I'm about done my resurrection of my 71 xlch and flushed the oil tank...I notices surface rust on the inside of the tank.....I'm thinkin this is okay given it will be full of hot oil...????

what do you guys think? How many older sportys have some rust in their tanks?

 

what do you guys think?
How many older sportys have some rust in their tanks?

Not much.
None that are running.

Well, you asked didn't you?
I see visions of the tank with warm oil inside of it, coming into contact with cold air flowing over the tanks outside skin. Condensation begins to form inside the tank walls on that already rusted surface. The little chips of rust easily release themselves from the tank walls and fall into that nice warm inviting oil.
Swriling around and around a few times they each wave bye-bye to their kin, and yell out....'See you guys in the bearings' just as they are sucked under the surface.

The rust is a serious matter and you should do something about it before you run the engine. If the rust is really bad I would search for another oil tank without a second thought. If it is simply very light surface scale then you may try giving it an acid treatment to kill the rust. The big problem with rust is once started, it does not want to stop. Unless neutralized and immediately covered with an epoxy primer it always comes back in my experience, and every day rust continues to live. it becomes worse.

I guess if it were me I would degrease the tank inside completely.
Next would be to treat it with an acid solution to neutralize the rust.
Then mix some epoxy primer up and pour inside the tank, swish it around to cover the inside walls as much as possible and then try to let the excess primer drain as much as possible by inverting the tank. 24 hours and it should be dry enough to prime and repaint the outside of the tank.

See, that's why I think it will be easier to just find another replacement tank.
Have you priced a new one from J&P yet? Asian made for sure, but nice clean metal. Give it some some consideration,,,,,,,pg

edit note: $150 and chrome to boot.

Tank (OEM 62508-73)

Part #7400260

 

her's where I'm stuck....I bought a bottom tank bracket from JP Cycle...I was stupid enough to install it before I checked the old broke bracket for sizing...turns out the JP bracket is about a half inch too tall....not sure why...anyway, the standard tank does not fit...but my old aftermarket tank does b/c I can modify the mount holes....why not do both the bracket and the tank...b/c I have a bit of a problem with the rear tranny mount where the bracket bolts to the tranny mount.....it's got some stripped threads and it spills shavings down into the tranny everytime I pull it....I'm not in the mood to strip down the primary again and clean out the tranny box.

Why did JP sell me a mount that does not account for the tranny mount bracket height?

Will POR-15 work in an oil tank?

 

While having never used por products in an oil tank I have had excellent results with them in gas tanks (unlike those garbage kreem products)so I would think that it would do fine.The key to success is to make sure that you don't miss any spots.Like under a rim etc.