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Hi,
I have a BCS 725 with a KOHLER magnum 8 engine. The fuel tank leaks, it is made of plastic, in two halves and it is glued together, I tried to buy a new tank, Kohler wants over $500 for a new tank. The machine is not worth that much and it is almost 30 years old, even though it is in excellent shape, besides the tank. I now use it with less than half a tank of fuel but it still leaks. I like to know if there is anyone who can either repair my tank or if knows where I can buy an aftermarket tank.

FALTOBELLI said:

Hi,
I have a BCS 725 with a KOHLER magnum 8 engine. The fuel tank leaks, it is made of plastic, in two halves and it is glued together, I tried to buy a new tank, Kohler wants over $500 for a new tank. The machine is not worth that much and it is almost 30 years old, even though it is in excellent shape, besides the tank. I now use it with less than half a tank of fuel but it still leaks. I like to know if there is anyone who can either repair my tank or if knows where I can buy an aftermarket tank.

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Most panel beaters or vehicle restoration workshops do plastic welding
The tank is made of HDPE so ask them if they can do a petrol tight repair on HDPE
OR you can do it yourself, it is not particularly difficult but you will need to practice on a few 5 gal drums first.
The trick is to get the surface very very clean and only use stainless steel brushes
Then get the surface to go glassy looking , but not to melt or slump. take a bit of practice but for $ 500 it is worth it
I use milk bottled because down here the cloudy coloured ones are HDPE the crystal clear ones are PET so can not be used .
The instant two glassy looking surfaces of the same type of plastic touch together they weld
Use stainless steel spatulars to work the surfaces and squeeze out air bubbles
They also need to be very clean and polished to a high shine
I use a putty knife as there are no putty glazed windows any more and an artist's pallet knife