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When I scrapped a car the other day, I had one of those "D'uh!" moments when I realized I was taking in a car with almost a full tank of gas. Should I have siphoned it out to use in my truck? Anybody ever have any bad experiences doing that?
My concerns are of course storage and the possibility of bad gasoline.
Never done that. I don't do much at all with vehicles. However, I pick up some of the older kerosene heaters from time to time and if they have fuel in them I try to pour it into a container and save it for starting fires in the burn pile.
I'd take it out anyway. If its bad it's good for putting on fire ant mounds or burning limbs and leaves.
Sniff test will tell you if it's bad. If it smells good (like gas and not shellack or varnish), drain it, strain it and use it in something. If your worried about using it in your car/truck just use a gallon or two at a time.
I have thought of doing that myself, and my father in law actually has a few times. As long as your careful and know what your doing, then no real problems. I would recommend what KZBell said though and sniff test.
Also, if the care is somewhat newer and depending on how long it has been sitting, should tell you if it is good or not.
I watched a show. It was of a repair shop. The head guy would drain these wrecked cars of their gas, and fill his car.They would pull parts to resell, mainly Porsches. He said something to the affect that he couldn't remember the last time he went to the gas station.
I drain my lawnmowers of gas. I did about 25 this summer. I haven't had to spend a penny on mowing my lawn this year. Again look and smell it make sure it doesn't have water or oil mixed in.
i would look for fuel pump after filter cut and let fuel pump do all the work and filter gas it safer than most ways then i see.Sucks i got diesel but my mower happy lol
here is my general rule of thumb if i buy a junk car and it srates and runs or i know last time/how old gas is yeah
if ?able or isitting a long time NOPE
i have 70 gallons of good gas at the ready right now from junk cars
Like the above poster said, it depends on how old I think the gas is. If the people were just driving it and got in accident, blew it up, etc, then yea, I keep the gas. If it's been sitting in the weeds for years, I don't bother.
I'm also a diesel guy, so the only thing I keep the junk car gas for is my mower/weed wacker/bump and run cars.
I part 4-6 cars a year. Anyway i always use that gas for something. If its clear and smells normal i go ahead and burn it in my own car straight up. If its slightly varnished i mix it with 70% fresh gas and go ahead and burn it in my car. If its heavily varnished i use it for cleaning parts or starting fires.
Most of the time you can just ask the owner of the car how long it's been sitting that way you don't have to guess listen to them but don't trust everyone because some people will just flat out lie about it(why I don't know) but you can get a feel for honest people.
The Scrap yard around here makes you take out the gas tank and if you try to sell the gas tank you have to cut a 8" hole in it
same here, i have to pull each tank or cut the hole, i always pull the tank as i can get $40-$70 for a good fuel pump, and plus its alot easier to get the gas once the tank is out and my yard likes them better that way, they tend to overlook a few tires mixed in with the load if the tanks are outQuote:
Originally Posted by recyclerscrap
^^^What I do. Got about 15 gallons out of the last 2 cars I did.Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisc
Exactly me 3. And 2 hints. Certain vehicles if ya pull the ecm fuse the fuel pump will run indefinitely and not shut after 15 secs since there is no oil pressure signal. Gm's primarily and some fords If I remember right. Also if you look under the hood, some have a test port for the pump. Older monster buicks and what not from the 80's had a pigtail sticking out of the loom by the master cylinder. Others are in the under hood fuse box....or hell even power up the fuel pump fuse...that should kick it on.
Don't mind me. Mech for many years till I gave it up for health reasons and **** wages. Had a firestone told me 13.00 a hour was too much and I had 2 much experience. They just couldnt afford me..lol. And yes it's true, I have forgot more than most people will ever know....the saying is true.
If you let gas sit in a container the good gas will always float to the top. So when u need a fill don't shove your hose all the way to the bottom just use the top layer of fuel.
I will have burnt salvaged gas in my vehicles many times. As the others have added, use some common sense and look at and smell it. if in doubt don't use it.
Here are a few tips I can provide that have served me well enough in the past.
I normally pick up the clear kind of rubbing alcohol (~90%) anywhere cheap ( around a $1 or so per 20 oz bottle) and dump some in to eat the water and give it a bit of a boost. All "heat" or "octane boost" type products mostly are alcohol (methanol). I have found about an 1/4to 1/2 oz / gallon works wonders for old gas and puts some pep back into it. Helps avoid some of the issues of using salvaged gas. If you have a mostly aluminum engine I suggest cutting back to a couple cap fulls. Adding too much can burn up parts and cause premature failure if done often. It does not seem to cause any damage to iron engines.
As someone else stated above the best way to deal with pumping it out is to use the pump itself and run it through the filter. A few minutes looking up the wiring for the pump to find the positive and ground is all it takes with a nice long set of jumper cables. (Connect to pump wires and then the battery. Don't need sparks flying.) Try to do this without dropping / removing the tank when possible. You don't want to stir up the sediment on the bottom of the tank if it can be helped.
Hope that helps.
When I used to help my uncle out with taking in vehicles, we would drain the gas and mix it with new stuff. Did the same with the car I scraped out after I demoed it at the track. Yards around here make you drain all fluids and pull tires.
I use the gas for my yard van and others for there vehicles. I have an 08 Malibu 2.6 LTZ and will not risk it with that car.
Hey guys i know this post is a little old but if you do this often this company Vortex De-pollution makes what they call a mobile fuel filtration unit. Basically sucks the gas out of any tank through filters which makes it clean gas and can be put in what ever you want or into a storage tank of some sort.
The fuels probably ok to use in a lawnmower or such. Water will sink to the bottom of the tank.
Yep, adding alcohol will mix water & petrol.
Has anyone ever added Acetone to petrol?. I did once in a trailbike.
As soon as the Acetone/fuel got to the carby, the bike took off like a rocket..
Well not that fast, but about the same difference as a cold engine vs a hot engine. Or a cold engine with, without the choke pulled.
It turned out I only needed a capfull of acetone per tank for it to happen.
I had a car sitting on its floorpan (no wheels) for several years. When I cut the bands holding the tank in, I nicked the tank with the anglegrinder....
BOOM!. The flattened tank now looked like a pillow, blew the fuel cap out, deep into a tree bush. Lifted the car by over 4 inches.
It only contained 2 pints of 4 year old petrol......
cash for scrap are is good idea..
I started up a couple of cars i have that have been sitting for 1 year & 3 years.
Both started after a bit of cranking, but still quickly. Both ran well.
Ones needs a throttle body alignment ( its not idling 100%, but not too bad )
And the others got a Tappet knock ( i hope ! ) & sticky injectors or sumfink because i read that on the OBD2 readout.
Its also got 2/5ths + of a tank of fuel..
The use of gas from scrapped cars fuels the endless brush piles. To China with love.
I bought a 1937 Dodge dump truck many years ago at a auction for about $125.00 and checked the tank and it was almost full of gas that smelled like varnish. I started it up and drove it home. It ran fine but I noticed that it didn't get many miles to a gallon. But that was the "old type" of gasoline that was processed much differently then the fuels of today.
I have used old gas from junk vehicles many times in older vehicles, but I don't think I would use it in the vehicle I drive now unless it wasn't that old as the fuels of today start breaking down as soon as they are made.
Reminds me of the duct tape and poly plastic sheeting you bought years back and the stuff they have been selling for years now. The older tape and plastic would last a few years outside in the sun and rain, while the new stuff starts to rot away within months.