Draining Gas from Cars - Page 2

Okay I confess....I DID use the skidsteer; not the shovel.

Originally Posted by SuperDave

gas is likely to pour down the tank and get dirty before reaching the bucket. I like removing the tank by sticking a flat head screwdriver under the gas tank straps then cutting the straps with a grinder. Use the sawzall to cut the rubber lines then like mech said use the 12v pump inside the tank and if possible cut the fuel delivery line in front of the gas filter and connect your battery charger to the wires coming out of the gastank and voila filtered gas

after doing a few you will be familiar with wire colors associated with car brands, usually its the 2 bigger wires or the pink one

I always put the gas into another container through a filtered (small screen) funnel. It will even keep the water back. Being on the farm, I thought it was universal to do so. I hate to make sparks around a gas tank but if it's not leaking, I can see where that would work. I've torched the straps before so there should be no difference.

yeah that way looks like a death trap.i am about to start trying to drain the gas out soon.I am going to try the return line up by the engine.It shouldnt be too hard to find

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Should mention that my yard also wants a hole in the tank or for it to be removed. Just the method to my madness.

If I had to do that then of course I would drain the gas
BUT
My yard takes them with the tanks still attached
So no reason to drain them
When Gas gets above $4.00 a gallon I may change my mind

Right now when I purchase gas it is a deduction on the taxes
If I start using drained gas >> That would reduce my deduction and make a smaller refund check >> Not to mention more work on my part

Originally Posted by JohnC4X4

Right now when I purchase gas it is a deduction on the taxes
If I start using drained gas >> That would reduce my deduction and make a smaller refund check >> Not to mention more work on my part

Use the gas in your lawnmower where it isn't deductible or sell it to your neighbor for $2.50 a gallon ....he'd be happy to get it.
At .06 cents a pound, the gas left in a vehicle would bring you 36 cents per gallon. (Gas weighs 6 lbs per gallon) Just food for thought.

FYI - there is a story of a vehicle going through a shredder in a scrap yard. In the trunk was a propane tank, gas cans, and the gas tank was full. It exploded and destroyed a multi-million dollar shredder and half of the storage facility at the yard. Do you want to know why they ask for the title and VIN # of vehicles that are scrapped? They traced this vehicle back to the scrapper and filed a law suit for recovery of the damages. They went back through records from yard to yard until they found the individual. Lesson - Even if a yard accepts the metal, if it is a hazard you could be held responsible.

To add to my previous post, gas tanks are emptied by shooting them with the caliber of your choice. After three months to six months a saw zaw or torch is used to cut the bans and remove the tank from the vehicle. The tank goes as unprepared (higher price than vehicles here) and the rest is sold separately. A picture of the vehicle with the trunk open is taken to make sure there is no doubt. This is a paranoid strategy, but for piece of mind it is worth it to me. The other strategy used is to flip the vehicle over and flatten the roof. This allows the loading of more vehicles on the trailer.

My particular yard crushes each vehicle and then piles three previously crushed vehicles together and the three go back into the crusher as one unit to flatten them some more. I'll have to take note of how many they get on a semi truck.

There have been some changes in the gasoline over the years. Most of it is blended with Ethanol. In some states it's the law that they have to tell you it's blended. In other states they don't tell you if it's not required. As far as i know the fuel in Canada is blended as well.

I was talking with one of the sales reps from one of the larger oil companies a few years age. He said that it's only guaranteed to have a shelf life of 30 days from the time it was pumped at the gas station. Anytime after that it can begin what's called phase separation. It starts to break down into a low octane gasoline and high octane ethanol.

There's a testing kit on the market that measures how far gone the fuel is.

Looong story short .... I wouldn't recommend using the fuel out of a junker. If you dumped in a batch of stuff that had gone by it would be a major hassle. Maybe a day's work to drop your fuel tank and completely flush your fuel lines ? Maybe more if you ran into problems ?

Originally Posted by Patriot76

To add to my previous post, gas tanks are emptied by shooting them with the caliber of your choice. .

I was thinking incendiary rounds.

Originally Posted by Scrappah

There have been some changes in the gasoline over the years. Most of it is blended with Ethanol. In some states it's the law that they have to tell you it's blended. In other states they don't tell you if it's not required. As far as i know the fuel in Canada is blended as well.

I was talking with one of the sales reps from one of the larger oil companies a few years age. He said that it's only guaranteed to have a shelf life of 30 days from the time it was pumped at the gas station. Anytime after that it can begin what's called phase separation. It starts to break down into a low octane gasoline and high octane ethanol.

There's a testing kit on the market that measures how far gone the fuel is.

Looong story short .... I wouldn't recommend using the fuel out of a junker. If you dumped in a batch of stuff that had gone by it would be a major hassle. Maybe a day's work to drop your fuel tank and completely flush your fuel lines ? Maybe more if you ran into problems ?

The phase separation happens when the Ethanol absorbs too much water. Then like you said you have low octane gas and Ethanol mixed with water. I had about 7 gal that this happened to. My sidecar motorcycle has a flathead engine with 6.5 to 1 compression ratio. Due to the low compression it will run fine on fuel lower then 87 octane. I used the bad gas by adding it one gallon to about 4 fresh gas at a time. The only issue is this makes the engine run slightly richer.

I want to start doing this because the cars i get have only been sitting a max of 6 months but it is most of the time alot less than that.
Then i would have free gas for something lol

< sigh > I feel like i'm getting too old sometimes. I've been watching the history of this blended fuel thing since the 1970's. Back then i was working for Gibbs oil company down in Massachusetts. After unleaded came on the market Gasahol debuted as the next great thing. The Granolas loved the idea of it. In practice ......... it turned out to be a really bad idea. I remember one cold day where route 1 down in Saugus was littered with broken down cars that had just filled up with the stuff at one of our stations.

Anyway ... we sold the stuff for a couple of years and then it kind of quietly went away.

The only reason we're stuck using it today is because of the Federal EPA. In the old days they used to use a lead compound in the gasoline as an anti knock additive. Lead is bad so the EPA mandated a changeover to an unleaded gas that used MTBE as an anti knock additive.

You probably remember the big bruhaha here in Maine about MTBE leaching into our underground water supplies and poisoning them awhile back ?

MTBE turned out to be bad so the EPA mandated that smaller amounts of ethanol should be added as an anti knock additive instead.

From there they just ran with it. They've instituted a program where larger and larger amounts of Ethanol have to be blended in with the nation's gasoline supply as time goes on. If the trend continues we will be looking at gasoline with 100 octane or more at the pump. If your vehicle isn't designed for flex fuel you're S.O.L. You won't be able to buy fuel than can run your older car,truck,or small engine.

~ That's kinda the backstory ~

The main reason i brought it up is because they have had to spend billions and billions to make changes that will allow the use of these new blended fuels.

You're right about Ethanol and water problems. Ethanol will absorb water vapor from the air.

The thing is that one of the changes that they've made is that fuel systems are closed systems now. The blended fuel isn't exposed to the open air.

There's got to be something else going on .............

You know how if you mix vinegar and oil it makes salad dressing ? I think it's kinda the same with this blended fuel. It will stay together for awhile but if you let it sit it will separate into it's two component parts. It makes sense that the low octane gasoline would drop to the lowest part of the tank where the fuel pump pickup is. If you can get the car started at all it will run like crap. If you happen to pick up a charge of that high octane (100+) Ethanol it will damage the combustion chamber.

I've lost two chain saws this way. Bad gas just tore up the piston & cylinder walls.

Loooong story short: The stuff that's available at the pump nowadays isn't very trustworthy. It's okay for your daily driver as long as you fill up with fresh fuel every week or two. Otherwise .... you wanna be careful.

What's the most expedient thing to do with gas that you don't trust ?

Most folks won't mess around with it. They'll just dump it out back in the woods somewhere.

( I put mine in a coffee can up on a cement block and light it up. It takes about an hour for all of the fuel to burn off.)

Originally Posted by Scrappah

( I put mine in a coffee can up on a cement block and light it up. It takes about an hour for all of the fuel to burn off.)

I sense that you're brighter than the average bear, Scrappah, but now we're back to "How to burn gasoline in a can without blowing yourself up"?

Originally Posted by Yunkman

I sense that you're brighter than the average bear, Scrappah, but now we're back to "How to burn gasoline in a can without blowing yourself up"?

Put fuel in can. Toss match into can. Burns like a candle. Just don't kick it over.

As for draining, my yard doesn't require it. But on vehicles that had usable fuel, I'd roll the vehicle on its side, then punch a hole with a cordless drill. Have yet to have an issue with sparks. Could use an air drill too.

So after doing some research i found this.What do you think.Seems a little time consuming but seems to work good.But it is way over priced at 149.00 plus 6.95 for shipping.