The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Trying to start 250

My 65 C10 has a transplanted 1975 250 that has not been cranked in several years so that was today's goal. I got it to crank briefly on a little starting fluid but not getting gas and/or gas is old. I added 6 gallons but messed up in not draining fuel tank first and starting fresh. So I decided to drain the tank so I disconnected the fuel line from underneath the body and took the gas cap off. But no flow. So how do I drain the gas tank?

Second issue is I was getting fuel TO the carburetor but not in it. I regret I don't have any pics of the carburetor, I had forgotten my phone. I don't have any idea what kind of carburetor it is.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Reconnect the gas line at the tank, and remove the inlet line at the fuel pump. Put a VERY slight amount of air pressure into the tank to get the fuel started flowing, and it should siphon the fuel level down to within a couple of inches of the bottom of the tank. Then remove the tank, and do a thorough cleanup with a pressure washer, or some other way to get rid of all the accumulated crud and varnish from the old gasoline. I've been known to ratchet-strap a gas tank to a rear wheel on my tractor, throw in a couple of shovels of pea gravel, and bush hog one of my pastures for an hour or two.
Jerry

10-4 thanks

If it's not getting fuel into the carb it's possible the needle/float is stuck. It probably needs a rebuild or atleast taken apart and cleaned up, but you can try tapping on the carb with a screwdriver handle or something similar and it might un-stick it.

You could also pull the fuel filter out of the carb and replace it, it could be clogged up. If you don't have an inline fuel filter then it might be wise to add one as well.

Weren't you the gentleman with the stopped up gas tank a couple of days ago? If I'm remembering correctly and if that tank hasn't been used in a good while and was sitting with unleaded/ethanol laced gas in it, I doubt there'll be an answer short of that new tank you ordered. And even more to the point, I doubt you want any gas that could pass through that tank in your engine. I certainly wouldn't.

We talked about ethanol gas (and honestly from everything I've read, unleaded gas without ethanol will go bad, too...it just takes a little longer and the process is different) here on the forum last week. With ethanol gas, phase separation is the problem, and any gas station owner already knows about this. It is his constant nightmare. Please go to Google and read about phase separation. What it means basically is that the alcohol in the gas (ethanol) attracts water. It comes out of the air as humidity and nothing can stop that from happening. Then when the water saturation reaches .41%, the excess water separates and falls straight to the bottom of the gas tank...because it is heavier than the gasoline. At .41% water is held in suspension in the alcohol and will pass through the tank and engine without harm, but the two really important things to understand are (1) you need to burn that gas asap because (2) the ethanol in it will continue to attract water even though it can't hold any more. Above .41% (.0041...which truly is a miniscule amount), that ethanol-rich water falls to the bottom and nothing good happens after that. Really nasty chemical reactions occur. In plain talk, the water/ethanol mixture turns to genuine crap. And the real sad thing (what the gas stations learned the hard way) is almost nothing will mix with the crud it becomes and it is not easy nor cheap to remove. It is cheaper to replace the storage tank than to try to clean it. Some folks will swear by Sta-Bil and Sea Foam, but what I've read is those 2 products failed to help the phase separation. There are 2 commercial products which did help, but the bad news is they only increased the saturation percentage to .43% and at .44% water again started separating and heading down to the bottom of the tank. And 200 proof alcohol will help, but it is extremely expensive, isn't available as a fuel additive and once again...will only bump up the saturation percentage by a small bit.

Good luck, but please wait for that new tank, get a new fuel line if you need to and enjoy having clean fuel going through your engine.