Very strange mystery for the board

OK, here's a very weird one.

About 6 months ago I noticed that I had a lot of fluid in the bilge area of my lazarette. Upon inspection I found it to be coolant. Since the generator is in there, my first thought was that I had a coolant leak. But the coolant level was not at all low and while running the genset with 30 minutes of close observing I could find no leaks whatsoever.

This confused me for a while, until I remembered that I store a gallon jug of coolant (Auto Zone 50/50) in the lazarette. I checked the jug and it was almost empty. This was a brand new jug, the glued seal was still intact on the spout. I figured the jug must have had a small leak in it, so I filled it up with water, put the lid back on super tight and squeezed it as hard as I could. No discernible leak. So I cleaned up the bilge and chalked it up to one of those strange boat things.

Whatever. I threw it away and bought another jug. Put it back in the same place. A month later there was coolant in the bilge again. Checked the new jug. Half empty.

I then moved the jug into the engine room and put it in a plastic tub to catch any leaks. It hasn't leaked a drop.

And after putting 200 hours on the genset last month no more coolant in the bilge.

Thoughts?

Maybe expansion from heat? But the engine room gets hotter than the lazarette.

Ghosts?

Oddly, my wife loves a brand of dish soap that comes in a pump bottle which I leave on the galley counter. Whenever I leave the boat and come back some of the soap has leaked out and formed a sticky ring under the bottle, but there is no soap on the sides of the bottle. If we are on the boat, even for a month, no soap leaks at all.

I'm gonna need some help here, peeps. I'm starting to question my own sanity.

When it was originally built was the hull laid up over an old Native American burial ground?

I use an old hand soap pump dispenser for our dish soap. If you screw the cap down tight the pressure buildup as the day warms will force soap out the pump nozzle, not around the threads, so it drips onto the counter. The dip tube is almost to the bottom. Leave the threaded cap just a hair loose and it will stop. When aboard you may use it enough to relieve any pressure buildup or the doors/windows are open enough to cool the cabin enough to prevent enough pressure buildup.

As for the A/F jug ????? May be radiated heat caused the leak and when you put it into the E.R. in the pan radiated heat no longer is a factor even though the E.R. is hotter. WAG.

"Lazarette" means Leaky Place in French Cajun...

firstbase said:

When it was originally built was the hull laid up over an old Native American burial ground?

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Gotta be a lot of ghosts in St. Augustine, it's the oldest city in America.

Apologies for my silliness.... I will say that I had a similar thing happen with 2 plastic gallons of weed killer in the trunk of my car. Brought them into garage and no leaking. I marked it up to the Florida heat when the car was sitting in the sun followed by cooling effect of driving around and running AC in the interior. May be the temp differential had some effect? Have no idea of the exact physics or thermodynamics. It seemed to just come out of the bottles by osmosis as they were completely sealed. Had it been one bottle I probably would have not even remembered it a week later but it was two bottles so I knew something was up.

I would suspect your wife to try to turn you crazy, be careful !

L.

Doug:


YES the heat Mate. Pressure from the heat will make any plastic jug leak from the expansion of the jug. The heat will also make the plastic weak.


Cheers


H

All those plastic jugs are very easy to puncture. ER vibration when rubbing on something does it all the time. That's why I always store all liquids in a plastic bin with an oil diaper on the bottom as a cushion. you are lucky it wasn't an oil jug.

Aluminum beer and soda cans are notorious for leaking as well.

bayview said:

Aluminum beer cans are notorious for leaking as well.

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I spent the afternoon eliminating the source of potential leaks.

Place your oil, coolant and other fluid supplies in a plastic tub lined with an oil diaper for storage and containment. If it leaks, you'll find it in the tub.

C lectric said:

I use an old hand soap pump dispenser for our dish soap. If you screw the cap down tight the pressure buildup as the day warms will force soap out the pump nozzle, not around the threads, so it drips onto the counter.

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Darn, you beat me to it! Here I am thinking finally, a question I actually know the right answer to!

As for the coolant, here's some pure speculation: How about, the heat ever so slightly popped the seal on the jug. You of course took the seal off to fill it with water, then put the cover on tight. Do they put the cover on that tight at the factory? Maybe not.

Although I admit the ghost theory may be just as plausible.

I've had a gallon jug of fluid get a small V shaped puncture that acts like a check valve, letting out a little fluid every time it cools off.
The fluid just happened to be some kind of "oil eater" cleaner product that I kept on hand in case of a spill in the bilge, and it did a remarkable job of keeping the bilges clean for over a year!
Now I want to duplicate that action, looking at IV type "roller valves" or something similar that will let out about a drop or two a day.

What type of heating system do you have on the boat?

CaptTPT said:

What type of heating system do you have on the boat?

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Solar heat, passive. It is in Florida.