oil leak

[philjd26]

hi,
have problem wit a dfu... scoll compressors have a lot of oil around bottom of shell, cant seen to find were its coming from...was think bout using that dye you can put in, any thoughts on this stuff ?

phil

[monkey spanners]

I've used Spectroline dye and find it usefull on hard to find leaks. Found a leak on the weld on a drier shell that would have been missed otherwise, and a leak around compressor terminals.

Jon

[taz24]

hi,
have problem wit a dfu... scoll compressors have a lot of oil around bottom of shell, cant seen to find were its coming from...was think bout using that dye you can put in, any thoughts on this stuff ?

phil

Don't use dye.

just clean the area and see at a later date where the oil is from.

taz.

[philjd26]

hi,
dont know that why i am thinkin of using it...why not use it?

phil

[taz24]

hi,
dont know that why i am thinkin of using it...why not use it?

phil

Why would you want to put somthing in the system that does not belong there.

Its like Marmite

You either love it or you hate it.

I hate it. You will get different views for and against it but from my point, no leak is undetectable.
Patients and perciverence will find the leak.
Oil will be the easiest.
Totaly clean the area and return a few days later, dry your hands and then run your bare hand around evetthing. When you detect oil, BINGO.


Just my view.
Dyes are not too good for the sysem.
They are not infallable.
They make you a lazy engineer.


taz

[monkey spanners]

They make you a lazy engineer.

Jon (quite like marmite too)

[taz24]

Jon (quite like marmite too)

LOL.

I just hate being right.

I'm not talking about fridges now, I mean

MARMITE.

taz.

[The Viking]

Marmite ???
As in that stuff you Englishmen sweeps up from the stable floor and then put on your toasties??


I'm feeling sick now......

BTW, I don't think using dye will make you a lazy engineer. As a good engineer you will utilise all the tools and help available to sort the problems out as quickily as possible.
You wouldn't call the engineer with the digital gauges lazy, would you?
The trick is to know what to use and when.
Just as you wouldn't use a set of digital gauges to hammer in a nail, you have to look at the application and decide if dye really is the best method of finding the leak in the system at hand, if it is then by all means use it.

[1torr]

Clean the area and pressure test with ofn.I have had leaking foot welds before.

[McGuiver]

Lets stop and think about the question... the oil is around the base of the compressor. Is any oil around the suction or discharge lines? if no then you have a compressor leak. rebuild or replace depending on the compressor....

[Tesla]

If you could wrap a plastic bag around suspect areas and tape it sealed - without the bag melting on comp. Then come back a few hours later, cut hole in the bag and shove the leak detector in hole. This works for me but scrolls run hot. I think www.bigblu.com has excellent data on leak detecting.

[norseman]

I mostly work on small cascade systems and the leaks on them can be in the range of 10grams a Year.
Just loosing 20grams make them to fail.(lowstage).
I have a box full of electronic detectors and by small leaks, they are not the solution. The best I know of is liquid soap for dishing. (Dont tell my wife I can use it) This soap and not blended with any water will make a bubble on the most minor leak you can get into. The spray types dry out before they do the work. I had some tricky leaks on the suction tubes on some vibrating single piston Copeland compressors.
The small beauties really cracked the tubes to a leak.
Just soaking the meter of tubes by soap could give a
bubble after some minutes anywhere at the lenght.
A neck leak of a small overheated small filters too. Seen quite some times on small Catch All brand. Not a fancy tool, but great on small leaks!
Norseman.
Wish the best to all for 2008!

[The MG Pony]

I frankly LOVE marmite! 2008 ftw!

FWI As the guys have said wash her off to a squeaky clean, let run for a couple days, though I say use tissue paper, diffinitive resualts with that as it goes translucent
oil goes in it, I'll wrap suspected brazes with it.

Use the dye only as an absalute last resort