I have a 91 t/a with 170k that's been sitting with a seized engine since april with what I believe to be at least half a tank of gas (until recently when I found the gas cap on the ground next to where my car is parked at my work, which has lots of break-ins and thefts). I'm guessing that someone siphoned my tank, in which case the jokes on them. I'm getting ready to put a new engine in, so my question is, how do I get the rest of the gas out, what do I do with it since I'm sure its unusable but still hazardous, and how do I assure that my lines won't get clogged up with the varnish that's probably sitting in the bottom of the tank? I'd rather not take the tank out if I can avoid it, since the car is not mobile and apparently its a pita to do.

 

off the top of my mind not knowing anyway to doing this at all i would guess but dont do it fill it with water than suck it out with the cyphon than fill it with water again and drill a hole in the bottom should be dulluted enough to not catch fire and let it drain then weld the hole shut

 

Try to avoid welding on the tank, yes i know flushing with water will help, but ive seen a flushed with water tank, that was out of the car explode. It still had some fumes in it, and it was getting something on the top welded, well, the fumes caught fire, and went from being your typical retangular gas tank, to a ball. The welder was fine, just hard of hearing for a few days.

Im also very interested how to clean the fuel system, after having my bird sit for almost 2yrs, with a 1/4 tank still in it. (runs out and checks it) Yep its still there

 

I'm beginning to wonder if all of this is necessary...I really don't want to cut any holes in the tank. How bad would it be to run this stuff through? Maybe I could just siphon out the rest, or take the filter off and turn the key on and let the pump pump the rest of the gas out of the line before it gets to the filter? Or just change the filter again after a couple thousand miles?

 

Would the gas really go bad in that amount of time? I thought gas can be good for one year. After that's it's still good but questionable right? I could be wrong though. But regarding flushing it out with water.....try flush out one of those portable gas cans after you used it. After who knows how many flushings, the gas smell is still there so it's still dangerous. Might want to just talk story with a mechanic...."oh how's the wife? kids?.....BTW could you tell me for FREE how to dump old gas from my fuel system?"

 

year old gas won't be that horrible. I would just fill the tank completely, add some fuel system cleaner and run it through. Also, water and gas won't mix... and water won't do anything for varnish and sludge. Only fresh gas or some other hydrocarbon will be able to dissolve it.


Couldnt you also fill it with gas, then disconnect a fuel line and use the fuel pump to pump the tank?

 

That's what I was thinking...are there any reasons that wouldn't work?

 

Just siphon out all you can and fill the tank with fresh gas. If you've got 95% fresh gas and 5% old gas, you'll probably never even know it and the car will run fine.


There's a lot of good info on this subject (from the Sta-Bil website):

http://www.goldeagle.com/sta-bil/faqs_stabil.asp