gasoline, or not? (1 Viewer)

[nuclearlemon]

i finally drained the gas tank on my "been sitting in a field for a few decades" 55.

usually, i just take the old gas, pour it on a grease stain or two, scrub with a stiff broom and light...great way to clean the driveway, but...it won't burn!!!

i took five paper towels, sicne i was out of match books, lit them and threw them on the gas...i burned the papertowels and left dry spots in the middle of the gas! no chunck came out of the tank, and i really don't want to drop it.

how many would just put a glass filter inline and see if chunks come out vs. dropping and having cleaned and coated? i'm leaning heavily towards the glass filter....i'm too poor and i really can't afford extra services.

 

[PabloCruise]

How much to have a radiator shop dunk it? $100?

Any way to give it a good home cleaning? IE - a clear inlet and outlet?

 

[fng55]

wow, i've never see gas that wouldn't burn!
i recomend flushing that tank out as much as posible with clean fuel.
IMHO a good fuel filter will stop most of the crud that will gum up a carb....but if it were mine i would spend a day giving it a good Kreem treatment before use. i hate rebuilding carbs.
carl

 

[IDave]

Did it smell like water? I would think there has to be rust in there.

 

[HI^C]

anytime you mix old gas and oil in equal to thin amounts AND spread it thin
like that it will not light. i have tried on several occasions

Gas starts to breakdown bad only after 1 yr time, and they say with temp changes
that 6 months can be long enough for major changes.

You can drain gas out of a can and not light it, if it has sat a long time. DO NOT reccommend trying any of above.

COLOR of the gas when drained?

ALWAYS drain a container off the gas can, i use 2 liter clear, and like just after a bit has drained, this will allow you to see seperation in water and gas. This will tell you a good chance of what kind of condtion it might be in.

 

[nuclearlemon]

the gas was the typical orangish color of old gas. i let it run til it was barely dripping into a clean bucket and not a single little chunk of anything in it.

 

[wesintl]

I did the same on my 66 ige.. The gas was yellow and didn't smell like gas and wouldn't burn.. I've got another 2 gal in my gas can I was going to kill weeds with it but summer is over and I can't use that 15 year old gas in the snowblower... I guess I'm going to pour it out in the rocks...

 

[madoc1]

my favorite all purpose tank,carb,line cleaner is chemtool. pint or two plus fresh gas,
stir, drain--or if it will run do that for a bit. all the filters you can find will help. then take spray chemtool and back flush these.

hate pulling the tank. luck jim

 

[Degnol]

i took five paper towels, sicne i was out of match books, lit them and threw them on the gas...i burned the papertowels and left dry spots in the middle of the gas

I quit doing that kinda shiat when I was 12. Gasoline loses its combustibility(sp?)in as few as 6 months. All the volatiles evaporate. Nice try, though.

Ed

 

[nuclearlemon]

damn...i've always been able to get it to burn away...it just wasn't very exciting.

 

[gladly]

on most of the sat a long time beaters I have managed to make run, I've just dumped in some high octane, some methyl hydrate, and some kind of fuel system cleaner. draining the tank seems like a good idea I suppose. pulling the tank, that's just extravagant!
then again, these have mostly been sitting for 3-6 years, and have generally not been the good and worthwhile project that yours might be
I'd just run it a good bit, change the filter after a day or two, again after a week or two.
this assumes that it is reasonably driveable, maybe not the case, but I find that driving cures a lot of things that seem like a problem on a vehicle that has sat for a long time.