Well, a friend of mine and I installed my 52 gallon Titan tank on my 2011 F250 FX4 diesel yesterday. I write up the install comments in a separate thread.... Right now I need some advice on leak issue.

Once everything was installed, we poured about 7 gallons of diesel into the tank and started up the truck. I ran it for about 5 minutes at idle then I drove about 2 miles to the gas station. As I was filling up with diesel, I looked under the truck at the tank and noticed that there was diesel on the side of the tank that was not there before we drove the truck. Obviously I had a leak. I immediately stopped filling at that point (we had added 10 gallons).

I drove back to the house where we closely inspected (without dropping the tank) the intake line and vent line. Both were completely dry so I know this was not coming from fueling the truck. We then inspected the connections to the sending unit and could feel wetness up there. My friend who has much longer arms than I do was able to disconnect and reconnect the two fuel lines to the sending unit. We heard much more solid clicks than when we originally connected them. At this point we clean up the diesel around the connection area (still greasy feeling but nothing wet). We let the truck idle for a while at about 2000 RPMs and checked the area around the connections. It was again greasy but not wet. I then drove the truck about 6 miles, and inspected again to find no additional diesel on the sides of the tank.

I just now went out and inspected the connection area once more, again it felt greasy but not wet. I drove the truck about 1.5 miles and inspected again and didn't find any wetness.

So do you think I just had two bad fuel line connections to the sending unit and reconnecting fixed the problem? I really don't think the leak is around the seal for the sending unit as when it leaked the first time there was only 7 gallons in the tank and I don't see that splashing up to out pass the seal on the sending unit/tank.

I have yet to completely fill the tank as I was afraid I would get it full with 52 gallons and then have to figure out a way to drain it and drop the tank. I wanted more confidence that I had the connections solid.

I am paranoid that I don't have this fixed....

Thoughts, comments, advice????

Thanks,
gascan

 

You may have rolled one of the o-rings in the fitting if you initially put them together dry. When you unplugged them, the o-rings may have went back to their original position. They were wet with fuel when you reconnected them and all hopefully is well. This is just a theory. What I would do now if I were in your position, I would drive the truck for about a week or so, only filling with about 10 gallons at a time until you are sure there are no leaks. After about a week, if there are no more signs of leakage, you should be good to go.

Good luck.

Dave

 

Good advice, thanks Dave!!

-gascan

 

Any other ideas from anyone else?

 

FYI. I just spoke with Mitch at Titan Tanks. He is very certain that my problem was the fuel connectors to the sending unit were not fully seated. It is nice to have additional confirmation.

Thanks,
gascan

 

Update

I meant to update this a few weeks ago. Even after my last past on 5/9/2011, I continued to have a leak issue. I finally had to go back and drop the tank again to figure it out. When we dropped the tank and removed the round metal flange, I could see the problem. The sending unit is perfectly round except that there is plastic protrusion about 1 inch long to help you line up / clock the position of the sending unit. Well when I had installed the first time, this plastic protrusion was too close one of the bolts coming through the tank. So when I was tightening things down, this plastic part actually rubbed on the nut and prevented the flange from creating the seal. You could actually see where the nut had taken a "bite" out of the plastic piece. The flange was a little bent (not perfectly flat), so we straightened it out, pulled the sending unit out, replaced the o-ring and re installed everything. This time the plastic piece on the sending unit was centered between the 2 bolts. We then tightened the flange using new ny-lock locking nuts. We torqued to 20 foot lbs, waited 35 minutes and re-torqued to 20 foot lbs. All is good now.

BTW, I just towed my camper 900 miles from Austin, Texas to Canon City, Colorado and I am extremely glad I did this upgrade. My range (even with the camper) is awesome. I drove over 400 miles on Monday without having to stop for fuel. Awesome!!

-gascan

 

Good update. Glad to hear it's finally working as it should. The instructions from Titan say to orient that tab on the new tank the same as the old. It should say to make sure it is spaced evenly between the two bolts. That would be clearer. Fortunately for me, there were no leaks. Must have done it right.

 

I bought my 350 today, only to realize that this one has a 26 gallon tank, so I'm in the market for the Titan... Can you send me the link to the install thread you made? How was it and how long did it take?

 

Here's the thread on the install. It's really an enjoyable mod.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ion-video.html