O-Ring Swelling Additives for Fuel System?

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Hi All, great site.

Has anybody found an additive that does a good job of swelling up o-rings in a fuel system? I have a set of carbs that has one minor 0-ring leak, and its literally a 12 hour job to replace the o-ring.

I've personally found benzene and acetone to work best at swelling 0-rings, but have not tried yet in this case. Acetone is 90% of Gomout carb & choke aerosal and as you can see from whats in the link below, it swells o-rings considerabley. http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=345397

I am curious if the White Sheppard stop leaks would work here? Chemical analysis on another site indicates White Shepperd is primarily made up of Diethylene Glycol Monoethyl Ether, which is a major component of brake fluid (old mechanic's trick to use brake fluid to stop engine and power steering leaks).

Here is an old patent dealing with the rubber swelling issue. Anybody know where to get Benzonitrileor or phenylacetonitrile? Stuff looks nasty.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=fyNsAAA...;q=&f=false
 
Gasoline is bad stuff when it comes to swelling rubber. It already has aromatics and oxygen containing materials in it, so fuel system components tend to be high quality rubber. I had a lot of experience with rubber swelling when I managed a vinyl compounding plant. I didn't have many people working for me or sophisticated equipment, but it was large scale, we could fill a semi in a shift. We received, stored and dispensed about 15,000-20,000 gallons of diphthalate esters a week. That stuff was nasty, swelling and destroying most elastomers over night, nitrile, Neoprene, Hypalon, whatever. I specified Viton mostly but often got by with EPDM. A little bit of that stuff added to your gasoline might do the job, but I have no idea where you would get a little. You might also create more problems elsewhere.

Perhaps look at the oil additives meant for seal swelling. Oil seals are pretty tough too. The same stuff that swells them may swell carb O-rings too. I have never used any of then and can't suggest a brand.
 
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