Water in the tank - what chemical will dry gasoline?

[mike]

Kid thought he was doing me a favor when he used an old steel (leaking) gas can to bring it from empty to a quarter of a tank after he used the car.

It starts and runs but immediately triggers a cylinder shutdown which I can erase on the fly with an obdii tester on my lap but it happens every few minutes where the cylinder shuts down.

Car has a cat (which is why the cylinder shuts down) but the car is a $400 beater so it's not worth taking to a mechanic.

Hence my question is whether I just burn off the rest of the gas or if there's a way to siphon it out. I tried putting a hose down the tank but there is some kind of check valve that stops it cold.

How would you handle it on your own given it's not worth a trip to the mechanic?

Is there a substance (alcohol or acetone?) which "dries" the gasoline?

[Dean Hoffman]

Isoheet or STP Water Remover.

[invalid unparseable]

Could also be gas exposed to air tends to gel.

[invalid unparseable]

It is cheaper if you can find gallon size "methanol" or "methyl hydrate" in some hardware store.

It should be 1/4 of the price if you can find it in a hardware store instead of Amazon.com

[chop]

Take the hose that moves the gasoline from the tank to the fuel pump off and drain the gasoline tank. Then add more clean gasoline and do that repeatedly until you don't get any more water out of the tank.

All that gasoline that you get out can be put into a clear glass jar and the gasoline decanted off from the water.

Not with that amount of water.

[Sam E]

[snip]

ANOTHER victim of crime prevention. They ASSUME someone doing that is stealing gas.

[snip]

[Clare Snyder]

Add some "hooch" - non methano; gas tank anti-freeze or "dri-grass" - or even "everclear"

[micky]

Just one link:

$20.38, but I don't know how much shipping is. Be sure to read the safety data sheet Not only that, I have no experience, but since methanol isn't as volatile as gasoline, if you add too much, will the mixture of gasoline and methanol be able to run the engine? If for example, there was 2 gallons of gas and a gallon of water, could that ever be turned into a useable mixture.

OTOH, how much water did the kid add? A whole gallon and he didn't notice it wasn't gasoline. Or just the amount of water left in the bottom after someone emptied it, or in between?

[invalid unparseable]

micky wrote on 2/12/2023 9:21 PM:

The Home Depot in Canada is selling one-gallon size methyl hydrate for about $14 Canadian dollars.

I am not good in chemistry but I did study first year university level Organic Chemistry 100 and 101.

I remember the first few orders of "alcohol" are: methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, pentanol, ......,

which are in some way related to: methane, ethane, propane, butane, pentane, ........

You know ethanol is routinely added to gasoline. Ethanol is miscible with both gasoline and water, so that if there is a small amount of water in the gas tank, adding ethanol to the gas tank will form a mixture of gasoline, ethanol and water so that the mixture can pass through the fuel line to be burned in the combustion chambers.

Methanol is used as gas-line antifreeze because it is cheaper than ethanol, and can't be abused by alcoholics because methanol is a rank poison if consumed internally.

I know that you can set 40% alcoholic drinks on fire (like brandy and whisky from liquor store). I also know that adding ethanol to gasoline actually increases the octane of the gasoline.

I am not certain, but I believe if you add 1 gallon of methanol to a gas tank containing 1 gallon of water, you might be able to get the methanol-water-gasoline mixture through the cylinders. Add some more gasoline into the tank if necessary.

[Clare Snyder]

You do NOT want methanol in a fuel injected engine.Ethanol or isoprpyl only. Methanol doesn'tmix with the water and fuel as well as the other two - fine with carbs but NOT recommended for injection.

[invalid unparseable]

Bruce Orr, a professional engineer with the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute - Ontario Division, replies:

Alcohols alter the freezing point of water, thereby causing ice to melt to free up frozen locks or rubber door seals.

Methyl hydrate contains methyl alcohol, also known as methanol, which is often added to gasoline in minute quantities as gas-line antifreeze. Isopropyl alcohol is also known as isopropanol or "rubbing alcohol."

Both of these products can be used as de-icers. Methanol is the more potent of the two, meaning less is required for the job and it's quicker.