Hello, I have both a 77 comet and a 76 maverick. My maverick has been sitting in my garage since 1997. I pulled the engine for some work and other projects got in the way of the Mav. My problem is I left about 1/2 tank of gas in the tank. I put in fuel stabilizer, but it was probably too late, about 2 Years ago. I don't think the gas is jelled, and it was stored in a heated garage, so the eastern Canadian climate shouldn't have caused too much condensation. Iwas thinking of draining the tank by pumping it out as much as possible and diluting the remainder with fresh gas. Is this reasonable or should I drain it properly by dropping the tank and inspecting the inside of the tank as close as possible? Thanks for any replies.
Smell it, if it smells OK, it will probably work. I have started cars that sat for 10 years and had no problems.
77 Comet What you could do is unhook the rubber hose at the tank and drain it as much as possible and blow if any gas backwards out of the line torwards the tank where it is unhooked. When the engine is back in, put strickly Water Remover (available at any parts store) in the tank and fill it up. This should do the trick. The only other thing is the carburator will be all varnished up if the gas was left in it, and it will need rebuilt for it to run good
I too have run cars that have been sitting for some time, your are likely ok. Fire it up, see how it runs. Make sure you put in a bottle of moisture remover
Thanks for all the tips. Good Ideas on blowing out the line and using moisture reducer. I smelled the gas, it doesn't smell to bad. I do know the odour of very bad( old) gas. Also, I would expect to rebuild the carb after sitting that long.
