Leaking Ideal boiler

[cub]

Can you believe it, the day after I drain down the system and replace the inhibitor and noise additives the boiler starts leaking! We didn't even go near the boiler during the draining, flushing and refilling. I guess some gunge was happily sealing the potential leak till it got washed away.

Anyway, it's an old Ideal WLX CF60, and it's leaking from the joint face between the two cast iron core halves. It's actually coming out from the top left hand corner, near the bolt that clamps the two halves together. As it's a gravity system, and the leak is near the top of the core, it only leaks a few minutes after the boiler has fired up.

If we use a leak sealer additive I am not sure if we can tolerate the regular dripping until the stuff does its magic work (up to 24 hours the label says) or whether the leak is too much for the sealer's intended purpose.

I have read that the joint seal can be replaced. My question is what kind of seal is it? is it just some special sealant on the mating faces? or something pretty standard sold by the foot? or a manufacturer's part? (which I haven't been able to trace on the WWW). I know it isn't going to be easy, and I could be opening a can of worms with such an old boiler, but it is an otherwise clean condition. Is this the kind of thing that BG deal with in their fixed price deal?

Thanks for reading!

 

[Gas2Air]

New heat exchanger time, i doubt BG will fix that for their price as it is pretty pricey and a long job to replace, they will turn you off and advise you need a new boiler. Which is probably the best advice imo.

 

[compheat]

last time i did one was about 7 years ago, you could buy the sealing rings or gaskets and do it your self, takes a couple of hours. Or like has already been said it could mean a new heat exchanger in which case i'd say time to replace

 

[cub]

Thanks Gas2Air
Can you still get the heat exchangers for these old boilers?
I suspect the work involved in changing it would be only slightly less than splitting it and renewing the seal.

 

[nickso]

forget BG. for starters they will probably at risk it for the ventilation issues that they are bound to find. they wont strip it to renew the seal either.

the heatex is NLA some years ago iirc.

 

[cub]

Thanks too Compheat, I have not yet been able to find info on what kind of seal it is or a source of material/parts. Most boiler parts websites seem to be awful - fine if one has a part number - and have pages and pages of parts with poor description, eg, 'Seal kit' (cheap price) for what?? or 'Gasket' (but with a price of £46 giving only a clue as to its size/usage) for where?, etc

 

[cub]

forget BG. for starters they will probably at risk it for the ventilation issues that they are bound to find.

That's interesting , I would hope not though, it's wall mounted in the kitchen, conventional flue (going up the old chimney), with one dual-brick size vent and two single-brick size vents in the outside walls.

 

[nickso]

forget BG. for starters they will probably at risk it for the ventilation issues that they are bound to find.

That's interesting , I would hope not though, it's wall mounted in the kitchen, conventional flue (going up the old chimney), with one dual-brick size vent and two single-brick size vents in the outside walls.

they might be alright depending entirely upon the free area of these vents