also need to make sure you get excess out. I would let it drain out, lean it towards the petcock for a couple minutes and drain it again. I kept doing this until I wasn't getting anything after a ~15-20 minute wait.
3-The cleaning solution is slippery. Don't be like me and drop your tank in the process. One more dent to fix
4-Probably not a must, but I heated distilled water on the stove for rinsing. I went through somewhere around 10-12 gallons. Tap water can contain contaminents that could increase the amount of flash rusting. Although I believe the final coating can handle it, doing this just made me feel better.
5-Have towels ready
6-Once most of it is out, you can look through the openings with a light source behind the tank (and in the direction you are looking) and you will be able to see the inside of the tank and inspect your coating quality.

[Kreylyn]

You can drop the tank drying time line to less than 5 minutes by using 1 cup of acetone sloshed around inside the tank after your final rinse. Acetone absorbes the water, and when you drain the excess out, and apply the air flow, it will evaporate very very quickly from inside the tank. You can reuse the acetone btw, no need to throw it away.

Krey

[The CyberPoet]

gotcha steve , yeah all the posts said " take your time !" so i plan on this being an all day thing . hopefully by dinner the tank will be drying out with the hair dryer .

Don't expect to get it done in a day... The biggest mistake people make is not giving the rust eater enough time to do the job exceptionally well; it simply can't sit in there "too long" in principle. When I did the GF's Ninja 500 tank, it took over 2 days to eat away all the rust (and we had already done an attempt with the Yamaha stuff first, which she rinsed out at four hours).

Other than that, it's quite straight-forward.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[joe]

i had a heck of a time getting the bolts that hold the sending unit (the inner plate) to thread because some of the sealant worked its way into the holes. I finally got them to bite, but be careful. Also, make sure you don't let any of the sealant harden on the filler cap........I rendered mine completely useless (locking mechanism was frozen solid) and they are NOT cheap to replace. Luckily, I was able to snatch one up from Arsenic.

Ditto on taking your time and cleaning around your drain holes. I was very liberal with duct tape (I should have used some gasket material) but I was still leaking within a matter of minutes.

Good luck!

[gazoo]

update on rust

well i peeked inside and retaped the tank . i was using a mirrored flashlite and alot of the rust is gone but some still remains . does all the rust have to be gone ? reason i ask is because i don't think it's gonna happen . even with all the positions it's been in some rust still remains . do i have to order more of the metal ready ? opinions ? advice ? the stuff been in there since 3 this afternoon in case you wanted to know .

[The CyberPoet]

Every single bit of rust needs to come out, or else you're simply trapping it under the coating and it'll continue to rust away until it goes all the way through. Just give it more time, like I warned you...

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[gazoo]

yeah i was reading someone elses adventure about this and you told him the same thing . i'm going to go to the yamaha dealer and pick up the rust treatment from them tomorrow just in case . i doubt theres enough metal ready in there to keep all of one side submerged ( some leaked out ) . also with the way you can dilute their stuff i'll have more than enough . thanks !

[The CyberPoet]

The Yamaha stuff doesn't work any significantly faster...

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[gazoo]

yeah but i just don't think theres enough solution in the tank for it to get rid of all the rust . i read that you can dilute the yamaha stuff with 2.5 gallons of water which will cover alot of area without having to turn the tank over every 1/2 hour . i 'll just need to make better seals to keep the solution in there .

[The CyberPoet]

You don't have to turn it every 1/2 hour -- turn it every 3 - 4 hours and it'll still work.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[gazoo]

not to beat a dead horse but i hate reading threads that end up not knowing what worked or if the problem was resolved . so , i'd just like you all to know that i redid the cleaning portion only this time i just wrapped the gas cap and everything else in garbage bags and then masked it off . it worked perfectly , no leaks . i ordered a gallon of metal ready and put the tank in a different position every day for a week and it did the trick . tank came out spotless . i rinsed really well for about 45 minutes then . hooked the hair dryer and wrapped around the filler hole and left it on for a few hours . i was told this was WAAY too long but wtf !! it was dry i'll tell ya that . i then inverted it and let it sit overnite to dry some more . after inspecting it for any water and finding none i followed the instructions for the coating . PLEASE wear gloves for this step . this stuff is a pita to get off , not to mention you gotta keep moving the tank to get it to cover the entire inside . then drain the remainder . so now it sits drying ( curing ) for the week before i put it back on . i did order a new fuel sending unit for it and hope to report back with good results . this was a pita to do i hope i never have to do it again .

[The CyberPoet]

i ordered a gallon of metal ready and put the tank in a different position every day for a week and it did the trick . tank came out spotless. i rinsed really well for about 45 minutes

Good to hear you did it "right" and will never have to think about it again... getting all the rust out is the best practice, and if all the rust is gone before the coating goes on, the tank will outlast the rest of the bike (barring accidents of course).

then hooked the hair dryer and wrapped around the filler hole and left it on for a few hours . i was told this was WAAY too long but wtf !!

No too long for the tank -- too long for most standard hair dryers, which aren't rated to run for more than 20 minutes at a pop, even running at low... Then again, if you burn through a $12 hair dryer, the only one complaining is your other half, right?
One word of caution: Industrial heat guns put out far more heat than typical hair dryers and can result in your paint literally cooking off on the outside of the tank if you leave them running as the dryer for the tank for extended periods of time. If you're working with an industrial heat gun, use your hands to gauge the temp of the steel constantly.

it was dry i'll tell ya that . i then inverted it and let it sit overnite to dry some more . after inspecting it for any water and finding none i followed the instructions for the coating . PLEASE wear gloves for this step . this stuff is a pita to get off , not to mention you gotta keep moving the tank to get it to cover the entire inside . then drain the remainder . so now it sits drying ( curing ) for the week before i put it back on . i did order a new fuel sending unit for it and hope to report back with good results . this was a pita to do i hope i never have to do it again.

Unless you live somewhere exceptionally dry and arid (say a desert), the POR-15 coating should set up and cure well enough in 48 hours during warmer weather to use. If you want to accelerate the cure time, after it stops flowing at all (i.e. - it sets-up), sit the tank on the toilet, crank the shower up to steam the whole bathroom and then let it sit in the steam -- the POR-15 is humidity-cured, and a higher water content in the air will supposedly cure the coating faster.

Yeah, properly treating/fixing a rusty tank is a PIA, but knowing it will never be an issue again is a god-send. Personally, I wish manufacturers would pre-coat their tanks (BMW does with some of their models). There is also a product that one of my local (trusted) dealer reps swears by for removing any water content in the bottom of tanks called Sentry Ethanol Rx. I've looked at the chemistry of the stuff, and it really will encapsulate the equivalent amount of water as what you add to the tank (i.e. - 1 ounce of Ethanol Rx will encapsulate 1 ounce of water in the tank).
Video of the stuff in action: http://www.ethanolrx.com/movies/EthanolRxBurn.mp4
If I was winterizing, I'd probably add it to the last tank I was going to burn through before the winter (to clear any water), then add marine-grade Stabil to the last tank, and again add the Ethanol Rx to the second tank in the spring (the first tankful would get Techron), just to make sure all the water is out... If anyone wants this stuff, let me know and I'll acquire it for them.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet