Fuel tank leak

Fredward · May 17, 2015, 07:41:16 PM

Brian,
I pulled my tank and had it welded right in town. We have a shop that does aluminum welding and builds and repairs tanks. Throw it in the pickup or on a trailer and bring it up. They're right in Watertown. But I'm sure you can find somebody down there too.
Fred

eagle19952 · May 17, 2015, 09:03:44 PM

Quote from: luvrbus on May 17, 2015, 07:27:49 PM
I have repaired many of storage tanks before full of diesel by welding, they never drain those tanks to repair a leak fwiw

yup...pretty hard to find a place to put 1000's of gallons when a tank is leaking...

muldoonman · May 17, 2015, 09:27:03 PM

Like clifford said about high pressure npg lines, welded a few hot taps myself back in the day while pipelining. Nothing like welding on a line flowing 3 or 4 thousand pounds of nautral gas pressure. Kinda makes you pucker up a little.

Ed Hackenbruch · May 18, 2015, 05:22:25 AM

Kinda makes you wonder about the first guy that ever thought about doing that/had the balls to try it, doesn't it.

wal1809 · May 18, 2015, 05:41:55 AM

Run a nitrogen line and weld it. The best thing is to pull it out, take it to a shop and have them rebuild that thing out of stainless. Never again will you have to discuss this problem.

edvanland · May 18, 2015, 09:50:07 AM

One thing you can do if you weld on it is hook up a hose to your car exhaust, start the car, have a cold one and then it should be safe to weld on as carbon Dixon will not ignite. Had a welding shop do that on a motorcycle gas tank for me. On my MCI I took it to a radiator shop and they did it for me.
ED

Nick Badame Refrig/ACC · May 18, 2015, 07:31:34 PM

Hi Brian,

Us Coach sent my tank out for repairs back in 2007' and so far it's been holding up well. What a stinker when it
leaked into the blower compartment and it took a year for all the diesel smell to go away!

Another thought could be fiber glassing the tank. Maybe pour a whole gallon inside and fiber coat the outside.

Good Luck
Nick-

Lin · May 18, 2015, 10:02:02 PM

As mentioned before, although welding a plate to the whole bottom of the tank would be an excellent way to go, I wanted to defend the JB Weld concept also. Considering that the fuel in a full 100 gallon tank would weigh about 800 pounds and that the tank bottom is probably over 1600 square inches, the pressure stress on a small hole is really rather small. Wouldn't it be around 1/2 psi?

If one were to take a 4 or 5 inch square piece of aluminum, clean everything well, and use the epoxy to seal and thoroughly adhere it over the damage, do you think that it would not hold for a goodly amount of time? It could even be supported from below. A gas tank I once sealed with it was still fine when I sold the vehicle 10 years later. Of course, I do not know if it would have been that way if it had to endure extreme temperatures. It may or may not.

I am not saying this is the best way to do it, merely that it is a workable way if one did not want to remove that tank and was looking to get away cheap.

Mike in GA · May 19, 2015, 07:12:50 AM

I would recommend a different two-part epoxy - MarineTex. My diesel tank started seeping from where I had tapped into the top side for my Gen feed and return. I called the MT manufacturer and the CS rep said as long as the area was abraded and thoroughly cleaned of diesel fuel the product would hold. That was 8 years ago - no problems. YMMV.
Mike in GA

Brian Diehl · May 19, 2015, 06:10:03 PM

I was able to bring the tank in today and the shop was able to easily weld a patch on the bottom. I'll try and get a picture posted the next day or two of the patch. $132 for the 2 hours of labor and material. not bad! I called caylor supply on a suggestion from the shop and he wanted $300 for a used tank and $200 for shipping.

Brian Diehl · May 20, 2015, 06:02:18 PM

I cleaned up the fuel tank compartment and the fuel tank last night. Tonight I cut a piece of HDPM (roofing rubber) to replace the old disintegrated plywood. I have the fuel tank partially loaded into the compartment and filled with some diesel. I'll let that sit overnight and check tomorrow night to make sure the patch is not leaking.

Nice shinny patch and sort of clean fuel compartment pictures...

Scott & Heather · May 22, 2015, 03:03:52 AM

Eagle and Cliff, your stories of welding gas lines and storage tanks made me pucker. That's just nuts. If a tank is steam purged I would think that the vapor ignition hazard is nil? No?

Nice work Brian. I'm looking at that compartment and thinking to myself "bummer a fuel tank has to go there. Could really use the extra storage space" lol.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

eagle19952 · May 22, 2015, 03:36:46 PM

Scott, NEVER EVER EVER trust an empty tank. I don't care if it has been steamed for a week....
IF it is filled with any displacement that is not liquid YOU MUST TEST THE INSIDE SPACE WITH AN EXPLOSION METER/SNIFFER PERIOD.

The scary ones for me were the interior baffles in OTR fuel tankers....
When I worked for the Air Force (as a civilian) it took a committee to get approvals

I do not trust exhaust. especially from a gasoline engine.
IF there is no vapor there cannot be an explosion. Explosions will kill you fires will burn you.

Simple physics....it takes a combustible fuel air mixture and a spark to make a piston move...in fact an EXPLOSION confined in a space. LIQUIDS do not explode.

luvrbus · May 22, 2015, 05:41:17 PM

I have been watching the 6 o'clock news every nite and I never saw where Brian's tank blew up and took the state of Minnesota with it so I guess it went well

eagle19952 · May 22, 2015, 05:50:12 PM

Quote from: luvrbus on May 22, 2015, 05:41:17 PM
I have been watching the 6 o'clock news every nite and I never saw where Brian's tank blew up and took the state of Minnesota with it so I guess it went well

Well I would venture to say...
in the tank welding game....you are very lucky if you get a chance to make a second mistake