I found my diesel leaking from the fuel tank. I looked and found that someone had drilled a 10mm hole into the bottom of the metal tank and pinched all of my diesel, (scum!!!). Do I replace or fill with grommet/epoxy. Is there anything outhere that will do the job cheap?
mickjo
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I wonder if you would be able to get it welded, seeing if it is a diesel, but should also leave an airling tube down in the filler to the bottom of the tane blowing plenty of air and set this going a good 20 minutes before just incase to purge any volatile fumes. If you remove the sender unit can you see the hole from above and get to it with your arm? or a stick?
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empty the tank and talke it off
remove the pump and level indicator so the tank can breathe
you can now mig /braze or oxy aceteline the hole up
at least you now know that its not running on red or have any nasties floating in the bottom of the tank
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is it a metal or plastic tank,if you can get in through the fuel gauge hole fut a bolt with a plain washer and a rubber washer on the inside and outside of the tank ,you can weld plastic tanks but it changes the plastic with the heat ,if its metal just have someone braze it up or weld it with a mig if good enough ,dont worry about the fumes as it wont explode and as long as there is a bit of vent and no fuel actually lying at the weld it wont burn
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On commercial diesel tanks, if there was a small leak, I would weld the tank full. In this way, it's quite safe, as there's no air to allow the fuel to burn, and you can see straight away if you have sealed the leak.
I quite agree with the bolt and washer suggestion - if it's a nice neat hole, and you can get to the back of it, a good thick washer and some viton will make a very good repair - although it might make it too easy if the scroats come back again!
Many years ago, my father had a lot of trouble with people pinching diesel out of the tanks of his trucks. When he fitted locking caps, the tanks were simply "perforated" with a pick-axe, and any diesel that they didn't catch just ran away. The worms who did this were caught..... eventually.
The main hassle wasn't the theft of the diesel itself, but, in the days before there were in-cab fuel gauges it usually meant that if the tank was syphoned during the night, the truck would break down somewhere inconvenient the next day. Unlike modern diesel cars, these systems didn't self bleed, and it became quite a time wasting chore to go out and get them running again.
Number_Cruncher
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Also, you could try some of that blue diesel dyd that you can buy on ebay.
It would stain the thieves and their equipment for days.
I used some on my old car when it leaked, put the rest in the mower, and even the oil came out blue, and 10 tank fulls later, the fuel still goes blue, and the yellow deck is stained just from fuel spillages. When I have got it on my fingers, it fades over a few days. This would help with ID and prosecution if they did get caught, and might put them off from doing it a third time.
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Thanks for all the advice,
After further investigation found that the tank is a indeed a plastic one. If I can get a plastic plug with washer, I'll use a fibre glass patch to go over the top. I've heard that a Kevlar patch might be even better.
If I'm not happy then I will just bite the bullet and buy a replacement tank.
mickjo
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