quote Tubs:
I had always believed that cork floats
were coated to keep them from
becoming saturated with fuel and
loosing there buoyancy.
Sometime ago a member named Jim
stated that years ago the reason cork
floats were coated was to keep fungus
or bacteria from grow on them. It
wasn’t to keep them from sinking. I
don’t know if that is still the case with
all the additives in gasoline today. I do
know it can be an issue in fuel oil.
This person has shown me to be very
knowledgeable over the years so it
made some sense to me but I have
learned if a statement is true that I
should be able to reproduce what is
claimed. That is how an opinion
becomes a fact what ever the result.
So the last time this topic came up I
got a small cork, drilled a hole in it,
weighted it down, and put it in some
E-10 gas with 42 to1 Pennzoil to see
if it would become saturated and sink.
Its still floating.
Several years ago, I replaced a gas gauge cork float in an early 1960s 6 gallon OMC fuel tank with a natural cork from a wine bottle. It worked fine for about two weeks and then the cork sunk.
A couple months ago, I helped a neighbor replace a gas tank gauge sending unit in a 1975 Ski-Nautique inboard boat. He has had the boat since it was new. He ran gas with 10% ethanol in it one year and the cork’s coating was nearly gone and it had sunk.
Maybe there are some breeds of cork that resist soaking up gas more than others?
Dave
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