Continuing the strip, clean and rebuild of my MTS1000DS I lifted the tank/seat unit off the bike, concerned about the apparent quantity of fuel remaining in the tank (although the gauge showed LOW) I drained it all out into a clean bowl. I was alarmed at the quantity of water at the bottom of the bowl! Question is, are plastic tanks prone to condensation and if not how the hell did it get in there?
Check the drain at the filler cap surround. It is most likely blocked and rain and water from washing the bike will find it's way into the tank when you open the cap.
Thanks for the advice, cap drain and hose are clear enough to blow through. Seems like a lot of water to get in that way. In about a gallon and a half of 'fuel' at least half a gallon was water. No wonder it was hard to start!
Hard to start! I wouldn't think it would run at all. Sounds more like it got in with the fuel. I once got a jam jar of water in my tank after a fill up but 1/2 a gallon!
You do hear of water contaminated fuel ups from time to time but as you say Derek....1/2 a gallon!!!! There's bound to be water in the garage fuel storage tanks (condensation) and I guess from time to time it should be drawn off or the quantity will just increase and increase. Apparently most (all?) garages use a monitoring system called 'Veedor - Root sytem' which checks how much fuel is left in each storage tank on a minute by minute basis in order that the service station can order ahead to make sure they don't run out of fuel. When the fuel left in a tank is down to 600 litres a warning is sounded because there is a chance of water left in the tank been being transferred to a vehicle...if this warning is ignored the next warning sounds at 300 litres when the pumps should be shut off as there is a very strong possibility of water in the fuel at the pumps.
Do the tanks have floating pickup system then, that ensures fuel is drawn off at or near the surface so that there is no chance of contaminants from the bottom of the tank being pumped through?
I've not really ridden this bike far, test drive only, so the fuel has come from somewhere other than my local garage. Hopefully thats the last time it happens. Taking the seat/tank off is a bit of a pain but the only sure way to get it all.
No idea so I had a search around on t'internet but didn't come up with anything specific.....the schematics I came across all showed a fixed pickup set some distance (unspecified) from the bottom of the tank. I'm guessing that water in fuel becomes a risk due to poor maintenance regime by the garage owner, i.e. they must have to draw off water from time to time to reduce the water level. Steve is the tank still off?............might be worth doing some testing, before refitting, to make sure that water cannot somehow ingress via the filler cap.
The tank went back on late yesterday after fitting the bargain Ducati Perf comfort seat. I tested the cap seal by putting fuel in the tank and turning the tank upside down. I also filled the tank cap well, with water, and checked the flow through the drain. All seems ok.
The ethanol in fuel is hygroscopic, so it will attract water from the atmosphere and if left to sit it will then separate out. If either the bike or fuel is stored in damp conditions for a long period of time it will soak up quite a lot of water. This can be a problem if you buy petrol from a rarely-used petrol station, or use stored petrol, or leave your bike with fuel in it for a long time, eg over winter. Most fuels will contain ethanol, and the pumps don't have to be labelled unless the ethanol mix is over 5%. Petrol blends vary by region (ie, what you get in the south-west is not the same in the north-east!) and by producer, but a safer bet is to use Super unleaded instead of regular, as this tends to not have ethanol at all. If you are going to store your bike, either drain the tank of fuel or brim the tank with fuel - having fuel with an air gap allows water to take up the remaining space!
If this water was not poured in intentionally I can only assume that it is from a combination of issues, looking at the fuel pickup, into the pump, a small amount (2 - 3 pints/1 litre) would remain in the tank, any additional water would get into the pump inlet and cause problems with starting/running. I suspect that if you ran the tank empty there would still be 'liquid' remaining. This does raise the question that if ethanol is soluble in water then the engine is not burning it and lowering the octane rating of the fuel being burnt?!
Most Ducatis will run on E10, but whether they run to the same performance as 5% ethanol or 0% ethanol is a different matter! Don't forget that E10 has to be denoted at the pump by law in the same size lettering as the words "Unleaded Petrol" (eg, "Unleaded E10"), whereas anything up to 5% ethanol doesn't, so you're not going to mistake putting E10 into your vehicle.
As above, it could be through a combination of factors - contaminated fuel at the pump, water ingress through the filler, moisture absorbed through the air, build-up of water in the tank over time. Do you run your tank dry every time you fill up? You could be keeping the water in the tank, the theory being that the water drops to the bottom (as it's heavier than unleaded) and could accumulate there over long periods of time. This could be made worse if you keep "topping up" rather than running into the reserve each time. I agree that it's a lot of water, but you've not given us the history of the tank and the fuel inside, so we're trying to give you enough info to figure out what's wrong!
I don't know the history of this bike, as I said, I rode it on a test ride (knowing it needed work) then stick it in the garage and pulled it to pieces. These things that I'm finding are all part of the rebuild. Hopefully the water in the tank issue will be history, now if only I could sort these dammed indicators I can get an MOT and a real ride!! Thanks for all the input.
If the MTS1200 is compatible as listed how come there's been so many warranty claims in the US for swollen/expanded/expanding fuel tanks directly attributable to ethanol reacting with the material the tanks are made from??
Wasn't it something to do with national US law, of which did not extend into European legislation. If I recall there was a cut off date where claims could be made in the US for exchange, after which no further claims would be accepted.
The difference is because on the 1000 and 1100 the tank unit is painted, plus the material it is made of. On the 1200 the tank is in black plastic with painted panels attached to it. The tank is also made from a different grade of ABS, the same as used on car fuel tanks. I may be wrong (I don't look at the US forums very often), but didn't think there were (m)any issues with the 1200 tanks ?
