The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk What do I do with 27yo gas?

Hey Guys,

I've got a half tank of 27 year old gas. It's been the tank since 1980.

Is it basically water now?

How do I dispose of it?
I live in the city.

Bon Fire!

That's what I call 'big easy' gas.

It's a general term, originally used to describe gas that had been watered down, coined by someone here on the 'bolt shortly after hurricane Katrina that now I use to describe any gasoline that is unsuitable for use with any internal combustion engine.

And it's catching on.. just the other day a guy I know said his truck was running rough.. I asked him what was wrong with it, and he said, "I dunno.. I think I mighta got ahold of some of that Big Easy gas you was talkin' about while ago."

Best thing to do with 'Big Easy' gas is to use it to clean parts, or start burn piles on fire.

So, letting it dribble out of the tank onto the driveway and down into the street isn't such a good idea then? The Druids would be after me then, eh?

Get it out of the tank and use it for cleaning parts, etc as Fumblin suggested.

Do yourself a favor and DON'T crank your engine with it in there... when I bought my truck it arrived with bent push rods becasue of bad gas. Good luck!

i used mine for cleaning parts but now i have to clean the gas can i stored it in the gas looked better then the stuff you get now but the truck was stared inside

Cleanig parts with gasoline???A very safe practice,especially for all of you smokers.Is this the Stovebolt sight ,or the Stovenut Sight???

Cleaning parts with any gasoline is asking to be on the news as part of a "freak accident". Your gas is now mostly varnish anyway. Drain it into a sealable container and take it to a hazardous waste facility for disposal. Be sure to clean the varnish off of the inside of your tank before putting fresh gas in it. If you don't you'll have bent pushrods at a minimum. The fresh gas will liquify some of the varnish which will then solidify on the intake valve stems when you shut the engine off. Many if not all will then be stuck shut so the next time you try to turn the engine over you'll bend pushrods.

I poured about 1/2 tank of 30 year old gas out in the alley behind my shop. It stunk for several weeks! Tiny is exactly right, I bent several push rods by running the old gas, valves were stuck tight, had to pull the head and have a valve job done, about $200.00 lesson. Then I bought a new gas tank and replaced all lines, now it runs fine.

In addition to Tiny's comments, you can possibly save the gas tank by removing it and taking it down to a radiator shop and have them clean it. This will remove all the varnish and scale from the tank, and possibly show any corrosion that needs to be repaired. If anyone is going to weld, braze or solder the tank, fill the tank with water. This will prevent the tank from going boom. It IS an exciting sound, but if you are standing over the tank, it will require having a change of clothing handy.
Bob

This is the politically correct answer to "what to do with 27 year old gas?" and I think it's also the right answer. Sometimes the PC answer is right.

Call your city and find out if they have a household hazardous waste collection center or if the county does. Most do, nowadays. Take the gas to them. Unfortunately, they may want the containers, so find out beforehand and use whatever is handy (old paint thinner cans or cat litter jugs) and put the gas in that. With 27 gallons, you may have to make a few trips. I know it's a hassle but it is the correct thing to do. The gas will probably be fuel blended and used for cement kiln fuel or blast furnace fuel depending on what part of the country you live in. Good luck.

Wow! This conversation really sparked up

Luckily, I have only a half tank of 27 year old fuel. I'm guessing that's about 7.5 imperial gallons.

And, luckily, I didn't run the engine with that fuel so I haven't cratered the engine yet.

I'll go and find some 5 gallon pails and then I will contact the local fire department and see if they know who might want to recycle the old fuel.

Thanks Guys!

thats probaly the best idea Ezekiel

old gas is a decent weed killer too...

Truck I bought had been parked in 76. Drained about 7 gallons, I had same disposal problem, so I burned it in my 01 S10. Filtered it using coffee filters and put 1 gallon before every fill up. Truck ran a little rough but the old fuel has been spent. No ill effects.

Man I been washing parts in gas since I was 9 years old tearing down grandpas lawn mower.

And as far as cigarette smoking is concerned, you'd have a hard time igniting gas with a cigarette.. I know guys who toss their lit cigarettes in coffee cans of old gas to put the things out.. and welders who have to do any work around the fuel tank of a vehicle FILL the tanks to reduce the risk of explosion.. again, since it's the vapor that goes boom.

Just think of the increase in price from the time the gas was bought to now....

Drain it inti a proper "approved"gas can.drive north on highway 2.At the first oil pump jack you see,get out and dump it around the fence.They'll get blamed for it

So,,,, No one has thought of processing this stuff back into some sort of bio-fuel

A buddy of mine run a barrel of 30 year old gas in his boat motor last summer that he didnt even realize he still had. He ran the boat most of the summer on free gas. I wouldnt do it, but, he said it ran great.

My first job, I was 15 y/o working in a carburetor shop(remember those?) we kept small coffee cans fulla gas no the bench to fill carbs with before sending them out-this way you can check the pump & the thing is fulla gas so the car would fire right up. Anyway, one day a fella is there picking up a carb & asked Dan if smoking around that gas bothered him, as Dan always had a cigarette hanging outta his mouth. Dan says "Gas don't burn" & promptly threw his lit cigarette right into the can of gas(which went right out). The look on that fella's face as he ran backwards was priceless.

I've also thought about draining the tank into some buckets and then letting it evaporate in the bright sunlight.

We have a 55 gallon drum with the lid cut out, and use it to burn wood scraps, cardboard and other junk. With a good pile of coals I also use it to burn used oil.
Old gas is the most exciting thing to burn so far.
First have a really good fire that has burned down to a pile of coals. Then a milk jug full of old gas is tossed in from about 8' away, as you quickly turn around and run the other way. there will be a loud noise and a warm glow behind you. Then it's time for the next gallon....

Mix it with used motor oil and take down to your local Garage for disposal, or Canad**n Tire will take your used oil.

All one needs to remember is that it only takes one mistake with something as volatile as gas and you won't get a second chance. 1/2 cup of gas has the same amount of energy as 3 sticks of dynamite. I have seen 2 people in completely different situations, burn all the hair off their arms and face, not to mention the minor burns. They were both throwing gas on a fire that was just smouldering. The whoomph sound and pressure wave was enough to rattle the windows on my house 75 feet away, ( my wife was not impressed). I agree with 1958GMCnut that you should take it to a disposal facility, its painless, and free.
Bob

Best thing if you have 27 year-old gas gas is to check into the hospital for an enema.

Has anyone suggested lacquering your furniture with it?

Years ago I was at a friends garage and he had a barrel woodstove he had threw some newspaper and kindling into but no fire. Soooooo he takes a soup can of gas and tosses in the door and Whoosph a jet engine kicked in his afterburner and he looked at us with a instant sunburn,50 cent eyes, no eyebrows ,no moustashe and bald, in the front only, and sadly all we could do at that time was bust out laughing. He was OK but embarassed. We still tease him today but none of us use gas to light the stove.
Dan

When I was a kid we played with gasoline. I learned a lesson. People who "play" with gasoline need smarter hobbies.

Back in '60 I had a cousin that tossed a soup can of gasoline on a smoldering 55gal garbage can that he couldn't get going. It was acceptable to burn your trash back in those days. As the previous members had said the whoosh from the gasoline as it vaporized blew the little bit of the liquid that had not vaporized back on him and he spent the next three months in the hospital with severe third degree burns to his face, neck, shoulder and arms. It left him badly scared for the rest of his life.
I’d hate to be around a gallon of gasoline thrown on a fire. We have all seen the spectacular explosions in the movies with the ball of flames rolling skyward. The prop guys are only using quarts or less for most of them and a gallon would look like a nuke was detonated.
Like the rest of you, don’t have a good solution for getting rid of stale gasoline other than hazmat disposal.
I do have a trucking outfit by me that heats their shop with waste oil. They have a 500 gallon tank that they empty their waste oil into and that’s how get rid of mine. They told me once that I could pour anything that will burn in it, I wonder now if that would include stale gasoline?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I used to drain old gas into buckets and pour it into my underground storage tanks (when I sold gas). 20-30 gallons mixed with 10,000 and the problem is solved.

20 yrs ago a guy one year younger than me (who lives right down the road) was showing his little brother how flames would follow a trail of gasoline on the ground. He was about 12 or so at the time, the flames went right into the bowl(!) he was pouring gas from & boom up he went. They are horse people so his twin sister grabbed a horse blanket & put him out quickly. He was still burned over about 50% of his body. He spent 6+ mos in the burn unit w/skin grafts over a coupla yrs after that. He healed nicely but is very scarred, missed his face but his back(shirt caught fire), chest, leg & arms look bad. He showed his little bro a very important lesson. Denny I know a fella w/an oil stove, he puts old gas, thinners, veg oil, whatever-he says anything but water.

Seeing as you can sell anything on eBay, bottle it and sell it as a "collector's item" in the "weird stuff" section. Worded as "Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi 1980 memorial collector fuel lovingly stored in period correct fuel tank" it might even bring a few $$.

The trick to starting a burn pile is a quart of diesel fuel and an old tire...


John

Grandpa took the stinky gas from Number Seven's tank and lit his annual bonfire with it.

If you don't have a farm that requires an annual bonfire, I'd take it to the hazmat place in your county, or call your mechanic and ask him what he does with it.

Is this going to turn into a Stupid Things Not To Do With Old Gas thread? I've got a number of these sorts of recommendations, which result in chasing burning garbage around the yard or watching barrel lids get blown up into the atmosphere. I might mention one old memory that sticks for me - a pal and I dumped a bunch of old gas in the gravel driveway and lit it and watched it burn. Then one of us got the bright idea to spray water on it from the garden hose. Every drop of water that hit the burning gravel acted like so much more gas, it really flamed up. We were standing a good ways off, but really got a kick out of watching that gas flame up.
That guy runs the hometown FLAPS now, in fact he sold me my 8 volt battery, which shows how much brighter we've gotten in all the years since.

Dumbest thing i've ever heard anyone do with gas is years ago I read a story about a guy who thought he had fuel line freeze up in the winter.

So the idiot gets a gallon of gas, dumps it in a pot, and brings it into the kitchen and sits it on the stove.

He reasoned what he'd do is bring the gallon of gas to a boil, then dump the heated fuel into the gas tank of his car to 'thaw' the frozen fuel line.

Needless to say, shortly after he put the pot on his stove his kitchen exploded.

Of course there's a huge difference between using old gas to clean parts and dumping gas on a smoldering fire.

If you don't have absolute $hit for brains, you can use 'big easy' gas to clean parts, kill weeds, etc with a reasonable level of safety.

We use old gas to "help" start bonfires on a rock shoal on the St. Lawrence River. We call it "Girl Scout Water".

Weed Killer!

What have I started?!?

It's a bonfire of bad puns and firestorm of sad stories