I've spoken with them (Caswell) several times and they are convinced their coating will have no problems with the nylon/PA tank surface. Lance Caswell said to rough it up first but that their epoxy based coating would stick to anything except PE (polyethylene). Quite a few plastic tanks on many vehicles are made from HDPE etc but the Ducati tanks on the bikes UP TO the 696/1100 the later style are all nylon/PA. I don't know what the later style are made of. If you look on the underside, there will be a marking as to the composition which is present to comply with EU recycling regs (I am not kidding, my 2005 bike has a "recycle" triangle and a marking with "PA6" next to it -- meaning "polyamide 6" the particular nylon compound)
I don't know that the stabilizers will work. If ethanol is in fact the problem, then it will still penetrate the tank's inner surface (which by the way is NOT coated at all, my new one still had "artifact bubbles" from the rotomolding process.. soft and could be "popped" wth?)
On the other hand, I have been led to believe the US-spec tanks are actually a different compound from Europe and the rest of the world, which is entirely possible as only Canada and Mexico follow US EPA's regs for things like permeation (which is a standard for plastic tanks). Thus, it could be a defect in the nylon polymer itself which simply is reacting to any solvent (of which there are half a dozen present in US pump gas -- pick your poison: xylene, toulene, ethylbenzene, etc etc)
My gut feeling (as I have said before) is that Ducati will start coating the tanks with something like Caswell when they go out the door. It is far cheaper than coming up with a new tank design, whether a new plastic or metal and, quite simply, solves the problem in the cheapest way possible.
I've pushed the DNA people to start testing tank coatings as I think it's probably the best solution for them and for us. I can't imagine the cost to buy material and coat 10,000 tanks is but a fraction of the cost to replace 10,000 tanks.
That being said, it really comes down to whether or not the coating works and sticks. If it does and they start doing it on the good tanks, then I consider that a win for everyone.
But I don't think ethanol stabilizers will help too much against the tank problems. CANT HURT but I don't think they will stop it too much.
I don't think you need a virgin tank to do the coating either. Just drain and clean your un-expanded tank and let it sit for a while to air out, then do the prep for the coating (Caswell says to put a handful of nails in the tanks and shake it around
uhh sure.. ) My gut feeling as an armchair chem eng is that it will work fine.
