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Fuel tank leak poll

Did you have a tank leak when you first tested your tanks?

  • Yes

    Votes: 33 46.5%

  • No

    Votes: 38 53.5%
  • Total voters
    71
T

TShort

Well Known Member
How many people have had a leak after finishing the fuel tanks and leak testing?

If you have, describe the leak (where it was, how you found it, how you fixed it, etc.).

Mine are "curing" and I'm going to test them in the next few weeks ... proseal is curing slower now that the weather is cooler.

Thomas
 
They are inside ... in the shop. Cooler weather means temps in there in the 50's at night - just not as warm as the summer temps.
Plus I'm in no hurry - lots of other stuff to do!

T.

p.s. I don't really think the proseal smells that bad ... ?
 
Most common leak location...

If a builder has a leak, is somewhere on the rear baffle.

I have had one leak in 12 sets of tanks.

It was at the outboard bottom corner of the rear baffle.

Fixed it through the fuel filler hole.
 
small seep in rear baffle

in one tank. I was able to pour a small amount of Randolph slosh into the access plate hole and guide it into the seep by tilting the tank. I used the absolute minimum amount of slosh and it worked. Tested the tanks by fillling with about a gallon or two of fuel and letting them sit for a week or so on either end and other positions. No leaks hopefully.
 
2 leaks

One leak was fixed with proseal through the access cover. The over was a lower skin rivet leak that was fixed with green loctite.
 
TShort said:
They are inside ... in the shop. QUOTE]


I'm talking in-inside I am finishing up my 2nd tank, in between working on fuse stuff (I got anxious I know) and I'm keeping it in my living/great room. Every once in a while sitting on my couch I'll get a whiff which motivates me for about 2 seconds then I get back to the show.
Click to expand...
 
Tank leaks

I had a number of leaks, mostly around the gasket, fixed them with proseal.
Then used a manometer to check after pressurizing to about 25 " H2O, still
had leaks. This being Winter, I tried everthing I could think of, even mixing more proseal & smearing it around the backplate & Zees...still leaking. Now comes spring & a neighbor opens his pool. I asked if I could try a dunk test.He concurred and thanks to the dunk I found 3 rivets located on the backplate flange to skin side. Very tiny bubbles but still a leak. Drilled them out, re prosealed ........no leaks. Rechecked with the manometer and all I saw was barometric changes, took nearly 3 months off & on to find the problem.
Harold RV9A
















7 Zees
 
Leak

Had a very tiny seep show up after about 25 hrs. It was the first rivet aft of the leading edge on the lower side of the right wing on about the sixth rib out from the root.

Solution: Flew the tank down to 2 gal., drilled it out, stuffed a glob of Pro-seal in the hole, gooped up a BS-319 with Pro-seal and popped it in.

I've yet to paint my plane, so it was no big deal. Coming up on 50hrs., when I'll remove the insp. pannels and look for leaks on the Zees and rear baffle. Haven't seen any stains----keeping my fingers crossed!

Mannan Thomason
RV-8 N161RL
IO-360 200HP McCauley Prop
ps. Still Grinnin!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Gross Leaks Around Access Plates

Well I just didn't know that the cork and tightened screws were not adequate. It was a mess! All four tanks had to be removed, cleaned up and prosealed. Thank goodness I went through this and many other things for a year of flying bfore painting.

Bob Axsom
 
Interesting replies ... looks like it is almost 50/50 so far.
However, a bunch of you "leakers" are cheating - no input on where the leaks were / how they were fixed! Come on, give up the goods - it might help one of us unfortunate souls who has a leak when we (finally) test!

Thomas
 
Why is everyone having such problems with fuel tank leaks? Back in the "old" days when we had to build the whole airplane, fuel tank leaks were rare. Now they almost seem to be the norm.
 
Yupper, I had a leak too!

rvbuilder2002 said:
It was at the outboard bottom corner of the rear baffle.

Fixed it through the fuel filler hole.
Click to expand...
Mine was in the same place. I used a long stick through the fuel filler hole to plaster some proseal over the leak. Tested using the balloon trick.
 
BNC Connector leak

I had a small leak through the BNC connector. Through it, mind you, not around it. I found it using a spray bottle filled with soapy water. I sprayed the entire tank down and searched EVERYWHERE. The original spraying didn't actually cover the BNC, so it was not apparent. Another spraying did the trick, and there it was. A small dab of proseal on the back and everything is air tight now.

I also tested with the homemade manometer and about 25" of water.

George's advice is best:

If you think it MIGHT leak, it probably will. I you're sure it won't, it probably won't. Proseal is cheap while the baffle is still off.
 
Mel said:
Why is everyone having such problems with fuel tank leaks? Back in the "old" days when we had to build the whole airplane, fuel tank leaks were rare. Now they almost seem to be the norm.
Click to expand...

I attribute my leak to Vans instructions where it says to go light on the Proseal for the rear baffle. On the second tank, I put more on there and had no problems.
 
A rivetting leak!

In each tank, I left out one rivet. It wasn't immediately obvious but there was a very slow leak when testing with an inflated balloon. The fix was easy with countersunk blind pop rivets smeared with more proseal.

Balons make excelent barometers so one needs to keep an eye on temperature and pressure before jumping to the conclusion that there is still a leak. It took me a lot of detergent to determine that the tank was fine after the initial rivetting experience.

Van's advice when I asked about slow leaks was to use loktite and suck it into the offending pinhole. Luckily it wasn't necessary.
 
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