Went out to the shop to do a bit of prep to go to a test day at VIR next weekend and had a not pleasant surprise. Leaking fuel. Got to a reasonably sized leak in the cell somewhere. So I pull the fuel cell on my RF81 (81 Van Diemen), and remove the back cover. Whatever the bladder is covered with is coming off in big chunks. No idea how old the bladder is, but I’m guessing well past it’s use by date. I have not pulled bladder out yet for a better inspection. There are also chunks of something in the bottom of the cell. The foam itself appears to be in very good shape.
My options:
1. Replace the bladder and can with a stock size from Fuel Safe. I could probably make one of their stock sizes work, which would facilitate future replacement. Looks like that would be about a grand, between the cell and the can. Downside is the off-set fill port is helpful to clear the seat on the cell I have now. Looks to be a couple of week lead time.
2. Get ATL and Fuel Safe to quote a custom bladder. Unknown price and lead time. Presumably more cost and longer than #1, but would retain the stock dimensions.
Any words of wisdom here?