Gas theft

[Christ]

Originally Posted by klrv6

That sucks!!!


I agree with putting some dummy tanks out and laugh when those get stolen.

I know one shop owner who thought one of his guys was stealing some of his engine oil in bottles. He took a few new ones, cracked them open and dumped the metal shavings from the break lathe in. It didn't take long for him to figure out which employee it was. One of the mechanics came in complaining about how his engine started knocking and locked up on him. Customers cars always got new bottles from another area of the shop so he knew they wouldn't get the laced oil.

I'm pretty sure whoever stuck that oil in his car is a moron... first of all, if someone cracked open a sealed oil bottle, well, it would just be quite obvious. Secondly, the average person uses a funnel to put oil in their engine... metal shavings from a lathe would also be quite obvious as they were poured into the funnel. Lathes don't create very small shavings, usually.

The largest portion of the metal shavings, if they actually did make it into the engine unnoticed, wouldn't make it through the sump screen and oil pump, either. It would be particulate, if anything, that would actually get pumped through the engine... The biggest associated problem would be that with enough metal shavings, you might plug the sump tube, starving the engine for oil.

Regardless of all that, it's still quite obvious when an oil bottle has been opened... they're sealed like they are for a reason, and that story just illustrates it.

[Frank Lee]

You might try adding small quantities at a time, say, 1:4 (or ?) with fresh.

[Christ]

As far as people stealing gas, get a shottie, and fill it with salt rocks. If you see someone on your property that isn't supposed to be there, doing things they're not supposed to be doing, invoke your right to protect yourself and family by reasonable means. Shoot their dumb asses. Rock salt hurts twice... once when it goes in, and twice as bad when it starts dissolving. It might make them think more than once before stealing anything from you again, and it will set the tone for anyone else planning or thinking about doing the same.

[Frank Lee]

On quite a few of my engines I never use a funnel. Depends on spill-free access. Not using the funnel = nothing oily to clean up.

[ATaylorRacing]

Originally Posted by Dreamster

Good morning, if you're still on this forum, I have a problem. I went to salvage one of our trucks and found 35 gallons of gas in the tank. It's been sitting for about 5 years and smells like lacquer. Can it be saved?

Tnx

Old Matchbox (the car on my sig) sat for 5 years with a worn out motor. I started it right up and drove it 110 miles round trip to use it to pick up a fresher motor. The car has no interior so it IS my pick up truck. We put the motor in where the passenger seat used to be...

As far as the gas...no problems, but if it is suspect I'd mix it with new gas.

On another related story, a guy on my mail rte sold be a old Lebaron that sat for 6 years. I went there with a spare battery and tow rope. The car ran when parked but they were told it needed a head gasket. Put in the battery, pulled the coil wire and cranked it for a few minutes to build oil pressure...hooked up the coil and it started right up. They were shocked. I had to rock it back and forth a lot since it sank in the dirt nearly to the rockers, but drove it 55 miles home on that old gas. Ended up being a leaky water pump and I fixed it with one off of my old motor and sold the car in 3 days for only $500...a $450 profit. The guy that bought it still uses it as a daily driver and said he had not topped off the tank, just filled it up about 200 miles after he bought it.