FL 120 expansion tank repair

[J. Landin]

Going through the cooling system on my Ford Lehman 120 and found the 1 3/4” hose nipple almost completely rotted off. Cut the bad part off the tank, faced the tank and bored the hole in the mill, turned a new nipple on the lathe welded it back in place. Almost forgot, I dumped in a bunch of nuts, bolts and sand blast media and tumbled it in the lathe for a couple hours to clean up the interior of the tank.

I am wondering if there would be a market for fabricating these tanks out of 1/4” or 3/8” wall rectangular tubing with a more modern fill neck. Just a thought.

 

[READY]

Wow, you have gone from JB Weld repairs to full fabrication (referring to the injection pump thread)! Very impressive. I don't know how common this type of failure occurs so hard to weigh in on a demand for a newer design. Perhaps others will have some insight.
Welcome to the forum. With your skill set you will be able to add a lot of value to the forum.

Need more boat pics and explanation of your boat name (Lehman's Terms). I can speculate and think I see the pun but please share!

 

[Max1]

Nice work buddy. It looks great. Can't speak for myself as my expansion tank is still in good shape, but if there's others that need one, they'll know who to call.

 

[J. Landin]

The only history I have for the names of this boat are:
Previous Owner: Irish Pirate (not official registry but he had some stickers and coozies made)
Owner before him: Duke of Earl (I don’t know how long the boat had this name but it is on the cover of the log notebooks. There is no name on the back of the boat.)

I wanted to come up with a clever name for the boat but don’t consider myself a clever person. It hit me one day while I was in my work shop “Lehman’s Terms”. The only people that would understand it would be trawler and old sailboat owners. That’s it.

 

[Marco Flamingo]

Interesting corrosion. My Lehman is +42 years old with +10,000 hours. I didn't see any pitting in the tank when I pulled it off. I've had the hose off several times and didn't even see that the original red paint had failed. If prior owners used antifreeze in the system, the anticorrosion additive should have prevented massive corrosion. Maybe they didn't use antifreeze or there was a breach of the heat exchanger that allowed saltwater intrusion? I'm curious if other Lehman owner's have seen serious corrosion in the coolant system.

 

[Pete Meisinger]

Yes there is very definately a market for the product. It , of course is a limited market, it would only appeal to F.L owners with bad expansion tanks but if they need on, they need it. It would be nice if you could have a couple on the shelf ready for immediate shipping.

Talk to Brian at American Diesel about your idea.

pete

 

[jleonard]

Yes there is very definately a market for the product. It , of course is a limited market, it would only appeal to F.L owners with bad expansion tanks but if they need on, they need it. It would be nice if you could have a couple on the shelf ready for immediate shipping.

Talk to Brian at American Diesel about your idea.

pete

I agree. Even one in stock. And with a neck that will accept a common "radiator cap".

 

[Action]

If prior owners used antifreeze in the system, the anticorrosion additive should have prevented massive corrosion. Maybe they didn't use antifreeze or there was a breach of the heat exchanger that allowed saltwater intrusion? I'm curious if other Lehman owner's have seen serious corrosion in the coolant system.

Most antifreeze or coolant will still be good for freezing protection long after the multi-additives for corrosion have stopped working.

Great thread on how deferred maintenance (by POs likely) can cost a lot more in the long run.

J Landin, kudos on your skill set for the repair!!
And not just cutting more corners in the repair process.

Action

 

[av8r]

Seakamp Engineering makes a replacement steel tank, you can buy direct, from Mr. Cool, or from Ebay.