Hi I’ve got an S4RS, just had it serviced and the tank is now so swollen the dealers couldn’t get it back on properly. I’ve looked on the net for an aluminium replacement, there’s a Japanese company will make one for me for £2.5k + import duty then I’ve got to get it sprayed so £3 to £3.5k!!!! Anyone know of a cheaper alternative? Cheers Dave
Buy an unswollen plastic one, and don’t put ethanol in it? You can get them to shrink back if you dry store them in a warm and well ventilated place. You need to get water back out of the plastic so it takes a few months to fully dry out.
Do you have a horizontal or vertical mounted battery on yours? It makes a difference which tanks fit.
@Shawn1one I have a spare that I believe is not swollen. Happy to let it go for £100 and if it turns out that it wont fit you can return it and have your money back.
I have an eti one on my trackbike. Ethanol resistant kevlar. The sender marks it as a repair, so no import duties. Very light too. https://eti-fuelcel.com/product/monster-sr4s/
What I have done with my swollen SF848 tank is buy a very slightly damaged one, checked that it wasn’t swollen, sealed the inside with Caswell Ethanol Resistant Fuel Tank Sealer, had it repaired and repainted. Then I can swap it with the original which I can dry out, get back to its original shape and sell it. It was also an opportunity for me to change the colour of the bike as well, so I had all the other bits of bodywork repainted as well.
Unfortunately drying the tank out will not return it to it's original size, it will be close but not original size, don't know why.
Its just the tank, hopefully you have all the other bits required on your bike. Would you like me to dig it out and send you some pictures of it before you decide if its worth trying ?
Is there a risk of the ethanol degrading the resin? Genuine question btw, as I have a carbon BTS 916 tank fitted on my special and it is a bit of a concern to me.
Hmm, not entirely sure tbh. I've had some recent drama with CF petrol tanks but more with the glue rails and the fittings interface. I asked the manufactures the same question as you as it had also crossed my mind. I was assured that modern methods and build techniques mitigate tank failure. So far so good with my V4S. Time will tell
And therein lies the rub... I bought my tank second hand and with it being for a 916, it’s probably the best part of 20 years old
There you go. Plenty of the underneath as I hope that will help determine if it is likely to fit before sending the tank. I'll be removing the cap and surround as I need them to go on another tank. I also have a spare steel tank but I think that is most unlikely to fit your bike . If the one above is no good I can send pics of that too if you think it is worth a try.
But you can have them treated and relined with all manner of super duper epoxy resins resistant to ethanol etc. I read an article on it in Practical Sportsbike recently. I bought mine from FullSix and it really is a thing of beauty. But jaysus, I've had some hassle along the way. Tbf FullSix were very good with me in after sales service. But it's fair to say I was quite patient too....
I hear you. I bought a carbon Jap4 Panigale seat unit for the same bike and not only did it arrive 3 weeks late, the fit of some of the parts is dreadful, some fixing holes don’t line up and there were air bubbles in the resin. Thanks for the advice re: resealing. Purely by coincidence earlier today I noticed that the tank has sprung a leak, seemingly from the fuel pump o ring, which isn’t a surprise tbh as we had to use 2 of them to get the damn thing to seal properly because the tolerances of the hole aren’t exactly cock on. Given that BST aren’t some back street Chinese knock off merchants, that came as a bit of a surprise. All of which is kind of a warning about non-standard parts....especially where petrol is involved.
Eeek, don't use 2 o-rings. I know it's a ball ache but you can have o-rings made up to fit if the OE ones don't cut it. Take it to a specialist, he'll sort your lining out too, shouldn't be too expensive. I too had some fuel leak fun and was a tad nervous about fire. Particularly as the petrol invariably seems to track directly to your exhaust headers