Ovation fuel tank sealing

[Mark Lawton]

I have a 1997 Ovation with no visible fuel leak on hangar floor but a tiny amount of fuel is visible around a wing walk screw when tank is full.   My A & P has suggested having the fuel tanks resealed.   Anyone with experience with this and have recommendation for a facility in the southeast ?  

[1980Mooney]

1 minute ago, Mark Lawton said:

I have a 1997 Ovation with no visible fuel leak on hangar floor but a tiny amount of fuel is visible around a wing walk screw when tank is full.   My A & P has suggested having the fuel tanks resealed.   Anyone with experience with this and have recommendation for a facility in the southeast ?  

Why is he suggesting a full reseal of all the tanks when you have a tiny leak around one screw only when the tank is full?   Is he observing fuel puddling inside the wing or seeing blue stains in lower seams, weep holes, inspection panels and screws?  Is there more to the story?

 

[Hank]

It's easy to stop a leak on one screw.

A full steip.and reseal in the southeast is available from Wet Wingologists in Ft. Lauderdale, Houston Tank Specialists in Houston and Don Maxwell in Longview,  TX (that I know of). 

Wet Wingologists did mine in ~2010.

I also don't think you are ready for this level of work.

[Mark Lawton]

Thanks Hank.   No puddling fuel yet and I've learned to land the bird without looking like an idiot so no hard landings.  I think my A & P guys is being prevention - minded.  I agree - seems like an easy fix for one screw.   I'll look into Wet Wingologists.    Aviation Consumer had an article about wing resealing - updated in 2019     I think.  

Mark 

[Danb]

I recently about a month ago had same situation, took out screw under wing walk put sealant around screw replaced, fixed wing walk, situation resolved 

[carusoam]

1 hour ago, Mark Lawton said:

Thanks Hank.   No puddling fuel yet and I've learned to land the bird without looking like an idiot so no hard landings.  I think my A & P guys is being prevention - minded.  I agree - seems like an easy fix for one screw.   I'll look into Wet Wingologists.    Aviation Consumer had an article about wing resealing - updated in 2019     I think.  

Mark 

Welcome aboard Mark!

Have no fear…

Ovations we’re sealed from the factory using modern materials and superior procedures than decades before…

Screws under the walk way fall victim to high heat from the sun…. And people flexing the sheet metal as they walk on it…

 

The usual procedure is to reseal the screw and fly on…

 

As a follow up, you will recognize where the supports are under the sheet metal… and have a preference to stand there…

If the plane has a tendency to see a lot of summer sunlight… you may notice a few more screws around the inspection panels showing symptoms as well…

If that occurs… resealing the inspection panels is the next step…

 

Resealing the whole tanks is probably pretty far down the road….

PP thoughts only, not a mechanic…

Best regards,

-a-

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Mark Lawton said:

I have a 1997 Ovation with no visible fuel leak on hangar floor but a tiny amount of fuel is visible around a wing walk screw when tank is full.   My A & P has suggested having the fuel tanks resealed.   Anyone with experience with this and have recommendation for a facility in the southeast ?  

Lower the level in the tank, so the screw stops seeping.  Remove the screw, blow the hole dry to evaporate the fuel in the hole, apply Form A Gasket to the screw, reinstall the screw, wait a while and refuel.

Clarence

[1980Mooney]

2 hours ago, Mark Lawton said:

Thanks Hank.   No puddling fuel yet and I've learned to land the bird without looking like an idiot so no hard landings.  I think my A & P guys is being prevention - minded.  I agree - seems like an easy fix for one screw.   I'll look into Wet Wingologists.    Aviation Consumer had an article about wing resealing - updated in 2019     I think.  

Mark 

If you are interested in spending about $10,000 plus travel expense and downtime as well as paint touch up that is the way to go. They also pull the interior to get at the fuel senders and gaskets. 
 

It’s like getting a Field Overhaul when you just need the spark plugs cleaned and gapped. It definitely does the job and solves the issue. 
 

Now if your A&P sees peeling, sealant deterioration and imminent failure you have bigger problems  - so I get it. Then spend the money. 

[Ragsf15e]

2 hours ago, Mark Lawton said:

Thanks Hank.   No puddling fuel yet and I've learned to land the bird without looking like an idiot so no hard landings.  I think my A & P guys is being prevention - minded.  I agree - seems like an easy fix for one screw.   I'll look into Wet Wingologists.    Aviation Consumer had an article about wing resealing - updated in 2019     I think.  

Mark 

No need for anything more than a regular A&P mechanic. Take the screw out and reseal that one screw as doc described above.  Simple.  Screw leaks are easy.  Full strip and reseal is something completely different.

[EricJ]

Here's the archived copy of Maxwell's article on repairing fuel tank leaks.   See the paragraph on panel screws.   It's an easy repair, follow the instructions on the bottle of Permatex #3.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190103195252/http://donmaxwell.com/fuel-tank-repairs-how-we-fix-them/

[Mark Lawton]

Thanks for great feedback.  I flew a Cherokee for 600 hrs & fairly new Mooniac so lots to learn.  Mark

[LANCECASPER]

15 hours ago, Mark Lawton said:

I have a 1997 Ovation with no visible fuel leak on hangar floor but a tiny amount of fuel is visible around a wing walk screw when tank is full.   My A & P has suggested having the fuel tanks resealed.   Anyone with experience with this and have recommendation for a facility in the southeast ?  

Everything everyone else has said.

This is something you can do yourself. Here's the Permatex product to use (https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/eppages/permatexprod4.php?clickkey=67242):

I did this "preventive maintenance" on a couple of Mooneys that I owned and used it as an opportunity to replace the wing walk material.

After peeling back the wingwalk and sealing the screw and letting the screw sealant cure for 24 hours . . . I used a heat gun and then Goo Gone and a plastic scraper to get up the old wing walk and adhesive residue. Then I used  Koffler Anti Skid (KSC Super Grip) for the wing walk. It is less expensive and a better product than 3M. 

https://www.kofflersales.com/p/anti-slip-abrasive-tape.asp

I used the custom length option (24" wide x custom length 3' min., 40' max. and 24" width.) I bought 6 feet. Less than $50 plus shipping and less if you sign up for their e-mails and they send you a discount code. 

Before taking off the old wing walk I used poster board and traced a template so I could use it to mark and cut the new wing walk material. This stuff sticks amazingly well so it's helpful to have a second person to hang on to the other end it as you are applying it. 

[anthonydesmet]

15 hours ago, Hank said:

It's easy to stop a leak on one screw.

A full steip.and reseal in the southeast is available from Wet Wingologists in Ft. Lauderdale, Houston Tank Specialists in Houston and Don Maxwell in Longview,  TX (that I know of). 

Wet Wingologists did mine in ~2010.

I also don't think you are ready for this level of work.

 

12 hours ago, EricJ said:

Here's the archived copy of Maxwell's article on repairing fuel tank leaks.   See the paragraph on panel screws.   It's an easy repair, follow the instructions on the bottle of Permatex #3.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190103195252/http://donmaxwell.com/fuel-tank-repairs-how-we-fix-them/

Plus one for all the screw repair recommendations. Edison from WetWingologists did my reseal 8 years ago and is a great southeast source.  He would also be happy to do your repair and just get eyes on your issue if your close to him and you don’t think your mech wants to tackle it.  But unless you have all the other signs…weeping, puddling, sealant particles showing up in your sump jar you are probably far from needing a reseal.

[Yetti]

I just did this.   Used Peratex 3.   One of the screws was a gusher.    The permetex 3 sealed it wet.    I took a utility knife and scratched off the screw head and cleaned the phillips head out.   then taped off the area and Used some flat black refreshed the wing walk.

[glenn reynolds]

I'm going to throw a different piece of information at this:  I own a 1995 mooney ovation, so I'm two years ahead of you.  I started smelling gas inside the cockpit, could have been the fuel selector.  I did notice some blue staining on the top and then later the bottom of the wings but not running leaks just stains that went away with cleaning and took a couple months to come back.  I asked at Mooney service centers about wing tank sealing and they all said it's an age related thing and several offered to do spot repairs and I could come back every couple of years for more spot repairs.  I looked at how they did the "spot repairs" and it was super ugly with a minimum wage worker trying to scrap off bad sealant via the the access panels.  I talked to weep no more in willmar minnesota and they gave me a flat price of about $6k each side and a four week quote.  But they are booked one year out. After learning how they do a tank, I wouldn't recommend it any other way, than a solvent strip.  I procrastinated a year and then had blue stains under the wing.  I called and booked with weep no more and asked to have an annual done at the same time but we are now a year away.  The second I signed up with weep no more the tanks stopped leaking, my appointment was ages out so why worry.  I flew from san francisco to Boston and then back to Minnesota to drop off the plane.  As I got out of the plane at Wilmar I was surprised to find the tops of the wings were blue with fuel so my timing was perfect!  The job was done in exactly the amount of time I was told it would take (four weeks) there were no change orders so the cost was what had been agreed upon and the plane no longer smells of fuel (I did have them rebuild the fuel selector just to be sure).

It doesn't sound like you need a reseal yet, but It would be wise to start planning given the age of your plane and the one year lead time.  I found getting an annual and a tank reseal was perfect as the total "down time" was only a couple of weeks longer than what I would have had for just an annual.  I had them do the long lead time checks (compression etc) before the tank work, so that if any long lead time items were needed we would have the four week wing reseal time to procure said parts, but in fact the long lead times stuff was to happen the next year.  

hope this helps

[Mark Lawton]

Thanks Glenn (and others) for the advice.  I've signed up for a full tank strip and reseal - in September 2022.  That's how far backed up things are.  Wing walk screw reseal as recommended for now.  Avionics upgrade is scheduled for November 2022 - just an autopilot - nothing really extensive  - and this is a shop where I had extensive avionics work on my Piper in the past so I'm a good return customer.   Part of the labor of love for these "legacy" airframes is thinking, planning ahead and excepting that service availability will likely get more delayed over time as the new aircraft prices ascend further out of reach and the legacy fleet pie gets cut up into smaller pieces - I guess.    Flying is so wonderful - a shame that it is so expensive.     Mark