We are trying to siphon gas from my 2001 Vette because it is going down to the auto show in St. Louis on Tues. with our Original Corvette Club. (You can only have 2 gal. of gas in the tank). We can't get the hose to go down into the tank, it seems to get hung up no matter which way we try to thread it in. Anyone know what we can do? Right now it is running out in the garage. I can't take it for a drive... St. Louis is getting 4-6 inches of snow.

 

It has an anti-surge flap in the tube to prevent fuel from surging out when you fill or turn. If you do get a tube to go through it, it could hang up on the spring loaded flap and you might not be able to get it out. I guess if it is a must do, you could unhook the fuel line and turn on the key and let the pump force the gas out. You'd have to have a big container ready and maybe a connector and a long piece of fuel line hose to run to it. If you do, let the car cool down to cold first. I don't know if siphoning would work anyway, since there are two tanks. Good luck

 

How close are they going to be checking the level of gas in your car? If you only had 2 gallons in the tank it would show a Low Fuel warning on the DIC.
Bill

 

That all just sounds tooooooo complicated. I guess we'll just go back to Plan B...
Thanks so much!

 

Bill, when we drive in, one of the attendants looks inside at the fuel gauge. I could get by with a little extra. Thanks.

 

We had a problem with theives on my fleet of vans , they were stealing gas and I couldn't figure out how because I couldn't get a hose down there either . I hid in the lot one night and caught the little turkeys in the act . Our schools are better than I thought because these kids would put a 8' section of fuel hose in a freezer to stiffen it and keep it in a cooler with dry ice until they were ready for use . The stiff hose would push past the flapper plate so they could siphion the fuel out .

 

If you know where the valve for the fuel pressure gauge test is at on the engine, and you had access to a Scan Tool you can tell the Scan Tool to energize the fuel pump relay and by taking out the valve in that line you can drain your tank that way. But you don't need a Scan Tool just turn the key on and go out and energize the fuel relay ciruit manually but don't keep it energize for long periods of time you could burn the pump up.

 

 

When I need gas for my lawn mower I hook up a A/C service hose to the fuel port under the hood. Remove the fuel pump relay and install a jumper wire diagonally across the terminals where the relay plugs in.

On my 2006 HHR I start the car first, then attach the A/C service hose and instantly have gas going into my gas can from the hose.


Don't let the pump run dry as the gas cools the pump and without being cooled the pump will fail.


Note: When you jumper the wires diagonally if you do it wrong you will not do any harm if you see the above wire diagram it will either run or will not run. But to be safe use a fused jumper wire.

Dave

 

That's excellent advice above, plus with 2 gallons left in the tank the pump/filter will probably be sucking all kinds of sediment from the bottom of the tank(s). I don't think there's any car show worth the risk.

 

If you're draining fuel in your garage .... be aware that many garages have water heaters and/or furnaces that have a gas pilot light or other ignition source in them. Be VERY aware of gasoline fumes in your garage if you have any ignition source nearby.

 

Great point. About 10 years ago, I had a buddy of mine that was working on a small motorcycle for his girlfriend to ride. He drained the gas tank and the fumes built up on the floor. Without warning, the garage exploded into a huge fireball because of the gas water heater being too close to the ground. He ran outside into the back yard and tried to get his burning pants off. He couldn't get them off because he still had his shoes on and finally, the neighbor behind him came running out, because he had seen the fireball and heard the screams (it was after midnight, so it was dark outside) and beat his pants out. His girlfriend had been asleep on the couch, awoke and tried to get to him, but could not get out to the garage because the door was already too hot to open. She had to go back out the front door and run around the house. This turned out to be a blessing because as soon as the fire burnt throught the door, the heat swept throughout the whole house and destroyed everything in it. There were beer mugs in the freezer that were just blobs of melted glass and the fridge still worked. Jeans in the far back bedroom looked fine, but as soon as you touched them they would turn to dust. Their TV looked like something out of a horror movie, all melted and dripping, but still worked fine. All the walls were black except where the pictures hung. Really amazing what just the heat did, because the fire itself never entered the house.
My friend spent a few months in the burn center going throught the horribly painful and repeated process of debreeding and getting numerous skin grafts on his legs. Other that the fact that his legs tan funny and he has no hair on them, he is in perfect shape today. Just goes to show, you never know.

 

Hey, thanks guys! I especially liked the thieves' method of getting the fuel out. So far all I've been doing is running the car in the garage(with the door partially open), but it isn't using up the fuel very quickly. I certainly hope that idling it for long periods (90 min/ break) won't damage anything? Anyone the wiser on this? Thanks for all the tips...no water heaters or furnace out there, either.

 

Not the best suggestion here, but you could detatch the fuel line and let the fuel pump pump it out (use an extention hose of course).

Thanks,Matt