How to drain fuel tank

Petrol, gas, fuel tanks etc

How to drain fuel tank

Postby gruntre69 on Sun, 24 Jul 2011 2:02 +0000

OK I'm not sure if this has been posted before but I'm posting anyway.

If your unfortunate enough to win the loser of the month award like me yesterday and fill your diesel hilux with ULP, this might help you out.

Luckily for me my ute was virtually dry before I did this and probably only had about one or two litres of diesel left in the tank, so the premium ULP was salvageable for my missers’s car and my dirt bike.... Also luckily I found the error before starting the engine and had a mate tow me back to my place.

So I found a way to get all of the fuel out of the plugless fuel tank without having to remove the tank.

Tools required:
Siphon hose
10mm socket and ratchet
1 meter 10mm OD beverage tube
1 meter 14mm OD beverage tube and barbed joiner
Containers to capture recovered fuel

Steps:
1.Park the car on as level a surface as possible.
2. Siphon fuel from the tank. Not possible through the filler cap as there are blocking bar inside there. The rubber hose that connects to the top of the tank from the filler tube is accessible easily and the hose clamp can easily be removed with a small 10mm ratchet giving access to the spigot on the op of the tank. I was able to extract 57 litres by siphoning from here.
3. Replace the filler tube hose and hose clamp. (this must be done now).
4. Under the vehicle at the top front of the tank there are 2 hoses, supply (larger) and return with spring type clamps. Remove the clamps and take off the rubber hoses off the fuel tubes running along the chassis. Have a drip tray ready as you will have about 500 ml of fuel dribble out of these hoses and pipes at this point.
5. Connect the beverage tubes to the rubber fuel hoses that run to the top of the fuel tank. The smaller one I had fitted inside the smaller hose (return line) and I used a barbed joiner I had lying around for the larger one (supply line). You need air tight connections here.
6. Now with the fuel filler cap on so that the tank is air tight, put the end of the larger one of the beverage tubes into you recovery container. Apply light air pressure to the end of the smaller return line beverage tube. I did this with my mouth and just blew the tank pressure up with my lungs, which was enough to start the flow out of the supply line. I just blew pressure up and folded over the hose to seal it and I needed to add pressure about every 30 seconds. I was able to completely empty the tank this way without removing it and the entire process took about 1 hour. You’ll know when it’s empty as only air will come out of the supply line.
7. Put the fuel lines back together and then put at least 10 litres of clean diesel into the tank. Get yourself to a servo ASAP to fill the tank and dilute any remaining petrol with diesel. Diesel will readily mix with ULP so this short trip won’t be a problem and the minor amount of petrol was cause ant problems. You might notice the engine has more power on you way to fill the tank completely…..

I calculated by my recovered fuel and fuel purchases that I got it empty to within a litre with this method and didn’t have to remove the tank.

Warning: Caltex fuel stations have the vortex label on both the premium ULP and diesel filler nozzles and it is easy to absent mindedly make this error.
I will be writing to Woolworths/Caltex about this….
Cheers

Grunter
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby eddie1 on Sun, 24 Jul 2011 3:17 +0000

i made the same mistake at a BP site ( browns plains QLD ) black nozzles very upset
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby berniecam on Sun, 24 Jul 2011 6:09 +0000

Hi Gruntre 69 sounds like you had one hell of a day'.good to hear it came out ok.I have often thought about taking the fuel hose that supplies the engine fuel pump apart where it comes out of the tank underneath the vehicle near the chassis rail,connecting it to one of those small pumps that are powered by an electric drill & sucking the tank dry by that method,granted you could not pump it bone dry ,but neither can the engine pump do that you would still have a litre or may be two left to get out the best way you could.Might also be dangerous (SPARKS) if you are trying to extract petrol as in your case,but it could be a good idea if you got a lot of WATER into the tank that you had to get out.CHEERS. :idea: :idea:
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby Rhodesy27 on Sun, 07 Aug 2011 1:42 +0000

just wondering how the lines were bled of air once its all connected back together
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby gruntre69 on Sun, 07 Aug 2011 3:14 +0000

Rhodesy27 wrote:just wondering how the lines were bled of air once its all connected back together

It is unnecessary. The small amount of air that is in the lines is not a problem because the lux is a self bleeding system. On the rare occasion that it becomes completely dry, there is a pump on top of the fuel filter that is available for bleeding the system. The manual has details of this. Mine just started immediately and didn't skip a beat. Remember, I didn't run mine at all from the moment I put the UPL in, so it didn't pull any ULP up the fuel supply line and didn't run dry.

I also ran mine out of fuel once and after adding more fuel to the tank, I was able to start it just by cranking it for 10 seconds. The bleed pump wasn't needed.
Cheers

Grunter
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby Rhodesy27 on Sun, 07 Aug 2011 3:51 +0000

awsome. trucks back to normal
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby BADBOYBUBBY on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 4:57 +0000

Warning: Caltex fuel stations have the vortex label on both the premium ULP and diesel filler nozzles and it is easy to absent mindedly make this error. I will be writing to Woolworths/Caltex about this….

Where do I sign !!!!!

Did the same thing today

Wish i found this thread earlier ,ended up pulling the tank out :cry:
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby hayzie on Mon, 31 Dec 2018 2:58 +0000

G'day!

So my wife put unleaded in and drove it around for a bit. Stopped then started the lux later on and it ran like a bitch. Anyway I was able to follow the OP's instructions and was able to drain 70lts out of the tank (all unleaded) and bleed the fuel lines. This all happened Christmas Eve so your instructions saved my Christmas. Thank you bud. Also the lux is still going strong.

Regards

Hayzie.
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby Critter350 on Thu, 03 Jan 2019 7:26 +0000

I’ve got an in-line electric fuel pump pulled out of a car about 20years ago. Haven’t needed it for my hilux but have drained my sons rodeo tank twice (once for ULP and once for water after he parked in a puddle).
Just connect to the incoming fuel line before the filter.


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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby Leigh_au on Sat, 16 Mar 2019 5:04 +0000

So I managed to do the unspeakable and didn’t realize. Drove 200km before we stopped to check what was going on with the slightly louder noise from that was happening when we were in low revs. Sure enough, we needed a tow home. I think having a 1/4 tank of diesel may have helped us get that far. A mate and me did the above instructions and it started. Ran a little rough and now seems fine. Fingers crossed no major damage has been done and it keeps running smoothly. Thanks Grunter!!!!
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby DGCAD on Sun, 16 Jan 2022 6:42 +0000

Yep did similar today too. BP ultimate is both marked for diesel and unleaded. Put 7 litres in before I realised.
Rather using extra hoses I'm just using the fuel line hoses straight into a 10 litre jerry. Bit slower but no diesel flavour on the lips. Just going to drain what I can and refill it. Thanks for the tip above
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby hiluxxury on Mon, 17 Jan 2022 5:15 +0000

DGCAD wrote:Yep did similar today too. BP ultimate is both marked for diesel and unleaded. Put 7 litres in before I realised.
Rather using extra hoses I'm just using the fuel line hoses straight into a 10 litre jerry. Bit slower but no diesel flavour on the lips. Just going to drain what I can and refill it. Thanks for the tip above


That is really poor of BP.
I might be wrong.

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2009 BMW X5 - destroyed by a hail storm
2012 Range Rover Sport SDV6 - SOLD
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby ng_newbie on Mon, 17 Jan 2022 10:09 +0000

So this is all in one place. My experience with wrong fuel in Rolux

Living rural in SA I keep a few unleaded and diesel 20 ltr. all are labelled, but I live with lots of pain from 12 ribs broken in 20 places bike crash and sometimes lifting 20 lts can be just hell ribs getting snagged up on skin so can be casual about reading tags, thinking more about the levels of pain !!!

Put 20 liters of unleaded into empty tank, drove 15 ks to hardware store and noticed a bit of knocking. Came out and wouldn't start !!!

Went to local servo bought 20 ltr diesel into new container, back and forward until tank was over flowing.

Bleed unleaded fuel via tap under filter, this is on left hand side of '12 SR5 and easy to pull out and 'invert' so you can see tap.

Rolux started straight away. I had taken it very stead on way to and back from hardware store.

Went on holzs a week later and hasn't missed a beat. I did stop twice on trip at 3/4 full and top up so unleaded concentration dropped to zero ASAP

From my research diesels won't start with pure unleaded.

This is obviously before I have had it serviced for usual 10K interval, so will be interested if they tell me "you fxxked up and used unleaded" - here is bill for 3K to rebuild injectors etc. :)
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Re: How to drain fuel tank

Postby arifk on Thu, 17 Feb 2022 8:16 +0000

they usually handle fuels at the wrecking yards... so its kinda strange.. unless its OLD and one sour..

if its not smashed up.. or rusted out.. you might get more money on craigslist.. if you get the proper sales and release of liability filled out and get the buyers proper info your self.. and a copy for you.. one for them and one to mail to the DMV..

there are siphon hose kits available

http://www.harborfreight.com/self-primi ... 47334.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/http-www-h ... -html.html

these are also available in many parts stores.
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