Are there only certain areas that you can drill, or is the entire top fair game as long as you don’t get too deep ?

 

Steve Brooks 

 

Hi Steve,

 

I can't say they're all the same, but on the ones I have, the whole top, and bottom (sides are tanks) is just a 1/16" or so aluminum plate.  The first tube is about 5/16" (guessing) in from the plate, so as long as you don't drill too far, you can drill and pop rivet the plate as much as you want.  You could weld it too. 

 

If you use pop rivets, don't ignore Finn's advice like I did <g>.  Either use a lot of aluminum rivets, or use stainless in a lesser quantity.  My oil cooler is fine with lots of aluminum rivets, but the water coolers get a lot more shaking and abuse.  I actually have fewer rivets in them, and they're also aluminum.  So far, I've lost about 4-5 rivet heads from those, so I'll be converting them to stainless as they break.  I will probably add some more as well.  I also believe Finn used some epoxy between the support and the core, which I now believe would have been a good idea.  Live and learn (to trust Finn) :-)

 

Off to the hanger to see what else is leaking.

 

Rusty