Best Method to Siphon Gas Between Cars You Own?

[AnonEmous]

A comment on the topic of gas for cars here got me to consider how to transfer gas between cars I own. The main problem is we have no place to store any extra gas, so removing gas from one car to the other (or filling empty gas cans we keep in the cars) is probably the best option if we should need extra gas.

Specifically, the comment from Raptor

I would also point out that if you keep your vehicle fuel tanks full they make very good storage tanks. They are easy to transport, properly secured and the fuel is very close to where you will likely need it. I normally refuel at 1/2 a tank. So if you have two cars keep them at half a tank and have means to strip and transfer the fuel from one to the other. This along with even just 10 gallons gives you significant options if your concern is a bug out.

I went on line to look for manual siphoning systems. What suggestions do people have for a system and what advice can people offer?

Questions:
- are there simple ways to circumvent the anti-siphoning filter increasingly popular on cars (our cars in question are from 1990 and around 2001)
- when did these filters become common?

Considerations:
- I do not want anything that requires electricity, but also want something a little better than just sucking on a rubber hose.
- less expensive is good, looks like some of the pumps and tubes run about $10

[TacAir]

DO you have an electric fuel pump in one or the other auto?

[KnightoftheRoc]

In my plumbing business, I often had to move liquids from point A to point B. Dealing with anything from fuel oil or gasoline to drinking water, I found this type to be the most reliable and chemically resistant. Lowe's carries them, as does Home Depot, and most other hardware stores, in the plumbing departments.

Since it's manual, there's no worry about batteries dying, and it can work in any temp you'd run into in the NE US. You can draw quite a bit of lift with it, and the output pressure is pretty much up to the person using it, and muscle fatigue It also uses standard hose sizes, so adding longer pieces to extend or replace the originals isn't hard, either. They are a pretty dependable unit, for not a lot of money.

For transferring fuel vehicle to vehicle, I'd invest in some fuel line or similar material to make 2 lines ten foot or longer.

[AnonEmous]

DO you have an electric fuel pump in one or the other auto?

I need to check. I read that one way to get around the anti-siphoning filter is to disconnect the fuel line and use the car's fuel pump to actually pump the gas out, but I really do not want to try that. I would be concerned I would damage the car and siphoning is something I would like to try once or twice before any emergency. The other option is the next time I take either car to the garage, ask a mechanic to highlight for me where the fuel line is and ask about how to empty the tank if necessary.

I will do a quick search to determine whether our cars actually have the filter in place to determine if I even need to consider a work around.

[Tater Raider]

The other option is the next time I take either car to the garage, ask a mechanic to highlight for me where the fuel line is and ask about how to empty the tank if necessary.

I think this is the best answer, but pump it out after the filter because you never know what crawled in the tank.

I had a motorcycle that kids liked to toss twigs and crap into...

[bigmattdaddywack]

I sure hope you are not wanting to know how to do this because gas is real high now. Some bastard(s) stole my gas and my parents in 2007-2008. This thread reminds me I am going to have to invest in a locking gas cap again.

The pump from Lowe's looks good.

[Mad_Maxx]

Well, when its my own cars, i have a lot of time, so i usually unplug a line coming from the tank and just drain the gas into a can Takes a little while, but no chance of getting fuel in yer mouth

[Confucius]

No word about getting around anti-siphon measures, but if you do end up starting a siphon with your mouth, use a clear hose...

[echo2]

a valved "TEE" on your fuel line and a hot wired switch to you electric fuel pump.....done.

[DarkAxel]

A lot of modern cars and trucks have a valve installed on the fuel line under the hood, used to attach a fuel pressure gauge. They usually look like a valve-stem tip (and even have a valve-stem core in them). If you attach a fitting to a hose that screws on on that valve and depresses the core inside, you can drop the other end of the hose into the car you are filling. Be aware that when you first depress the core of the valve, some gas is going to jet out. Then, find the fuel-pump fuse, pull it, and use a wire as a jumper between it and a system that provides constant power to the fuse-box, like the headlights, brake-lights, or radio memory.

This method takes a little while longer than setups with larger hoses, but it doesn't require you to make any permanent modifications to your vehicle or defeat your anti-siphon screen (making it easier for neighborhood asshats to do the same thing.

[KnightoftheRoc]

I sure hope you are not wanting to know how to do this because gas is real high now. Some bastard(s) stole my gas and my parents in 2007-2008. This thread reminds me I am going to have to invest in a locking gas cap again.

The pump from Lowe's looks good.

I'm sure the gas is long gone by now, but- did you get your parents back?

OT: A locking gas cap FTW. You can even match it to your vehicle by just grabbing your existing cap, and going into the store with it in hand. The highest price for one I've ever paid was about $15, and considering the cost of a full tank, well worth the money, if it prevents just ONE siphoning attempt.

[Grant]

One warning, from personal experience, make sure the octane ratings of whatever you are siphoning is compatible for what you're adding it to. I have a car once that pretty much died beyond repair, and we drained its tank and used it to fill another car. Had to add an octane booster as we discovered that the old car had used low-grade fuel while the one that got the gas had to have higher-grade.

[fungusmunkey]

I'll just give a thumbs up to the pump that KnightoftheRoc suggested.

I used one for a while to siphon between my trucks two tanks (the one fuel pump was dead, but I would fill both tanks and transfer as needed) and it worked great.

[Dawgboy]

http://www.harborfreight.com/fluid-siphon-pump-93290.html

These will get past most anti siphon setups as it's a small tube... I have the old style shaker type, and they are WAY better...

[Blasphemous]

I only need to siphon fuel out of my projects from time to time, when my race car or 4x4 truck are getting upgrades that require removing the tank. I just use a clear hose and my mouth, but that is for older vehicles (pre-80). For newer vehicles, I would just use the vehicles fuel system to pump it out itself. Keep some barb fittings and hose to fit them so you can extend the fuel line outside of the engine bay. This will probably require some fuel line disconnects for modern vehicles though. It won't damage anything other than losing the prime to the fuel system. I'm not an expert, but to my knowledge, there is nothing to be damaged.

[dukman]

Siphon? Most thieves don't even bother to siphon gas anymore... many don't even check to see if you have a locking gas cap or not. Instead you need to get a new gas tank if they steal your gas around here.

Most new cars have in-tank or near tank electric fuel pumps, so all you need to do is pull the fuel line and then turn on the car.

[1_v8_Merc]

Nobody syphons gas today, they'll just go to the lowest point of your tank and take a drill or punch to it.
Or they'll just unbolt the tank.

Which brings me to my next point...make sure to have plenty of metal-bits and cordless batteries for 2012!

[hghgrad]

A lot of modern cars and trucks have a valve installed on the fuel line under the hood, used to attach a fuel pressure gauge. They usually look like a valve-stem tip (and even have a valve-stem core in them). If you attach a fitting to a hose that screws on on that valve and depresses the core inside, you can drop the other end of the hose into the car you are filling. Be aware that when you first depress the core of the valve, some gas is going to jet out. Then, find the fuel-pump fuse, pull it, and use a wire as a jumper between it and a system that provides constant power to the fuse-box, like the headlights, brake-lights, or radio memory.

This method takes a little while longer than setups with larger hoses, but it doesn't require you to make any permanent modifications to your vehicle or defeat your anti-siphon screen (making it easier for neighborhood asshats to do the same thing.

I used this method yesterday to drain 20 gallons from my wrangler. Took quite a long time, but I didn't have to lower a full tank down. I just used a zip tie to depress the release on the fuel pressure gauge, then placed a jumper in where the fuel pump relay goes.

[DarkAxel]

A lot of modern cars and trucks have a valve installed on the fuel line under the hood, used to attach a fuel pressure gauge. They usually look like a valve-stem tip (and even have a valve-stem core in them). If you attach a fitting to a hose that screws on on that valve and depresses the core inside, you can drop the other end of the hose into the car you are filling. Be aware that when you first depress the core of the valve, some gas is going to jet out. Then, find the fuel-pump fuse, pull it, and use a wire as a jumper between it and a system that provides constant power to the fuse-box, like the headlights, brake-lights, or radio memory.

This method takes a little while longer than setups with larger hoses, but it doesn't require you to make any permanent modifications to your vehicle or defeat your anti-siphon screen (making it easier for neighborhood asshats to do the same thing.

I used this method yesterday to drain 20 gallons from my wrangler. Took quite a long time, but I didn't have to lower a full tank down. I just used a zip tie to depress the release on the fuel pressure gauge, then placed a jumper in where the fuel pump relay goes.

This is one of those shade-tree mechanic tips I learned from a friend. It's definitely one of those "Hook it up and go drink a beer or two" things, though.

[williaty]

In a relatively modern car, the issue isn't going to be any sort of anti-siphon device that actually works. They think that the stupid flap at the top is enough to keep people out.

HOWEVER

There's a lot of new fittings inside the filler neck that are designed to reduce the production of VOCs by the fuel system while the cap is off. THOSE will absolutely prevent you from getting the tube down far enough into the tank to do any real siphoning. Going in through the filler cap isn't going to work on a modern car.

As mentioned, one option is to use the car's fuel pump. It's usually quite easy to break the fuel line where it connects to the intake manifold and aim it at a can. I do this almost every week when I pull the engine out of a car. However, there's problems with this as well. Fuel pumps are SLOW. Depending on the situation, you might not have 20 minutes to hang around to move 6 gallons of gas out of your tank via the fuel pump. Second potential problem is that many cars are now smart enough to turn the fuel pump back off if the fuel pressure doesn't rise. So you turn on the car, fuel pump kicks on to raise the fuel pressure enough to run the engine. Reaches target pressure, shuts off the pump until you get the engine running. If it doesn't reach target pressure, there's often a time-out at which point it'll go "well, guess I must just be pumping fuel all over the ground, I better shut off now!" and stop. So you may need to know how to jumper the fuel pump permanently hot in order to pull this off.

My answer is to have a set of ramps and the tool to drain the tank. All modern tanks will have a drain fitting in them somewhere. It's so that mechanics like me can drain the damned tank when some dumbass user gives the car to me for fuel-related work and thought they'd be considerate and deliver it with a full tank of gas. It'll likely have been painted or undercoated after it was installed so step one is finding the damned thing and then scraping the shit off of it. Then go buy whatever seal is required to put it back together from the dealer. Only after that, loosen the plug and drain the gas into a container. Fast, simple, only one tool required, non-destructive.

[hghgrad]

My 99 civic used a normal metric socket to drain the tank. Used to do it all the time when switching from pump gas to race gas.

My wrangler has a plastic tank, no drain at all....but it's a 94, not exactly "modern"

[PistolPete]

I just used the pump mentioned by KnightoftheRoc yesterday to pull gas out of a jet ski that had been sitting for a couple years. It worked just fine and without drama, I pulled out about 9 gallons.

If you are planning on moving gas between vehicles in an emergency situation, you will want to realize how long it takes. If you haven't tried to pour 5 gallons of gas from a can into a vehicle, it can take a while. It can also be difficult or impossible to get the last half gallon into a vehicle from a typical 5 gallon gas can. Pulling 5 gallons out of the jet ski and getting it into the tank of my truck took more than 10 minutes.

A cheap transfer pump like that is super handy to have around, and they are pretty cheap.

[KnightoftheRoc]

I just used the pump mentioned by KnightoftheRoc yesterday to pull gas out of a jet ski that had been sitting for a couple years. It worked just fine and without drama, I pulled out about 9 gallons.

If you are planning on moving gas between vehicles in an emergency situation, you will want to realize how long it takes. If you haven't tried to pour 5 gallons of gas from a can into a vehicle, it can take a while. It can also be difficult or impossible to get the last half gallon into a vehicle from a typical 5 gallon gas can. Pulling 5 gallons out of the jet ski and getting it into the tank of my truck took more than 10 minutes.

A cheap transfer pump like that is super handy to have around, and they are pretty cheap.

And they're STILL slow. Just so no one expects to be breaking any speed records at this.

[fungusmunkey]

And you will get some on you and stink like gas for a while, no matter how hard you try!