Wonder if anyone has any specific experience of fuel tanks made using polyester resin systems, degrading when high ethanol fuels are being used?
Seems that vinylester resin works a great deal better with methanol fuels, and would be probably be more suitable for ethanol as well.
Yes, I wouldn’t use ANY Poly based materials and expect a stable environment with fuels. The Ethanol based fuels also have a terrible corrosive nature with most metals and aluminum.They even attack O’rings if not made of Viton .
I work in fuels and vapor R&D officially.
Cheers, Vinny
Never had any problems at all using poly resin systems for fuel tanks which are sold here in the UK, but understand there have been difficultys with a competitors tanks which have been sold in the US.
I think using a specific epoxy tank sealing product, may very well reduce the chances of any problems occuring in regard to tanks sold in the US.
http://www.compositeforum.werksberg.com/showthread.php?t=1609
We examined this concept at length a few weeks back, and the consensus seems to be that it’s not a good idea!
Any fuel that has exotic solvents in it or alcohol is a bad idea. Ive never seen a single one last.
spend a few hours on google doing crative searching for suitable epoxies, I remember coming across stuff used int the aviation industry, heavy industry and others that said they were designed with these properties in mind. they do exist but you have to spend some time to find them…
I have spoken to West regarding alcohol fuels, and they have said they dont know of anything that would be 100% reliable!
However a laminator I use makes tanks for methanol burning race bikes, and these last for a couple of years before any noticeable degradation.
No problems at all with the GRP tanks for normal fuel, that I have been selling for the last 3 years…
CB, try contacting BJB Ent. or PTM&W for their inputs to.
The Honda tanks I make have also been manufactured for a couple of years in the US, by a company that makes plastics for Indy cars, not heard of them having any problems.
Its very difficult getting much technical help from manufacturers of resin systems, as I guess they dont have much experience of fuel tanks designed to hold petrol.
Marine diesel tanks all seem to be made using vinyl ester, so thats probably almost as good as epoxy. Be making a tank for my own bike soon, using some free carbon/kevlar that I picked up a while back, and epoxy resin, but dont think these would ever be commercially viable to sell, as they would be too expensive.
arent you still just seaming them together with a paste?
Id really like to see an example of that. I think it would be beneficial for some of us to see your technique of glueing the halves together.
To tell you the truth guys, I make one fuel tank for Hiyabusa Suzuki GSXR1300. I use a special resin and then when finished I send it to cover all the entire tank with plastic. Till this moment I don;t have any problem at all. The same exactly is the KTM LC8 double fuel tanks.