My bike has been sitting for about 2 months now with probably a gallon or two of fuel in the tanks. How long do you think I have before the inside of the tank starts to rust? Should I go and fill the tanks up all the way or drain them completely and take the gas caps off to prevent moisture build up?

 

When I would go on deployment for months I was always told to fill the tanks to prevent moisture. But when we ship cars during PCSing the shippers only want minumum fuel. It would take about a month to shp a car overseas. I really don't think a month would matter. But if it were me. I'd fill it up. Just my 2 cents

John

 

Fill it up and use a fuel stabilizer if it's going to sit for months.

I would think they wanted little or no fuel when shipping cars because it's a volatile liquid and liability issues.

 

I agree on the shipper's not wanting an excess amount of fuel if not necessray. However, arn't cars made with Composite fuel tanks?

I know everyone and their brother has always highly recomended Stabil fuel stabilizer and to top of the tank prior to storing.

I have had a rusty tank before on an old import. It sucked....would have been better to put a new tank on it rather than screw around with trying to clean out and seal the rust.

Always keep your fuel cap on.

 

I'll have to take a closer look at the inside of the tank to see if I'm getting any rust in there now......

 

I am also planning on taking the tank off altogether for powdercoating. The powdercoating process includes chemically stripping the interior of the tanks blowing out the inside of the tank and getting out all the impurities in there. I wonder if there is some sort of spray lining that I can use to spray the interior of the tank without having to bake it.....gas tank renu is baked inside the tank, but it would ruin the powder coating job.

 

I remember reading somewhere that there are a few manufacturers that line their tanks with an epoxy but I can't remember if the MOCO was one of them. Might be worth looking into; if they don't maybe there is an epoxy product that would work for you.

 

On some of my old dirt bikes with metal tanks we used to spray a cloud of WD40 inside to keep away the rust. Seemed to work, when we filled them up with gas the WD desolved and burned with the gas.

 

I've been riding for25 years and never had a tank rust yet. And when I was a kid I didn't know from fuel stabilizers. I've stored a 69 Camaro two different times for 7 and 11 years and it ran fine with 87 octane gas that old.
As for my 13 year old Harley I try to have the tank full with some SeaFoam mixed in, and I run it with the petcock off til it stalls so there's no fuel in the carb. But before that I just parked my bike in the winter with whatever amount was in it and never had a problem.

 

I doudt you'll have any trouble where you live, (cali). If the temperture fluctuates between freezing and warm, then it might be a good idea to keep it full.