How to remove bad gas from trucks fuel tank? | 4WDTalk - Overlanding and offroad Forum
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How to remove bad gas from trucks fuel tank?

Jon Snow

Jon Snow

Active member
I'm thinking about buying an older truck that has been sitting for 14 years. Challenge is, the is half tank of gas that has been sitting in the truck for that time. I'm guessing that is going to be bad and I should get that removed before I attempt to do anything. I'm just not sure how to get the gas out of the truck. Any ideas?
 
Siphon as much as you can and drop the tank. There's going to be a ton of muck in there. Fuel pump will be in poor shape, Change the filter. At the engine, see if you can disconnect the fuel line and run the pump. You want to clear the crap out of the line.
Modern fuel has less than a 1 year life span. This is due to the alcohol. The alcohol is also what eats everything over time.
Most of the time you grab three friends and lift off the truck bed. Way easier then dropping the tank.
 
Thank you. Now if I get most of the old gas out, change filters and then fill the tank with good premium gas, will what little that might be in the tank burn when mixed with all the rest of the new and perhaps an additive?
 
Its possible.
After you clear as much out as you can, I would remove the filter, stick a hose on the fuel line, power up the fuel pump and flow into a bottle to give you an idea what may be in there. I also wouldn't put more than a few gallons to start. If you fill it and there's an issue, you don't want to deal with 20+ gallons of fuel.

I have replaced more truck fuel pumps over the years then I can count. If the truck your getting is American and not older then the late 90's, somewhere between 96-98 the manufacture's all changed the fuel pump designs. The trucks were the worst. Around 02 they finally figured it out but, the additives in fuel changed and that brought new issues. Today the fuel isn't as caustic as it was but it can form a weird muck when it sits over a couple of years.

You eventually want to pull the fuel pump and look at that. There's (should be) a sock on the end of the pickup that filters coarse debris. You want to make sure that's in good shape. If you end up with. If its American, you also want to inspect the wiring from the pump to the mount plate where the wiring goes out of the tank. As the pump gets old, it draws more power. The manufactures started skimping on the wire in the tank. You want to inspect it for melted wires and connectors. If thats the case, new pump and internal harness.

If the truck is Japanese, disregard everything except the fuel muck eating the pump.
 
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