drain the tank ?

[nearbrt]

:crutches::crutches::crutches:wanted to drain gas tank,so went to low spot at the 90 degree hard line at bottom of tank where it comes out of the flange then switches to rubber for about a foot then goes into hard line thru frame .i cut the bad rubber hose and expected to drain but only got a dribble .i took cap off but no flow.i'll proceed further but wonder whaaaaaaaats up ?shouldnt drained ? i'm usually good at making a hazardous mess ?? any suggestioins .thanks in advance,noobie

 

[phantomjock]

Maybe you need to siphon the fuel out.
I drained by taking the body off - then taking the tank off the frame and poured it - not easy. My tank has the pickups for the fuel at tohe top of the tank - so the fuel needs to be sucked up the fuel line first, then its äll downhilll from there." The suck is from the fuel pump.
I'd get a small electric block style pump - 30 bucks or so at NAPA, put that on the fuel line where you cut it, get a hose and bucket - then apply 12 volts - watch for SPARKS - and pump the tank empty.
Don't want to turn your hazadorous site into a fire pit!

Cheers - Jim

 

[mrvette]

PJ must have a later shark with the fuel pickup on top of the thank, my old '72 has the pickup on the bottom, and so it goes up top inside the tank for about 10" then loops down to the fuel sock, near the top is the sending unit welded to the pipe....so if the tank fuel has somehow broken suction, it will not drain up and over....

I would take that hose into a gas can, and then take a shop rag over the filler cap, and blast some air into the tank, forcing fuel up and over to drain via siphon.....

I drained my tank some time ago, via Twin Turbo's idea, the shop vac....which is a really scary trick, so it set it out in the driveway and ran about 20' of hose to it, worked fine, to my amazement.....but I still am shy about it....

but what was in my tank was mostly water at that point....

:amazed::clobbered:

 

[greg75vette]

As Gene said, you need to start a siphon thru the pick up due to the hump.

You could always remove the sending unit and have a real flow of gas out I wouldn't do that unless I could gaurantee no sparking from the removal process and a large deep bucket and some eye protection.

On second thought, I would just pump it out with a hand pump, haha.

 

[big2bird]

PJ must have a later shark with the fuel pickup on top of the thank, my old '72 has the pickup on the bottom, and so it goes up top inside the tank for about 10" then loops down to the fuel sock, near the top is the sending unit welded to the pipe....so if the tank fuel has somehow broken suction, it will not drain up and over....

I would take that hose into a gas can, and then take a shop rag over the filler cap, and blast some air into the tank, forcing fuel up and over to drain via siphon.....

I drained my tank some time ago, via Twin Turbo's idea, the shop vac....which is a really scary trick, so it set it out in the driveway and ran about 20' of hose to it, worked fine, to my amazement.....but I still am shy about it....

but what was in my tank was mostly water at that point....

:amazed::clobbered:

Nearbrt has a 69 coupe, and no, I don't care for the shop vac idea at all. You can say you have done it 100 times, and I would still say no.

 

[vette]

PJ must have a later shark with the fuel pickup on top of the thank, my old '72 has the pickup on the bottom, and so it goes up top inside the tank for about 10" then loops down to the fuel sock, near the top is the sending unit welded to the pipe....so if the tank fuel has somehow broken suction, it will not drain up and over....

I would take that hose into a gas can, and then take a shop rag over the filler cap, and blast some air into the tank, forcing fuel up and over to drain via siphon.....

I drained my tank some time ago, via Twin Turbo's idea, the shop vac....which is a really scary trick, so it set it out in the driveway and ran about 20' of hose to it, worked fine, to my amazement.....but I still am shy about it....

but what was in my tank was mostly water at that point....

:amazed::clobbered:

Nearbrt has a 69 coupe, and no, I don't care for the shop vac idea at all. You can say you have done it 100 times, and I would still say no.

Can U say Russian roulette!:suicide:

 

[mrvette]

PJ must have a later shark with the fuel pickup on top of the thank, my old '72 has the pickup on the bottom, and so it goes up top inside the tank for about 10" then loops down to the fuel sock, near the top is the sending unit welded to the pipe....so if the tank fuel has somehow broken suction, it will not drain up and over....

I would take that hose into a gas can, and then take a shop rag over the filler cap, and blast some air into the tank, forcing fuel up and over to drain via siphon.....

I drained my tank some time ago, via Twin Turbo's idea, the shop vac....which is a really scary trick, so it set it out in the driveway and ran about 20' of hose to it, worked fine, to my amazement.....but I still am shy about it....

but what was in my tank was mostly water at that point....

:amazed::clobbered:

Nearbrt has a 69 coupe, and no, I don't care for the shop vac idea at all. You can say you have done it 100 times, and I would still say no.

Can U say Russian roulette!:suicide:

You all talk to Marck about it, let him esplain, that there Kemikal shit and me don't get along, all the way down to a paint can....

:sos:

 

[nearbrt]

i"ll try the harbor freight hand pump /siphon thru filler then maybe at bottom hose...haz\mat is on standby..i'll be saving all spark related info for the killer tune-up on the mallory ignition big bird helped with ! thanks everyone

 

[68/70Vette]

If I was going to mess with the fuel tank, I'd think seriously about replacing the air in the tank with carbon dioxide. An easy way, is to buy a chunk of dry ice and drop it in the tank. With the big fuel openings of the early C3's this is easy. Drop the dry ice in the tank serveral hours before working with the tank and leaving the tank cap on loose.

An easier faster way would to blow out a CO2 fire extinguisher into the tank. However, these fire extinguishers are expensive. Dry ice is cheap.

Remember if, for somehow, you get something like a 12:1 fuel air mixture in the tank it becomes the equivalent of a giant stick of dynamite.

I think a good way to get rid of residual gasoline, would be to add a lot of alcohol to the residual gasoline. Gasoline will disolve in alcohol. Then add water, since with alcohol present, you can get a residual gasoline, alcohol, water mixture. Then drain this.

Just some thoughts. I've often wondered how to do this. When I came to remove my old 68 tank, it'd been empty so long all the gasoline had evaported. Laying on my back, I decided to cut the old steel fuel line with a dremel cut off wheel. Thought the line was dry. Laying on my back, the cut off wheel started spraying gasoline when I cut through the line. Luckily it didn't ignite. I would have been burnt. Dangerous work.

 

[mrvette]

I know that during the Carter/Sha crunch....79-80, we had a nice trip planned from Wash Dc region to Martha's Vinyard for our 3rd 10 day trip, once a year for about 4 years there.....

and so the TV had gas lines all around hell, and the NJ pike was not to be gassed on....so...

junkyard, gastank, added on with gas hose and pipe, a welder kind of friend of friend type deal, just filled the tank with Argon gas, and welded hell out of it, we bolted it in, I did a gauge switch, and changeover valve, and sure enough, we got there....50 gallons on board, another 9 in the sailboat we towed, 500 mile trip, previously calcualted MPG at 10 even......

got to Martha's vinyard straight through filled up for the return trip....

no beer until the last hour of the drive.....we times our water/food intake so no stopping for breaks....

did what we had to....but his welding trick was funny to watch us guys didn't know jack about welding, he just laughed, said no sweat....it wasn't...

:harhar::trumpet::wink:

 

[00fxd]

If you have a bottom sump [early] gas tank do not rely on the line/siphon to drain the tank enough to remove the sender/outlet assembly. I did that a couple of years ago and when I removed the bung about a 1/2 gallon of gas dropped right on my trouble light!!!! For some reason it did not ignite - I still thank christ to this day. Coulda been the worst day in my life. Siphon the tank as dry as you can from the top. I've just been thru pulling my sender in and out a couple of times to modify it. I got so that I knew where the low spot in tank was and could siphon it dry enough that there is no fuel present when I remove the bung. When looking down the fuel filler to siphon using a light make sure that you don't create a spark - turn on the light before you get to the tank and turn it off when you have moved away. When removing the bung lock ring I also use a brass punch and my dead blow [non metalic] hammer. Do not f^%k around with gasoline. Leave a couple of doors open in your shop to create a cross draft to prevent accumulation of fumes. If you can, work outside. Keep a fire extinguisher close if you can. You don't wanna go thru life disfigured or loose your car/home/shop or hurt your family. I'll get down off my soap box now :trumpet:

 

[010752]

If you have a bottom sump [early] gas tank do not rely on the line/siphon to drain the tank enough to remove the sender/outlet assembly. I did that a couple of years ago and when I removed the bung about a 1/2 gallon of gas dropped right on my trouble light!!!! For some reason it did not ignite - I still thank christ to this day. Coulda been the worst day in my life. Siphon the tank as dry as you can from the top. I've just been thru pulling my sender in and out a couple of times to modify it. I got so that I knew where the low spot in tank was and could siphon it dry enough that there is no fuel present when I remove the bung. When looking down the fuel filler to siphon using a light make sure that you don't create a spark - turn on the light before you get to the tank and turn it off when you have moved away. When removing the bung lock ring I also use a brass punch and my dead blow [non metalic] hammer. Do not f^%k around with gasoline. Leave a couple of doors open in your shop to create a cross draft to prevent accumulation of fumes. If you can, work outside. Keep a fire extinguisher close if you can. You don't wanna go thru life disfigured or loose your car/home/shop or hurt your family. I'll get down off my soap box now :trumpet:

:thumbs:
The bottom sump is really easy to work on.
Shine a flashlight down the the filler neck to see how much gas is left. If more than you like, get clear tubing a couple hex nuts screwed on the end of it to weight it, car level, siphon it out, try not to get a mouthful. Then take the sender off, with a big pan underneath. Shouldn't be more than a pint to a quart. Well worth the effort to replace the old sock etc.

Have never had a need to to use a vacumn in a gas tank, but in defense of that, there are 2 basic designs of shop vacs.
One has the suction air passing thru the motor and brushes to cool it, and the better design has the separate inlet and outlet for motor cooling, sealed from the tank completely. Obviously the latter is much safer.

If worried about explosive fumes, take a hose (eg. vacuum cleaner hose) run from another running car into the tank you are working on. Welded several that way. Not a chemist, but been told years ago, it removes the double oxygen bond at the end of the chain making it safe.

Don't do this over an ashphalt drive.

 

[mrvette]

Don't do this over an ashphalt drive.

I had a assfault drive once, bent a tie rod due to dropping the car off the stands because the floor jack did not roll with use.....whole car flipped sideways almost 2' and landed, about 4 months later I had a extra 2500 bux from a job I was doing, and so, a new concrete drive was installed....never again....:crutches::suspicious:

 

[Red]

If you have an early shark and the fuel just dribbles out the sender fuel elbow, you probably have a clogged fuel filter sock. Just take a coat hanger wire and shove it into the fuel outlet elbow punctuering the clogged sock and then fuel should drain free. Once the tank is empty, use the punch and hammer to undo the lock and drop the sender. This will enable you to replace the clogged sock and better inspect the tank. I didn't see any mention of a clogged sock in the thread, so forgive me if I missed it. In any event, you want to take all safety precautions mentioned, so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. BTW...When you drop the sender have a plastic basin about 14 inches across up against the bottom of the sender to catch remaining fuel. Even after removing the retaining ring the rubber seal will still hold until you do a little prying. Have the plastic ready to catch the fuel, there shouldn't be more than a quart or two. To make this part even easier, raise the passengers side of the car and remaining fuel shifts to the drivers side. Once the sender is removed, place the basin under the tank opening and lower the passenger side and remaining fuel will drain into it. For $200 bucks I'd replace an original tank from a 69 and avoid future problems with leaks that are likely to develop. An after thought, but in the line of safety, disconnect your battery before doning any of this work.

 

[SmokeyVette]

Here's how I did it. First I took the electric fuel pump that I bought from O'Reilly's and I connected about 6' of hose to one end and on the other I had the wife back up her old F-150 with an empty tank. One hose in my tank, one hose in hers, jumper cables from battery to fuel pump wires.

If you don't want to contaminate someone else's tank just drain into a large tub.

I DID find that I could not get out all of the fuel using this method BUT it DID get the tank light enough for me to easily coerce it up and down and where ever I wanted it with relative ease once I got it unbolted.:thumbs:

 

[mrvette]

Here's how I did it. First I took the electric fuel pump that I bought from O'Reilly's and I connected about 6' of hose to one end and on the other I had the wife back up her old F-150 with an empty tank. One hose in my tank, one hose in hers, jumper cables from battery to fuel pump wires.

If you don't want to contaminate someone else's tank just drain into a large tub.

I DID find that I could not get out all of the fuel using this method BUT it DID get the tank light enough for me to easily coerce it up and down and where ever I wanted it with relative ease once I got it unbolted.:thumbs:

UHHH...Smokey, read that to yourself with the mind of a dirty old man...and get back to us....

:shocking::evil::evil::blush::drink:

 

[00fxd]

If you have an early shark and the fuel just dribbles out the sender fuel elbow, you probably have a clogged fuel filter sock. Just take a coat hanger wire and shove it into the fuel outlet elbow punctuering the clogged sock and then fuel should drain free. Once the tank is empty, use the punch and hammer to undo the lock and drop the sender. BTW...When you drop the sender have a plastic basin about 14 inches across up against the bottom of the sender to catch remaining fuel. Even after removing the retaining ring the rubber seal will still hold until you do a little prying. Have the plastic ready to catch the fuel, there shouldn't be more than a quart or two. To make this part even easier, raise the passengers side of the car and remaining fuel shifts to the drivers side. Once the sender is removed, place the basin under the tank opening and lower the passenger side and remaining fuel will drain into it.

As I mentioned in my post it is not possible to drain the tank enough just through the fuel outlet. This, IMO, will result in unacceptable spillage when you remove the bung and it dumps in your face. Jacking the car to move the fuel to the drivers side is not a bad idea tho. As I mentioned, it is possible to siphon enough fuel from the tank that when the bung is removed using a brass punch that the will be no spillage.