Interesting Problem with Gas Tank

My goal was to finally get my bike on the road to find problems and dial things in before paint and some other detail work. I spent most of the day checking fasteners, bleeding brakes, checking connections, etc. in preparation for the big event.



Sadly, I couldn't get it to start. No matter what I did, I couldn't get fuel to the carbs. This isn't the original tank, so I haven't used it (or the petcock) before. I pulled the fuel line and confirmed that gas wasn't getting through the petcock. Off came the tank and petcock (no ride today).



Once I got the petcock off, I was amazed to see that NO FUEL came out of the tank! I cleaned the tank and sealed it with POR-15 about a year ago. Thinking that the tank was plugged, I gently stuck a screwdriver up the fuel outlet. Nothing - no resistance to pressure, no fuel, nada.



I am completely mystified by what the problem could be. The only thing that I can think of, which I can't confirm, is that the POR-15 created some kind of bubble (it would have to be a large one) that sealed off the area around the fuel outlet. For that to happen, there would have had to be a low pressure situation within the tank when the POR-15 was setting up. Not sure how that could have happened.



Any thoughts or suggestions?



Jeff