Hitchcocks Forum

I know! Dangerous practice!
I'm just about to lay up one of my bikes (the precious one) for the winter.
If I leave the tank empty it might rust (it already has a bit)
If I leave it full the fuel will go stale.
How about filling with CO2? (of which I have plenty)
I know the tank will breath a bit with changes in temperature but not much and with no O2 in there it shouldn't rust.

Discuss.

I'm no chemist but but I do recall that CO2 + H2O = Carbonic acid. Acid rain, enough to dissolve limestone into caves....

You might be better off filling it with Nitrogen, or swilling it around with a bit of petrol mixed 50/50 with two stroke oil to coat the inside surface.

Why not fill the tank up with fuel and simply mix in an additive/treatment made specifically to prevent winter storage fuel problems caused by moisture/ethanol/stale fuel.

I leave the tank full. Winter storage for my bike is 4 months and I have never experienced stale fuel. The Bullet engine is no rocket tech; actually I would rather compare it with ancient agricultural engine tech. Just fill it up, forget about the concept of stale fuel and fire it up when spring comes around. It usually happens long before any fuel can go bad. Bullets are ridden in the real world; not in a theoretical construction... regards Jacob

Over the years I have never drained the tank of my 350 Bullet in the winter never had any problems.
Ray B

There have been several (non recent) posts on here about ethanol separation which is probably more relevant than dealing with stale fuel.
IMHO £2 worth of prevention is far better than numerous man hours and aggreavation of cure.

I'm with Bogie.
I've more than once left both bikes with part empty tanks for months on end. More than six months last time with fuel that was months old anyway.

Pete.

If you really feel the need to do something, take the tank off, drain it, then pour in about half a pint of petrol, followed by 100ml of 2T oil.

Put cap on and shake shake shake so that the petroil mix covers the inside of the tank, then drain.

Voila - tank will not rust on the inside.

Alternativley dont worry about it. Most of my bikes over winter with fuel left in the tank, all I ever do is give them a shake once in a while and never had any probs.

Great minds think alike - see post #2!

If you feel the need to drain the tank it's easy to remove it and keep it indoors at room temperature over the winter.Personally I have always left plenty in the tank over winter and started the bike every other week for 5 minutes.