Gurgling / Bubbling fuel- 2003 ST1300 abs

sTaylor

sTaylor

Site Supporter
Joined
Jan 27, 2024
Messages
53
Location
Chicago
Bike
2003 ST1300
Greetings All-
After a moderately spirited ride - but not as long as others, I returned home. After I placed the bike onto the center stand, and the fan cycled off, I heard a steady gurgling sound. Opened the gas cap and saw bubbling fuel rolling up from the right side of the tank. This lasted 3-5 minutes. Never had an issue prior that I had noticed.
I researched the threads for any answers but to no avail. Is this an evap canister issue? Or a clogged fuel vent line? Any insights would be most welcome.
 
Yeah, it does that. Quite normal - get a torch (UK, so that is perfectly safe - its a bit like flashlight, but better) and you will see the fuel bubbling like a cauldron presumably as air and fuel in the tank cools and looses volume. Go in late at night without a flashlight (that's a bit like a torch but it doesn't matter 'cos you've been brave enought o go in without), and you will sometimes hear the ghost in the tank. To reproduce the effect, breath out and then slowly breathe in and let the air make a noise at the top of your throat. Eerie.
 
sTaylor said:
Greetings All-
After a moderately spirited ride - but not as long as others, I returned home. After I placed the bike onto the center stand, and the fan cycled off, I heard a steady gurgling sound. Opened the gas cap and saw bubbling fuel rolling up from the right side of the tank. This lasted 3-5 minutes. Never had an issue prior that I had noticed.
I researched the threads for any answers but to no avail. Is this an evap canister issue? Or a clogged fuel vent line? Any insights would be most welcome.
Click to expand...
My bike does it. No issues.
 
Thank you, fellas. Very much appreciated.
Cheers
“Fire burn, and cauldron bubbles.”
 
sTaylor said:
Greetings All-
After a moderately spirited ride - but not as long as others, I returned home. After I placed the bike onto the center stand, and the fan cycled off, I heard a steady gurgling sound. Opened the gas cap and saw bubbling fuel rolling up from the right side of the tank. This lasted 3-5 minutes. Never had an issue prior that I had noticed.
I researched the threads for any answers but to no avail. Is this an evap canister issue? Or a clogged fuel vent line? Any insights would be most welcome.
Click to expand...
A sealed gas cap increases pressure in the gas tank, a good thing. pressure reduce boiling point. The gas tank gets heated by the engine.
Gasoline does not have a single fixed boiling point because it is a complex mixture of hundreds of different hydrocarbons. Instead, it boils over a temperature range, starting at about 35 °C to 50 °C (95 °F to 122 °F) and finishing around 200 °C to 220 °C (392 °F to 428 °F)
 
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SMSW said:
Since @sTaylor is in Chicago, your choice of words should probably not have included 'torch'.
Click to expand...

😀 Hence the disclaimer about it being safe to do this in the Uk. Best thing I ever bought - a police issue rechargeable torch.
Goodness, they are bright and light up the whole area.

1787003021461.jpeg
Mind, I daresay if you used a USA torch near a gas tank, you could also light up the whole area..
 
jfheath said:
1787002360545.jpeg


😀 Hence the disclaimer about it being safe to do this in the Uk. Best thing I ever bought - a police issue rechargeable torch.
Goodness, they are bright and light up the whole area.

1787003021461.jpeg
Mind, I daresay if you used a USA torch near a gas tank, you could also light up the whole area..
Click to expand...
In my best Crocodile dundee accent....Torch, that's not a torch. this is a torch.

Several of "us" have bought these and have a bit of light fights at some campouts. Has a great focusing spot on it. (Probably the same chinese light as yours.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM9FS97V?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1


81p6byIdaDL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
I've read of this phenomena, not only with ST's, but others as well.
Interesting I've never had it happen to me or my bikes.
Maybe it just doesn't get hot enough in Alabama summers...? 😄
Or maybe... I'm really just that cool.
Nah, not likely.
 
Sadlsor said:
I've read of this phenomena, not only with ST's, but others as well.
Interesting I've never had it happen to me or my bikes.
Maybe it just doesn't get hot enough in Alabama summers...? 😄
Or maybe... I'm really just that cool.
Nah, not likely.
Click to expand...
My beagle nearly melted while on a July road trip thru your fair land. I had to baptize him in a creek outside Gadsden to chill him /shake the side eye. 😁
 
W0QNX said:
In my best Crocodile dundee accent....Torch, that's not a torch. this is a torch.

Several of "us" have bought these and have a bit of light fights at some campouts. Has a great focusing spot on it. (Probably the same chinese light as yours.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM9FS97V?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1
Click to expand...
It looks very similar - but the stats say yours has a big edge on mine. A MASSIVE single cell lump of a cylindrical battery inside. Charges via a usb cable and can be use as a power source to emergency charge your phone. - yes and a slide out head that focuses or broadens the light. Turn it on and you think wow, that’s a good torch, then press it again and it increases the brightness at the next two presses. The next press it strobes rapidly, and if you stay conscious after that it repeatedly flashes S O S in morse.
The only thing missing, that I had an a previous not so bright version, was a setting to show Red LEDs.

This was the cheaper of a number of versions that they do. But plenty good enough.
 
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W0QNX said:
In my best Crocodile dundee accent....Torch, that's not a torch. this is a torch.

Several of "us" have bought these and have a bit of light fights at some campouts. Has a great focusing spot on it. (Probably the same chinese light as yours.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM9FS97V?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1
Click to expand...
I find those claims to be a bit hard to swallow. LED chips now are putting out around 125 to 150 lumens per watt. Some might reach 200 lu/watt. The Amazon ad says 100,000 lumens, yet it has a 50 watt LED. The math just doesn't work out - by an order of magnitude. I have a Sofrin flashlight that will hit 3000 lumens (IIRC), but for only 30 seconds before the heat shuts it down to a lower level. Even after 10 seconds on high, the head of the flashlight gets uncomfortably warm.

100,000 lumens will blind someone - literally. Most of the high end flashlight mfrs warn users repeatedly to not shine their flashlights in people's eyes - and that caution is usually for outputs in the low thousands of lumens. I'd wager that a real 100K lumen flashlight would better match @jfheath's 'torch' descriptor and would qualify as a light saber stolen from the Star Wars prop room.
 
Oh I agree about my "torch" off amazon. I didn't say it had that power they did. I will say it will darn sure blind you for a few seconds or even a minute. The focus part of this little torch is what makes it special.

I'll shine it up in the sky tonight from down here and you go out tonight and check if you can see it up there. Maybe...
 
Did you see it? iPhone camera doesn't catch it very good at night but for the price this torch smokes em!!

And for anyone who wonders what our humidity is like down here. here ya go, that's a normal damp evening.

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