The first red flag I see is testing it at 18psi. Any thing over
7psi on any of those heaters expands the tubes to a point that
the can be damaged. Sounds to me like the tubes have been
distorted at the header from over pressurization which weakened
them and probably lead to some cracking.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Denny, you have been issuing those warnings long enough I knew to make that request but it doesn't get passed along to the person doing the work. In any case, it appears to me from the staining that it is leaking at the seam with the tank and not around any of the tubes. The radiator shop doing the repairs said I would just continue to chase a leak around the tank. When they explained that the only proper fix was to completely disassemble the tanks from the core, clean the joints well, and re-solder they weren't trying for more money because they turned down doing that.
Chuck
