A while ago I posted of a fuel leak on my 931B track loader that seemed really bizarre. The filter itself developed a leak in the side of the canister. Here's a pic. The little patch of bubbling in the paint was spraying fuel out in a fan pattern under pretty good pressure.
Do you mean it was leaking near where the blue marker is, just above the CAT label? Was it dented there in removing the filter or is that why it leaked?
The leak is right under the top number 4 on the filter. It's a little ways away from the dent. It's hardly noticeable. The dent was from having to change the main hyd. hose from the pump. It's a 4 wire hose that has to curve around the firewall and has clamp holding it below the filter.
Dave, I'd have to opine the fault lies in a manufacturing fault whereby some kind of corrosive chemical attached itself to the metal on the inside of the canister - or under the paint. When you see where these filters are made (all over the world, and in many 3rd world countries), and see the speed at which the filters are produced, it makes you wonder just how many duds they find in the QC checks. Have you opened the filter up, and examined the metal where it's perforated, to see if you could find any specific reason for the perforation?
That bubbling looks like it's in a straight line. For some reason, I would have expected something like that to be more random. That's cool and wierd!
I haven't opened the filter. My best guess is a flaw in the steel caused the leak. The paint is bubbled because it was holding the leak back a bit. It's bizarre that the paint didn't peel away around the leak or come off in chips like it did on the dented part. It's a Cat filter so would have been made by Donaldson or another high end brand.