Warning, don't pour

[micky]

Warning, never pour fuel... into the throttle body air inlet opening in an attempt to start your car. Could result in flash fire..."

I did this 2 or 3 times with carbureted cars, but I'm sure the same warning would be given for those cars if they were sold new now. However it worked well. I only needed to do this when I ran out of gas, and after a few times, I learned** to turn the engine off the moment it started to show signs of running out of gas, so that when I got a gallon of gas and tried to restart it, there was still gas in the gas line and it always restarted after a few seconds.

Clearly, wih a current, fuel injected engine, gas poured into the air intake will not be injected into the cylinders, but it may be slightly vaporized and sucked in with the air.

So my question is, will pouring a little gas into the air intake help to start a car that has run out of gas

**Actually there were three stages:

1) At first, I'd pour the whole can of gas into the gas tank, and then I might run down the battery or risk overheating the starter motore before the car started. Maybe I had to get a jump, I can't remember.

2) I learned to not pour eveything into the gas tank and save some for the carburetor. I'd guess between a quarter and an eighth of a cup, maybe less. That always worked well. I think I tried starter fluid earlier, but maybe the car didn't run as long on starter fluid as it did on gasoline.

3) I learned to turn the engine off the moment it started to show signs of running out of gas, and iirc I didn't need to pour anything after that.

[Retired]

On a fuel-injected car, (or any with an electric, in-tank fuel pump) you should only need to turn on the ignition, wait a few seconds for the pump to pressurize the line, and then start the motor.

You might even hear the pump running, and then stop when pressurized.

I had a 1956 Dodge p/u that had an electric, in-line pump, and it would start almost instantly upon turning the key. Not like most carbureated cars that would take 3 or 4 turns to start while the mechanical pump re-filled the fuel bowl.

[DerbyDad03]

The one and only time I ever ran out of gas in a car was back during the su pposed "gas shortage" in NYC during the 70?s. That was time when you could only buy $5 worth of gas on odd or even calendar days based on the last digit of your license plate.

It was my girlfriend's car and she always pushed the limits of running out of gas. One Friday night we were in a long line for gas. I made it to the 6th car in li ne when it ran out of gas. She and I were able to push it along until we were 3rd in l ine, when the attendant pulled out the dreaded "Out Of Gas" sign. People were pissed, but the out of gas sign was a common sight during that period.

I walked over to him and asked him what I should do since we were out of ga s. He quietly told me to wait until everyone else left and he turned off the lights. Then we would push it up to the pump and get gas. He said "It's 11:00 on a Friday night. We want to go out and party. If we stay open, we'll be here all night. Let me get everyone else o ut of line, close up and then I'll pump your gas."

We waited about 10 minutes and then he helped us push the car to the pump. "Fill her up?" he asked. "Uh, sure" I said. A few minutes later we drove away with the fir st full tank that car had seen in a long, long time.

[The Real Bev]

We always did that. Never a fire.

Long ago we bought a motorhome that had been sitting for quite a while. We drove it home slowly, but it didn't have enough power (marginal fuel pump, maybe?) to make it up the "hill" out of the railroad underpass. BUT by feeding starting fluid direct to the carb (engine is right there between the front seats) we made it out.

[Stormin' Norman]

If the vehicle is fuel injected, the answer is "maybe" but, the potential hazard far outweighs the possible benefit.

More importantly, in cars made since 1980ish, it is possible the fuel pump is mounted in the fuel tank. There are several reasons this is done, one of which is the fuel pump uses the gasoline to cool itself.

You should get out of the habit of running the tank so low, 1. Because you can damage the pump. 2. Because you have a good possibility of picking up contaminants in the bottom of the tank, everything from rust and dirt to water.

All of the above can result in very costly repairs, so, keep at least

1/4 of a tank of gas in the car at all times.

[gfretwell]

That may work or it may not. A lot of newer cars will only run the fuel pump when the starter is engaged or when the computer detects that the engine is actually running. I found that with a GMC pickup and a Chrysler LeBaron (just looking at the wiring diagram and theory of ops). The good news is that an electric fuel pump moves so much gas that you might not notice as long as everything else is working OK. Squirting a little gas in the intake will get the motor to spin a second or two if the other 2 parts of the equation are present.

[micky]

Wow, what a great story, and I'm impressed that you thought of it.

How long were you stuck in the underpass before you thought of it?

The closest I have is the '67 Pontiac, I think it was, that for a while wouldnt' start on cold days. I'd get out, brush the snow off the hood so it wouldn't shut again after I opened it, and spray in starting fluid, and then rush back to the driver's seat to start the car before the vapors escaped (not sure if that really happened, but seemed likely.)

This was a nuisance, so I put a little plastic tube in some aquarium tubing which went through the firewall into the glove comparment where I put the can of starting fluid. This worked great for the whole cold part of the winter.

[The Real Bev]

I don't think it was me -- either hubby or friend.

Minutes, if that.

Excellent!

On a vacation with the '68 Dodge van it inexplicably lost significant power, such that we couldn't make it up the on-ramp in Gallup, NM. A convertible full of happy Indians volunteered to push us up onto the freeway, and we were OK from then on. A little later we figured it might be the fuel pump, so I sat in the back of the van with a can of gas on my lap which fed into the carb by a long rubber tube (hi-tech gravity feed!). Ultimately it was determined that there was a kink in the fuel tank vent hose :-(

Good times...

[micky]

Oh, yes. Great answer. The carbureted cars had mechanical fuel pumps.

By the time I got fuel injection, I'd learned not to run out of gas.

I'll listen.

Oh, yeah.

BTW, I never really inconvenienced myself by running out of gas. Once it was on the BQExpressway and I just coasted to the next ramp and down the ramp and into a gas station.

Twice it was on the Manhattan Bridge, and I just coasted down and across Tillary into a gas station. (There arent' many gas stations in Manhattan and I assumed they were more expensive than in Brooklyn) One of those times, the guy behind me helped me push it about 10 feet to get over the crest.

Another time I was going to a wedding in a town of 300 in western Illinois, and I ran out of gas just as I crossed the sidewalk into the town's only gas station. Coasted up to the pump.

Another time I just had to walk up the hill from the sunken xway and a half block to a gas station, and it only took maybe 20 minutes, but the worst part of that was I missed the action at work that morning. We would start at 7 to avoid the heat between 3:30 and 4:30 and we still had lunch at noon and one "coffee break" before that, so one guy used to, on his own, I guess used to drive his chevy with the trunk filled with ice and soda pop and sell them at store prices. One day, I was told after the fact, the foreman told him to get his car out of there, and he didn't move it, so the foreman said, "Move it by the time I get back or your fired", and he walked a block or so to some other part of the job. Apparently the guy with the car thought the foreman couldn't or wouldn't fire him so he didn't move, and when the foreman got back, he fired him.

All that I missed, but I think I was there for act 2, even though I didn't see it. The guy came back with a gun and threatened the foreman, who then just walked up the hill from the sunken xway we were working on, went to a payphone and called the police. When the police came and carted him away, he was still threatening to kill the foreman, and the foreman said if it werent' for that, he would have forgotten the whole thing, but instead he stopped by before going to court a while later. Instead of the work clothes and beat up pickup-truck, he was snazzy in a suit and a red sports car.

Leon had been in a cave-in, and had broken his leg, his hip, and iirc his back, and they told him he would never walk again, but he was in his

40's and tougher than any of the guys in their 20's. And he walked fine. The last hour of the day, he would join in putting down the steel rods, so that there were none left lying around.

The good part was that if the boss hadn't been busy with the soda vendor, I might have been fired for being 15 minutes late. I was never late again.

[micky]

Excellent!

I wonder how that happened.

One remmebers the bad things more than the good things, and if the bad things aren't that bad, like these stories, they are good memories.

[trader_4]

I would never do it. And it also depends on where in the intake system the gas is poured. If it's poured before the MAF, IDK how that is going to react. Plus, you'd have to put the intake system back together again, otherwise the normal airflow past the MAF won't be there and it may never start. I know my car just died suddenly from the intake system coming open when a clamp came loose. So now you have gas fumes in a confined intake system space, a space that is very different than pouring a couple TBSP of gas into an open carb. Chance of it exploding seems low, but I don't see the need either.

[Paul in Houston TX]

Not since about 1984 when gasoline powered vehicles put the pump in the fuel tank.

[The Real Bev]

Our 70 Dodge pickup has its pump in the tank, which is right behind the seat. Kind of scary when you think about it.

[Paul in Houston TX]

Our Ford pickup trucks had the tank behind the seat. Never heard of one doing bad things in a crash but that was a long time ago.

[Wade Garrett]

Yeah, I had a '77 Ford F-150 4WD with the 400 inch engine. That baby came with two 25 gallon fast-draining fuel tanks- one of which was right behind the seat. You could hear the gas slosh when you hit the brakes or made a sharp turn.

In yet another another stroke of design genius, the filler necks were on opposite sides of the vehicle. A real PIA at gas up time.