Siphon it out into a gas can or if there's only a few gallons in it drop the tank with the fuel in it.

 

I use an electric fuel pump connected to the fuel line. When it stops pumping the tank will have less than ten pounds of fuel in it.

Big Dave

 

Go to Home Depot, plumbing isle, and buy the clear plastic syphoning gizmo. While there, pick up a few two gallon vented gas containers. Save the gas for cleaning parts.

 

Save the gas for cleaning parts.

Not a good idea at all:noway:

 

I siphoned mine out to. I got a jack with a couple towels on it ( so I didnt scratch the tank to bad) and used it to support some of the weight. Come to find out, the tank was suprising low with gas and dropping it was not a big deal. ....Just remember to remove the groung wire for the sender.

 

jack the front of the car up. get a 4'-5' piece of clear flexible hose, insert in tank and SUCK, SUCK AND SUCK. keep your eye on the hose for the gas :thumbsup:

 

Agree with John. But... look in almost any old British repair manual and you will find references to soaking in clean petrol. Times have changed.

I removed about 20 gallons of stinky gas from an old Ferrari project once. Finicky FI wouldn't even run on the stuff. At the time I had a Venture mini van (stop laughing). Every time I filled up the Venture, I would drive it far enough to get a gallon or so out of the tank and add about a gallon of the stinky gas. 20:1 and it was OK. Never a hiccup. At the time it was easier than taking it to a recycle place.

 

I agree with John that using old gas is not very safe. But, back in the day my pops and I had this 5 gal. vented container with a mix of old gas, kerosene, and you name it in it. We kept it outside of the garage and cleaned everything and anything with it. Beats dumping it in the Bay.

 

Beats dumping it in the Bay.

I'm laughing right now, at the sh!t storm this sentence would create now-a-days compared to yesterdays.


After the tank is drained, you might have to absorb the remaining gas with a towel because the filler neck protrudes a little inside the tank so you can't get every drop out.

To be safe I don't see any reason not to fill the tank with water afterwards to purge any empty space and vapor inside the tank that may or may not get excited at the meeting with a sexy welding spark.

 

Does your car have an electrical or mechanical fuel pump. If it's electrical, you can disconnect the rubber hose from the carb, place the end in an empty fuel carrier and turn the pump on. If not, the rubber hose/siphon pump at any auto parts store will do the trick. Insert it in the fuel filled neck and siphon away.

 

Keep it simple...
As John says above.. syphon most out.. that takes most of the weight out of the tank.
Then remove the straps, drop the tank, slide out and pour the rest out.
You are striping down for a resto anyway and the 1st thing one should pull is the tank, remove any gas or vapour holding container anyway.

Oh Give the nuts that hold the straps up and suspension shackles, nuts bolts, chassis donut/ body / sill / fender etc bolts a good soaking in penetrating oil or CRC type product for a couple days....makes life seriously easier.

 

Keep it simple...
As John says above.. syphon most out.. that takes most of the weight out of the tank.
Then remove the straps, drop the tank, slide out and pour the rest out.
You are striping down for a resto anyway and the 1st thing one should pull is the tank, remove any gas or vapour holding container anyway.

Oh Give the nuts that hold the straps up and suspension shackles, nuts bolts, chassis donut/ body / sill / fender etc bolts a good soaking in penetrating oil or CRC type product for a couple days....makes life seriously easier.

Going with the Siphon, Pep boys special for $6. Then I'll be doing my first tank dropping, looking forward to warmer weather around 35 for that. Thanks for all the great advice. I will NOT be using the match. The wife would like that, solves the impending Camaro restoration.

I'll repost how things go.

 

I'm with Dave, I keep a cheap electric fuel pump just for that purpose.

 

My dad called a siphon hose an "Arkansas credit card" I was 15 before I figured out what that meant. I would just siphon it out as well.

 

A match? Won't have to worry about the cold either. Win win!

 

I use a small electric pump with a suction hose down the fill nozzle. Last time ended up with about a gallon left. That is about six pounds. use a jack with a chunk of plywood remove the straps and let it down.

 

This worked for me - disconnect fuel line from sending unit - run piece of hose from sending unit to gas can - connect your shop vac hose to the exhaust side so it blows air out of hose - wrap duct tape around end of shop vac hose until it fits snug into filler neck - turn on shop vac and monitor level of fuel in catch can. This method blew my tank almost dry!

 

I bought a cheap electric fuel pump from Autozone (less than $35 I think) and connect it to the fuel line next to the passenger side upper control arm. Easier than siphoning and it will get almost all the gas out of the tank. Pump it out into a gas can. I run it off my battery. Make sure you don't spark anything with gas fumes around.

 

Harbor Freight just sent out an email advertising cheap crap tools but there's a hand pump for $5 in it.

 

I sort of remember something about build sheets attached to the top of gas tanks. Does that apply to 1st gens, or maybe it was only Corvette.

 

I've heard that as well. I will check for mine tomorrow if things go well.

Progress! I was able in 22 degree weather to remove the filler neck. Tomorrow when it warms up to 30 degrees I hope to siphon out the fuel in the tank. If I have time I will then drop the tank.

I'm finding that once I finally figure out how to remove something from the car, IF I had to do it again it would take me 1/4 of the time. I'm guessing this is what they call the learning curve...:clonk:

 

Disconnect ground wire and don't forget to disconnect the tan wire to the fuel sending unit.

Now that you figured it out I'll blurt my 1st thought when you 1st posted.

The easiest way to remove the gas from tank is to drive it until it runs out of gas.

 

I certainly would have done that, but the poor car has been off the road since 2004 (I checked the registration sticker. Don't worry, it's registered, I just haven't been putting the stickers on every two years. That date also corresponds to my older son's birth....).

But don't worry, I start the car on a regular basis, but I disconnected the fuel line from the fuel pump and just start and run it off a gas can. Seemed like a good idea at the time, though of course looking back I should have just run it dry.

 

If your working outside "naked" to the weather you can build a tent cheaply with some poly sheet on a roll from the big box along with some duct tape. You need a frame from either tube or 2x4's or a dog run cable works well tree to tree or house to post or tree to support the roof of the tent. Use either sand bags (grocery bags filled with a couple inches of road sand from the highway dept work well.) to seal the poly to the work surface (either pavement or grass). Then tape a full flap on the front, and also seal to the surface. For your rear flap over lap two flaps a couple feet for easy access and again have a bag or two to keep her sealed.

On a sunny day the wind break may be warm enough to work comfortably but then a cheap electric heater, or even radiator can get you out of the brutal cold for a day project, I've seen some using propane bullets but don't melt the tent around you.

The tent breaks down easily at the end of the day, and can be used over and over again and it cuts the wind and that can make the difference between an easy project and a miserable project in winter.

Good luck on the storm, maybe a neighbor will take pity on you and let you put her in an unused garage for the storm.

 

Put a cover over your car and give it up until it gets warm enough to work on it without catching pneumonia. I have a small garage but I not going out in the cold to work on my car. My truck needs an oil change but it can wait until the temperature gets up in the 40's. My wife just told my daughter that her Tahoe needs an oil change too but she hasn't bought any oil yet. Even she told my daughter that it was too cold for me to be gettin down on the ground.

 

I buy the oil I want and take it with my daily drivers to Jiffy Lube

Luckily for my Camaro I have a heated garage and a 4 post lift. It does get cold in Vegas too.

 

Good luck with this weekend. I'm hearing the same for us up here in Jersey, 7 to 10 inches of snow Saturday into Sunday. My advice is to throw a cover over that thing and wait out the storm watching the playoffs!

 

12-19 inches predicted for Fredneck. I'm not touching the Camaro for a good week or more with this crap coming. Salt... salt everything!

Looks like rain Tuesday and Wednesday then we're back up in the 50's.

Shortest dang winter I've ever seen!

Jeff: If you want a hand let me know. I've removed my tank before. It's not hard. The easiest way I found was remove the filler neck, put a jack under it with a piece of wood, remove the straps and lower it down slowly. Easier with two people so one can guide it while the other operates the jack.

...if its a nice day I might even drive mine.

By hand I mean once it warms up because you're nuts if you're working on it right now! It's freaking 18 degrees outside! Too cold even for my heaters to keep up in my garage!

Heaters. As in 2 of them.

 

George, thanks for the offer. Again, if I didn't have this time crunch I would wait. I hope to be able to do what I want to do today, we'll see. Yesterday it was 10-20 minutes outside, then back in to warm up. Wish me luck.

 

Whats the big rush? You haven't said...

 

Sorry, hid the reason in another post. I'm getting the car ready for Tony from Musclecarmetal. He's delivering a car to maryland, and it only makes sense to pick mine up for the return. I set modest goals, but EVERYTHING takes a lot of time. Of course once I've done it once I then know how I should have done it:clonk:

 

When's he coming?

As I said I can lend a hand. Stripping a car is fun. It's putting it all back together that's a real PITA...

 

Update, for those that care.

Decided to siphon the fuel. Used a cheap-o siphon. Was able to get 1/2 gallon out.

Thankfully my neighbor has pneumatic tools. Good grief, where have I been?? Those things beat the hell out of ratchets and such:beers:.

Using careful preparation (and thanks to the responders who suggested removing the sending unit wire, I would not have recognized that I should have done that), it took all of 10 minutes being very careful. My neighbor and I poured (using a funnel, no gas in the Chesapeake!) another ~2.5 gallons from the tank into the gas can.

Take home lesson for me.

1. Pneumatic tools are awesome, especially when it's 29 degrees out.
2. Either learn how to siphon or don't bother
3. Now I'm actually making some teardown progress

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. It's daunting starting out, but not so bad!