Well I emptied the front tank on my 79 and switched over to the rear and the gas is past its self life I think, its yellow and has a very weird smell to it, I can honestly say that I've never smelt gas well smell like it its all most has a old paint smell to it and has this real fine white power like substance in it my fuel filter is getting it all i'm about 90% sure on that one.
The engine is running rough and blowing black smoke, Its over 20gallons of gas I'd hate to trash it could I add some thing to it like Heet or Octane boosters or should I just dump it??

TexasNomad said:

Well I emptied the front tank on my 79 and switched over to the rear and the gas is past its self life I think, its yellow and has a very weird smell to it, I can honestly say that I've never smelt gas well smell like it its all most has a old paint smell to it and has this real fine white power like substance in it my fuel filter is getting it all i'm about 90% sure on that one.
The engine is running rough and blowing black smoke, Its over 20gallons of gas I'd hate to trash it could I add some thing to it like Heet or Octane boosters or should I just dump it??

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Nomad, I hate to say it, but that gas is BAD. If it smells like varnish, you are gonna have to drain the tank and put fresh gas in it. Ive seen that in cars that have sat for awhile. Just did one in a 82 F250 that hasn't been driven in a year or so, had 15 gallons of nasty gas in it, once it was flushed out, the truck ran wonderfully again.

If you really want to salvage it, you can mix it back in with good gas, but it would depend on how old it is. I know of many vehicles that have been able to run on 2 year old gas, but be sure to mix it well with new stuff, and be prepared to deal with filter issues, even if you don't use the old gas again.

Got a lawn mower? Run it in that.

Don't run it in anything you're not willing to disassemble and clean the fuel system on, though...

Gotta be getting rid of that. Your Carb inlet has these super-fine orifices that act as a final filter, and catch stuff the filter missed.
Take the old gas and mix it with oil to burn a brush pile.

few years ago I wouldn't have given it a second thought about it, but thats over 50 bucks down the tube.
Thanks guys for your help, I have a old cheap O' electric fuel pump I could hook up to pump the tank out, any one know how I could jimmy rig it so I could plug it in to a wall socket.

junk the gas...it's not worth the repairs you'll soon encounter.

There was a junkyard I went to a couple years ago, There was only the cab and front end of a '64 Ford truck. It had a grizzly smell to it. There was a pail of dead flies in the cab and I throw the pail out of the truck, thinking that was the smell. No sir, I was with my uncle who told me the smell is the gas. Mind you, the fuel tank in this truck was an in cab behind the seat one.

You could smell the stench a mile away. Smelled like dead cow rotting away on a hot sun.

I wouldn't run the old fuel at all, you risk damaging your carb and filter. I hear fuel is only good for 6 months?

Tyl

Well its not that bad, but its pretty funky.. I didn't know gas could get that bad all most sounds like it can rot...

I didn't know it would get THAT bad either.

My borhter had a weed eater (not that brand-think it was homelite) that would not fire at all. I told him to dump out the gas and put new in. Fired right up and ran fine.

That was gas from the previous fall (this was spring). It can apparently go bad fast from sitting.

IO would clean your carb, get it rebuilt, and change your fuel filter. They're all probably gunked up from the bad gas.

TexasNomad, your avatar sing makes me think Of Jimmy Hoffa's reelection posters./ No idea why, just does.

Tyl

Nomad,
Have you ever used fuel stabilizer in that truck?
You might give it a try after you ditch that old bad gas, and try to find ethanol free premium gas when you get new fresh gas in your truck, also try switching between the two tanks periodically, for example run three or four days on your main tank, and then switch to your auxiliary tank and run that for three or four days. That's what what I do with my 78 F-150 Ranger Lariat, for I also have the twin fuel tanks on mine. Try it, for it just might take care of your problems, and also change the fuel filter on a regular basis, you might want to put an inline filter in that truck, they're real easy to put in, and they're available in a kit from any auto parts store, just remove the fuel line from the carburetor, slip the filter and a clamp on the line, and take a short piece on line that comes with the kit and slip two clamps on that piece, one on the filter end, and the other on the carburetor end, check for leaks, even if you have a filter in your carburetor, it still wouldn't hurt to have a little extra protection from crud in your fuel.
Hope you find this helpful.

That was some MAJOR thread mining.

Must be one hell of an archeologist . lol

I saw the title and thought one of you guys must have eaten some bad thanksgiving tucker

as for "rigging" the cheap o electric fuel pump that you have. you can always go to your local surplus store and get a set of cheap alligator clips and simply hook them to the wires on your pump and simply use a car battery or maybe a riding mower battery??? that will work for your power supply,and some rubber hose for each side of the pump get you some gas cans or what not and away you go. you may still have to drop the tank tho to get the last of the old stuff out. or maybe you can get away with just filling the tank with fresh gas??? not sure there just a thought there. hope this helps ya out some