Petrol tank sealer

[puppycharmer]

Hi,
I need to stop a very small leak in an aluminium petrol tank. I intend to use an in-tank sealer.
Does any one have good/bad experience or recommendations to relate with this type of product.
Thanks.

[herman]

Years ago I used a product called petseal but I think it had problems with unleaded fuel. A good place to look would be the classified ads in classic bike mag etc. I have to say it was very successful tho and sealed a rusty steel tank on a two stroke no probs.

[bull]

puppy, i have never used the in-thank sealer, but i have heard lads talk of it in the past and they said that it was a pretty good product,but i can't say for sure as i never used it. if it is only a small hole why not try some type of epoxy weld maybe.

[davsato]

its not the unleaded itself, its the ethanol in modern petrol that eats through old style petseal. but theyve come out with petseal "ultra" now for that. its had bad press with two stroke owners because it needs a spotless surface to stick to, and older premix stroker's tanks are generically oily and hard to clean!
petseal does what it says on the tin, but its only for tiny holes and sealing rust really. there are other brands out there too to try.
if youve got a hole big enough to see i'd get it welded up.

[NKL990]

Get some lumiweld and seal it up with that. Will be a much better and more permanent job.

[CRAIGREVO]

Petro patch putty works the same as instant metal. You mold it, stick it on, wait for it to dry, sand it and paint it if you want.

Its also very handy to keep whats left in your bike tool kit as it can repair a cracked engine casing at the side of the road.

granville-petro-patch-putty-multi-purpose-metal-repair_680446_500.jpg (40.1 KiB) Viewed 2802 times

[pinball1008]

I've used a tank sealer on my old triumph. It's worked great so far, I'll try and find what it was actually called.

Ok, found it.
http://www.frost.co.uk/automotive-tanks ... r-kit.html

[MadRat]

Yes the Methanol eats tank sealer, tho it may take some time....

Epoxy putty... OK.

Lumiweld OK. However on some alloy it will loosen after a few years....

? Send it to a Petrol Tank repair company....

Might be yer best option and cheaper than you think....

[puppycharmer]

Hi,
Thanks for all the advice. much appreciated.
Welding option has been considered and dismissed,(long story) hence decision to use sealer.

[Kerswellcrank]

A friend of mine used Petseal in the steel tank of his Suzuki GT550. The tank was in very good condition, he mainly did it as a precaution because of the age of the bike.
He bought the new version of the product, claimed to be suitable for modern unleaded fuel, and followed the instructions to the letter.

Within a week or so of putting fresh petrol in the tank, he noticed that the hard coating seemed slightly softer that before, and after another week or so, the coating was so soft, you could scrape it off with a fingernail.

The bike had always started and ran perfectly before coating the tank, now it was hard to start, and wouldn't run cleanly. When he stripped the carbs, all the jets were clogged with a sticky gum.

After almost a year of repeatedly stripping carbs, and changing contaminated fuel, we found out that Petseal sell a product that removes the coating by converting it to harmless flakes, which can be shaken/vacuumeed out of the tank. It was a fiddly job, but it worked.

The whole thing was an expensive and frustrating waste of time, made the bike unrideable, and unsellable, made all the more annoying as he'd only done it as a precaution in the first place.

It may be that a bike that had more frequent use would not have blocked the carbs so easily, but the tank sealer was obviously being dissolved into the fuel, and who knows what effect that might have on the bores, rings, valves etc.

It's interesting that Petseal make a product to remove Petseal.