Whats the best way to drain the gas tank?

I have a 1991 1a2 that has been off the road for a few years. Thats the way I bought it. The tank has very old gas in it. Whats the best way to drain the tank?
Thanks,
Nick in PA

Seriously, ASSuming that the pump works, remove the filter and put the feed hose into a gas can and turn the key. Let the pump do the work for you.

If the pump is dead, drop the tank and siphon out from the top.

There is an anti roll/siphon ball in the tank that won't let you remove through the filler neck.

Use a gas can to pour in some fresh gas. Start car, drive to gas station. Fill tank with gas. Drive car until gas needs to be refilled. Fill up with fresh gas.

No need to drain the old stuff... unless it has been sitting since 91.

How much gas is in there? If under a half tank, throw a can of seafoam in there, fill it up with premium and drive out the tank. How long has it sat? I used the above method on a wagon that sat in my driveway for 2.5 years.

Depending oh what you mean by "a long time", I made the ASSumption that you have that worthless E-10 crap in the tank.

If it has been more than 180 days (And the car is "up north") phase separation is a real possibility and driving is a BAD idea. This was taken from the Fuel School site: http://fuelschool.blogspot.com/2009/02/phase-separation-in-ethanol-blended.html

Phase Separation in Gasoline’s containing Ethanol is now a major problem for all users of gasoline.

Whether you use gasoline as a fleet operator or for your family car, classic car, boat, personal water-craft, motorcycle, snowmobile, ATV, RV, lawnmower, weed-whacker, generator, or any of the thousands of other types of equipment that use gasoline engines; you are being affected by Ethanol in your fuel.

Phase Separation describes what happens to gasoline containing Ethanol when water is present. When gasoline containing even small amounts of Ethanol comes in contact with water, either liquid or in the form of humidity; the Ethanol will pick-up and absorb some or all of that water. When it reaches a saturation point the Ethanol and water will Phase Separate, actually coming out of solution and forming two or three distinct layers in the tank.

Phase Separation is also temperature dependent. For example, E-10 can hold approximately .05% water at 60°F. To better understand the amount of water that we are talking about, picture 1 gallon of E-10 at 60°F. This gallon will hold approximately 3.8 teaspoons of water. However if the temperature drops to 20°F it can only hold about 2.8 teaspoons of water.


Phase Separation can happen in an underground or an aboveground storage tank, a vehicle tank, a boat tank, in any type of equipment tank, and even in the gas can in your garage.

When this happens, you can have serious and even catastrophic engine problems, without warning.

When this Phase Separation occurs you will have an upper layer of gasoline with a milky layer of Ethanol and Water below it, and then in many cases a third layer of just water at the bottom.

If this happens and you try to start the engine you can have one or more of the following problems. If your fuel tank pick-up tube is in the water layer, most likely the engine will fail to start. If the engine is running and suddenly draws water you can have damage from thermal shock or hydro-lock. If the pick-up tube draws the Ethanol-Water mixture or just Ethanol you can have problems where the engine will operate in an extreme lean condition, which can cause significant damage or even catastrophic failure. If the pick-up tube draws the gasoline, it will operate very poorly due to lower octane that is the result of no longer having the Ethanol in the fuel.

Yeah, Im unfortunatley in an ethanol State. Up to 10% is Ethanol for all grades. At least thats what it says on the pumps. Im guessing it was in there for 5 years or so. It will start but stinks like paint thinner. Its time to get the old girl on the road so I figured I would do it right rather that burn that sludge up. I like the idea of disconneting the fuel line and letting the pump do the work.
Thanks for the advice.
Nick

If you use the pump method to drain the gas as Superior Finish suggested, there is a 12v jumper connector under the hood on the passanger side firewall that will run the fuel pump continuously as long as there is power applied to the circuit. Hope that helps

A word of caution, dont let the pump run itself dry,in other words,shut it off at the first
sign that the tank is getting near empty. ed

Shawn,
I looked in the manual but do not see the 12V jumper connector for the fuel pump. What does it look like? I checked the firewall but nothing stands out. Is it a jumper that you remove and reinsert across pins or contacts?
By the way, the owners shop manual says to use a hand operated pump to drain the tank but since I dont have one, plan B is needed.
Ed, Thanks for the advise. Ill stop pumping when the gas stops flowing. I dont want to create any problems.
Nick in PA

This is the closest I could find...

http://www.austinthirdgen.org/index.php?pid=35

Nick in PA wrote:

Shawn,
I looked in the manual but do not see the 12V jumper connector for the fuel pump. What does it look like? I checked the firewall but nothing stands out. Is it a jumper that you remove and reinsert across pins or contacts?
By the way, the owners shop manual says to use a hand operated pump to drain the tank but since I dont have one, plan B is needed.
Ed, Thanks for the advise. Ill stop pumping when the gas stops flowing. I dont want to create any problems.
Nick in PA

It is located on the passenger side, right at the firewall behind the inner fender. Look for an open black connector that accepts a male blade connector. Just sitting there looking like it is supposed to be plugged into something. Hook it directly to a 12V positive terminal (battery) and you should hear the pump turn on.

Bill

^^What Bill said. I didn't know it was there until the fuel pump died on my 10th wagon and one of the forum guys told me about it (thanks Chris!). Then I knew for sure the pump was shot (didnt run)

Thanks Everybody, Ill take a closer look on Saturday. Have a nice night,
Nick

When I dropped my tank a few years ago,, I put a transmission pan drain in it, so the next time I had to drop it, it was easy to drain.

Use a good fuel proof cement on it to insure it doesn't leak after ward.
Both can be easily obtained at Advance auto.

Here is a pic (not mine can't upload pics from current location) of the connector. The red alligator clip cable is hooked into the actual jumper port (black plastic connector). Do like in the pic and run the other end of the red cable to the battery positive terminal and the pump will continuously run. Be careful not to run the tank completely dry. It's located on the passenger side inner fender way back by the firewall.