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Hi
Bob;
I think you've scored a direct hit. You've exactly
described the weather of the last few weeks and the weather of the day in
question. It was ~ -6C that night and was ~+8C when I had the leak. I should
have considered this myself, as we deal with ice/frost damage prevention in
all our construction up here. We spend vast sums of money to eliminate water in
our instrumentation air system to prevent this sort of damage, but we've gotten
so successful at it, that it isn't as much of problem anymore, so I didn't
consider that as a cause when I should have. I will still investigate much more
closely to conclusively determine the cause, but your "over active mind" seems
to have picked a good theory.
If I can determine that the damage is confined to the
single tank, then I still have 5 other tanks to use, so I likely won't remove
the tank for repair until a more opportune time.
Todd (glad I have the ability to isolate tanks and draw
from any one of them)
Todd,
Water is powerful stuff. I am not sure how your weather has
been this winter but if it has been any thing like what I imagine it has been
back and forth below and above freezing several times. The water in the tank could have
cycled several times from liquid to solid. I can imagine the water getting behind
an edge of the pro seal in the corner of the tank and freezing lifting the
seal from the aluminum. If this
happens several times I could see the water working its way completely under
the pro seal. As for the time lag
between when you put the fuel in the tank and when it first began to run out I
can only suppose that the temps in that part of the world are steal hovering
around the 0 c mark at night and only getting above 0 c during the day for a
short period of time. It could
have been that there was ice in the area between the aluminum and the pro
seal, and it took that long for the fuel to thaw through the ice. Of course this all supposition, a
product of an over imaginative what if mind.
Bob Perkinson
Hendersonville, TN.
RV9A N658RP
Reserved
If nothing changes
Nothing changes
Now what exactly happened there? It didn't leak a drop for close to
an hour, then suddenly it let several gallons leak out in less than 10
minutes. It must have been an aggressive chemical reaction that dissolved
the fuel tank sealant.
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